A timely and hard-hitting account of the career of the world's first and greatest global media baron, from one of Australia's leading academics in the field of journalism studies. A former journalist himself, McKnight's account of the Murdoch empire should be read by all who are interested in the relationship between media and political power in our time. -- Brian McNair, Professor of Journalism, Media & Communication at Queensland University of Technology, author of News and Journalism in the UK

David McKnight is an associate professor at the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He is the award-winning author of Beyond Right and Left: New Politics and the Culture War (2005) and worked as a journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC TV's prestigious investigative programme Four Corners.

Introduction 1. Crusading Corporation 2. The Outsider 3. At the barricades of the Reagan Revolution 4. Gate crashing the British establishment 5. Orthodoxy in the blood 6. Outfoxing the liberals 7. The reign of the Sun King 8. The road to Baghdad 9. False dawn on climate change Epilogue Notes Index