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Man Bites Murdoch is Bruce Guthrie's explosive account of almost 40 years in the news business, his brutal dismissal from Australia's biggest selling paper, the celebrated court case that exposed the inner workings of the world's biggest media company and the treachery of its most senior executives. Guthrie survived tuberculosis, Melbourne's gritty northern suburbs and a boss who twice tried to sack him in his first six months in newspapers, to become a foreign correspondent and then one of Australia's feistiest and most controversial editors. His CV boasts editorships of The Age, The Sunday Age, Herald Sun, Who Weekly, The Weekend Australian Magazine, even a stint at America's celeb-news bible, People. Then, just as he claimed one of the industry's most glittering prizes, he fell foul of Rupert Murdoch and his henchmen, who promptly dispensed with his services. What would any self-respecting Broadmeadows boy do in such circumstances? Sue them, of course. Man Bites Murdoch exposes the back rooms of Australian business, politics and media and offers a front-row seat at the many seismic events that played out over the last 20 years, including Murdoch's relentless push for growth both here and overseas, young Warwick Fairfax's ill-fated takeover of the family company and the extraordinary impact of the internet.
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I have little time for modern journalists who are beholden to write what their master wants for the good of the masters political view and already bulging pockets. In fact I have little sympathy for Guthrie considering he had no issues pursuing many who no doubt deserved to have their say and could not. I am loathe to re-read this book but have a memory of Guthrie saying that now he realised how others felt after the treatment he received from the Murdoch press. Indeed Mr Guthrie indeed. With all that in mind in the end, if Guthrie is to be believed as a judge did, he was treated poorly and took Murdoch for some pocket money. All fun and games for people in the media who have little respect for anyone other than themselves. Just politely I say stuff em.