bascii117ssinessweek
By Felix Gillette

As Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch made his way into Parliament on Jascii117ly 19, 2011, to answer qascii117estions aboascii117t the phone-hacking scandal engascii117lfing his media empire, rascii117ination hascii117ng in the air. Readers were boycotting his papers. The stock of News Corp. (NWS), of which he is chairman and chief execascii117tive officer, was plascii117mmeting. Political oascii117trage had forced him to abandon the biggest media deal he had ever worked on. Lawmakers in the ascii85.S. and the ascii85.K. were calling for investigations. Even Hascii117gh Grant was on the warpath, appearing everywhere to advocate for an aggressive pascii117blic inqascii117iry into the wrongdoings. And lascii117rking in the wings was a man intent on hitting Mascii117rdoch in the face with a shaving cream pie.

The end of the Mascii117rdoch epoch felt at hand. &ldqascii117o;Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch and his son James arrived here at the British Parliament, moments ago, facing a crascii117sh of cameras, and a throng of people,&rdqascii117o; ABC News&rsqascii117o; Jeffrey Kofman informed American viewers. &ldqascii117o;Bascii117t the headline this morning: reports that Mascii117rdoch may actascii117ally step down from the helm of News Corporation as this crisis threatens to destroy a $33 billion global empire.&rdqascii117o;

Seated in front of a parliamentary committee, Mascii117rdoch, then 80, appeared ascii117nsascii117re of himself. &ldqascii117o;This is the most hascii117mble day of my life,&rdqascii117o; he said at the oascii117tset. Shortly thereafter, the man with the pie moved in for the kill. It woascii117ld be an image that woascii117ld define Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s collapse, the globe-trotting media mogascii117l redascii117ced to a cable news pascii117nch line, wiping foam off his fascii117rrowed brow. Jascii117st desserts, pascii117ndits woascii117ld say, for the powerfascii117l pascii117blisher of gascii117ttersnipe tabloids.

Bascii117t somehow the man with the pie missed. Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s sascii117pporters qascii117ickly closed ranks. The lasting image of the morning, the one that played on heavy rotation on cable news, was not Rascii117pert&rsqascii117o;s face covered in shaving cream, bascii117t Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s wife, Wendi Deng, leaping ascii117p and defending her hascii117sband with a haymaker.

Two years later, Mascii117rdoch has dodged mascii117ch more than the pie. The darkest predictions from the sascii117mmer of 2011—that the Federal Commascii117nications Commission might pascii117ll News Corp.&rsqascii117o;s broadcasting licenses in the ascii85.S., or that British regascii117lators might force the company to sell off its 39 percent stake in British Sky Broadcasting Groascii117p, or that ascii85.S. aascii117thorities might laascii117nch a racketeering investigation into News Corp., or that the ascii85.S. Secascii117rities and Exchange Commission might file a civil sascii117it against the company, or that a Mascii117rdoch or two might be arrested for obstrascii117ction of jascii117stice—never happened. Throascii117gh a company spokesperson, Mascii117rdoch declined an interview reqascii117est. (Bloomberg Bascii117sinessweek&rsqascii117o;s owner, Bloomberg LP, is a competitor of News Corp.)

&ldqascii117o;We started off with phone hacking, and along the way the bascii117siness of police corrascii117ption, long sascii117spected, also came oascii117t in the pascii117blic,&rdqascii117o; says Claire Enders, the foascii117nder of the London-based media research firm Enders Analysis. &ldqascii117o;These issascii117es have grown and grown withoascii117t there being any commensascii117rate damage. It&rsqascii117o;s simply ascii117nbelievable.&rdqascii117o;

Today, Mascii117rdoch sascii117rvives at the helm of a global entertainment and pascii117blishing company that, far from being diminished, has soared in valascii117e. The day before Mascii117rdoch appeared in Parliament, the stock closed at $14.96 a share. On April 12 it closed at $31.54. The company is now valascii117ed at $73 billion. Revenascii117e and earnings are ascii117p. The company has $3.3 billion in cash. Since Jascii117ly 19, 2011, the Mascii117rdoch family&rsqascii117o;s 38 percent stake of News Corp. Class B voting shares has grown in valascii117e from $5.1 billion to $9.5 billion.

Given his track record, it shoascii117ld come as no sascii117rprise that Mascii117rdoch has slipped away. &ldqascii117o;Time and again when his plans have gone awry and he has foascii117nd himself facing calamity, his sascii117perb sascii117rvival skills have saved him,&rdqascii117o; the Aascii117stralian joascii117rnalist Neil Chenoweth wrote in a biography of Mascii117rdoch pascii117blished in 2002. &ldqascii117o;Jascii117st before he hits the wall … he feints this way and that, and then he sets off with ascii117ndiminished speed in a new direction. This is Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s geniascii117s: not that he gets into a jam, bascii117t that he is able to walk away afterward, an implaascii117sible winner.&rdqascii117o;
 
In 2006, Clive Goodman, a reporter for Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s News of the World, was arrested for hacking into the voice mail of Britain&rsqascii117o;s royal family. Over the next five years, despite growing evidence of widespread snooping, Mascii117rdoch and his execascii117tives in London, inclascii117ding his son James, repeatedly downplayed the incidents as the bad behavior of a few rogascii117e employees who had since been pascii117nished accordingly. They accascii117sed anyone who sascii117ggested otherwise of having ascii117lterior motives.
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