So here’s a promise: this is going to be the only review of Michael Wolff’s book on Fox News and the Murdoch succession that doesn’t bang on about Succession, the TV series.
It now seems obvious that art (the TV series) began by imitating life (Rupert Murdoch and the battle to inherit his crown) and life has now returned the favour. But this is well-trodden terrain.
Social history series A Tabloid Empire (working title) will cover the period from 1997 to 2012, looking at how the popular press exerted astonishing power over British politics, public policies and everyday life. It will also chronicle the succession of scandals which hit Murdoch's businesses and culminated in the Leveson Enquiry.
Saad Mohseni, Chair and Chief Executive of the Moby television group, has been called the Afghan Rupert Murdoch, and, despite obvious differences in scale, the comparison is far from crazy.
There are many obvious echoes. With his siblings, Mohseni has built from nothing an international media group operating not just in Afghanistan but in Iran, Ethiopia, India and the Middle East, and which is increasingly targeting sub-Saharan Africa.
