Fall of the House of Murdoch

Kill MacGyver.

Shoot MacGyver.

Stab MacGyver.

Blow up MacGyver.

Strangle MacGyver.

Burn MacGyver at the stake.

Drown MacGyver in Puget Sound.

Stuff MacGyver in an incinerator.

Ask MacGyver how a do-gooder meddling troubleshooter secret agent always manages to get out of my traps with a paper clip and a tube of toothpaste. It's really, really, really, annoying.

Did I mention killing MacGyver?

Work on finding inner peace.

~ from Murdocs' bucket list of things to do before he dies

I said Murdoch, not Murdoc! Come on, weren't you paying attention in the title?

Obviously the last few days have been pretty hard on one Rupert Murdoch. The hacking scandal that led to his shuttering the News of the World and appearing before a Parliamentary committee in London has picked up steam. His business ventures have come to screeching halts or are on hold, arrests have been made, resignations have been tendered, accusations have been made, and it doesn't appear to be letting up.

Murdoch's built a media empire on tabloids, right wing slants, and apparently little in the way of ethics. For all his attempts to pass the buck on and claim he had no idea what was going on and that phone hacking into the accounts of murder and terrorism victims went unknown by him... come on. Does this guy strike anyone as the sort who wouldn't know that was going on?

Murdoch appeared with his son to take questions, while his wife (half his age, what does that say about him?) lingered behind him, looking cross and pissed off at what I'm sure she considered to be lower beings daring to have the audacity to speak to Supremor Rupert the First. That is, when Wendi wasn't busy fighting off a spectator with a foam pie. Son James, for his part, came off as incompetent. And Rupert himself? Like a very old man, cornered and cranky because the peasants weren't giving him the respect he believes he's due.

I've long held the opinion that the man's crazy (though not in the sense that it absolves him of his actions), and a paranoid, cantankerous megalomaniac at that. Rumor has it that when Jonathan Pryce played a media baron villain in Tomorrow Never Dies that he was basically just channelling Rupert, after all...

What do you suppose it is about him that turned him into the way he is? I suspect it starts with being named Rupert. Come on, anyone named Rupert will, at some point in their life, feel the urge to become a megalomaniacal supervillain (Rupert Giles being the exception, of course). Saddle a kid with that name, and I assure you, a few decades down the line they'll be gleefully kicking puppies, stealing money from orphans, and establishing far right news networks with the added joke of being fair and balanced.

Is it the end of the line for Rupert Murdoch? Between this growing scandal and the fact that the old boy just sold Myspace for a fraction of the hundreds of millions he bought it for, you might think he's finally passing the point of senility. At the very least, he's having a very bad year.

Maybe he just needs to get back with friends who understand him. 

As for his wife Wendi, she's already shown how capable she can be in the role of over-protective bodyguard. If she winds up causing a problem as the story develops, well, we'll just have to see to it that the worlds' most resourceful operative is sent after her. All he needs to do the job are a clotheshanger, bubble gum, soda pop, and a battery.