OPINION - Books of the year: The Evening Standard team choose their favourites
The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty
Michael Wolff
The Evening Standard columnist has infantilised Rupert Murdoch once before, in 2008’s The Man Who Owns the News, a magnificent biography that many in his family are still fuming about; so this fabulously gossipy book is a sequel of sorts, even if it does have a broader remit. And while his portrait of the media mogul is not as coruscating this time around, it’s still quite damning. I love Wolff’s books because he is basically an investigative reporter masquerading as a features writer, one who doesn’t subscribe to the orthodoxies of the trade. His critics complain that he never reveals his sources, which implies some skulduggery on his part. But did Tom Wolfe ever expose his sources? Did Hunter S Thompson? A lot of this criticism is down to jealousy — Wolff’s first book on Trump, Fire and Fury, made him a millionaire — but as the saying goes, the best revenge is living well enough to in Wednesday’s paper. You won’t regret it.
