Gabriel Sherman in conversation with Juanita Phillips

Date: Tuesday 6th October

Time: 6-8pm (doors open at 5.30pm, come early for a drink with a view over Avalon Beach)

Location: Avalon Beach Surf Club

Tickets: $55

The Man Behind The Scoops On The Man Behind The News.

The latter being Rupert Murdoch. The former is Gabriel Sherman, a quiet but gutsy investigative reporter who has been described as having a “fixation on capturing the excesses and successes of New York’s biggest egos.”

When an American court last month unsealed 96 pages of documents in the lawsuit involving efforts by Murdoch to pass control of his media empire to Lachlan, it generated blaring headlines here.

But Sherman, an accomplished skier with a photographic memory who has been reporting on Murdoch, his family, clan and empire for more than two decades, had written all this, and more in Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight to Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family and the World.

The fight began, Sherman writes, when Lachlan’s closest advisor Siobhan McKenna, chair of Australia Post, discovered that when Rupert died ‘Lachlan’s siblings could vote him out of the company.’ They devised a secret plan called ‘Project Family Harmony,’ which was anything but, pitting Lachlan against Prudence, Elisabeth and James, in the Nevada courtroom.

Among other Sherman scoops and revelations:

In 1990, Murdoch was facing bankruptcy, with banks threatening to call some $2 billion in loans. Murdoch, unable to sleep, was taking the powerful sedative temazepam. Desperate, he called President George H.W. Bush. The loan deadlines were extended.

Rupert ended his fourth marriage, to supermodel Jerry Hall, with an email, “jerry sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage;”

Murdoch was one of the first persons in the world be vaccinated against Covid -- while Trump and Fox News were advocating drinking bleach as a cure, and railing against lock downs and school closures;

At Murdoch’s behest, Trump opened up some 13 million acres of federal land for fracking to boost the value of Rupert’s fossil fuel investments.

Sherman was the first to report that Roger Ailes, Rupert’s man who made Fox News the voice for Trump and MAGA, was demanding sexual favours in exchange for professional advancement.

Sherman’s sources seemed to have sources, current and former Fox employees, and Ailes set up a Black Room surveillance operation inside Fox News. He hired private investigators to tail Sherman and his wife. They prepared a 400-page dossier, which they shared with right-wing sites.

“I’m coming after you!” an anonymous caller yelled when Sherman answered a ring on his mobile phone. “You’re going after Fox, we’re gonna’ come get you.” Sherman reported the threats to the police, who advised him to leave the state, which he did.

Ask Gabriel Sherman what it takes to keep going in the face of threats and intimidation from the rich and powerful. Intrepid and indefatigable, he interviewed more than 600 individuals for book The Loudest Voice in the Room. It was an instant bestseller, and became a miniseries staring Russell Crowe as Ailes. Sherman even co-wrote several episodes.

Ever wanted to talk to a Hollywood scriptwriter?

Sherman wrote the script for the The Apprentice, about Donald Trump’s relationship to the infamous, nefarious lawyer Roy Cohn, who taught Trump to lie, lie, lie, deny, deny, deny. Trump fought hard to keep the film from ever being screened. He lost.

On October 6th, we are honoured to welcome this intrepid and dogged journalist, Gabriel Sherman, who will be in Australia for only a handful of days, with his only other event being at a little known venue down the road -- the Sydney Opera House. He will be interviewed by our dear friend, Juanita Phillips, who has her own history working within and without the Murdoch media empire.

Gabriel Sherman is an award-winning journalist and screenwriter. He has been covering the Murdochs since 2008. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Loudest Voice in the Room about the late Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. He is the screenwriter of the twice Oscar-nominated film The Apprentice and has covered national politics for New York magazine and Vanity Fair. He lives in London with his wife, son, and daughter plus their dog and cat.

In her 40-plus years in journalism, Juanita Phillips has experienced both sides of the Murdoch media empire. She worked for News Corporation newspaper and TV businesses as a reporter/presenter, then moved to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as it became the target of relentless News Corporation attacks. Having (narrowly) survived the Murdoch-fuelled culture war against the ABC, she now lives in Avalon Beach and gets her news from a wide variety of sources.