The New York Daily News report raised some eyebrows in Hollywood. But the real uproar was on Wall Street. That's where the most attention is paid to the Australian tycoon.
"Can the story of a crass, reputation-seeking Australian entrepreneur who built a vast media and tourism empire on borrowed money be repeated in America?" The Wall Street Journal paid more attention to his business, questioning whether the tourism business could It supports such a large acquisition and casts doubt on Australia's stock market regulation.
"Scasi's ambitions exceed his capabilities and we do not welcome a financial operation to acquire America's cultural heritage... and raise questions about the financial soundness of other Australian companies."
The development of the matter was obviously beyond Ronald's imagination and control, and gradually evolved into an attack on the de facto boss of 20th Century Fox, another Australian Rupert.
Originally, this Australian had a bad reputation in America. In Fleet Street, London, where he made his fortune, he was well-known for breaking the news about celebrity privacy and royal gossip. When he acquired shares in Fox, he was severely criticized by the veteran. Media attacks.
The New York Times launched a lengthy attack on him at the time, criticizing Rupert's business practices and political views. In an article, the New York Times called him a media pirate bent on destroying the traditional values of journalism in our country. "
Other newspapers that spoke out against Rupert were the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe. The newspapers argued that Rupert's ownership of Fox would give him too much control over the American media landscape and that his conservative views would skew news coverage.
"Now there is another Australian tycoon, using their wealth earned from the "imperfect and naive" stock market to attack our country's media industry like a savage. This is worthy of vigilance and requires legislative restrictions."
The person who said this was Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. He has always been at odds with Rupert, and now he has come out to denounce such entrepreneurs who are not in line with American values (because Rupert supports conservatives).
At Kennedy's urging, a special measure was being proposed in the Senate for discussion and was expected to be added as an annex to the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970.
This new amendment, if passed, would close any opportunity for Rupert to evade the federal ban on cross-owning newspapers and television stations in the same city. For example, he is actively acquiring the Boston Herald and Boston's WFXT-TV television station, as well as the New York Post and WNYW-TV.
Rupert was so angry that he flew into a rage. Scars, a stupid country boy, brought Australia's capital operation tricks to defraud investors in America. As a result, he suffered a heavy blow from the senator.
These veteran senators have been re-elected and hold important positions on many key Senate committees. Their power is actually not much less than that of the commander-in-chief. It's definitely not easy to be targeted by them.
Rupert was afraid that he would be implicated, so he ran to New York overnight and met with New York State Governor Cuomo, Mayor Koch, and major New York media. He expressed that he would never do anything that did not abide by American values, and that he He expressed support for the governor's campaign and extended an invitation to the outgoing mayor to serve as a media consultant.
Of course, the politicians and media circles who are favored by him have expressed their verbal support and will not target Rupert's control of newspapers, media and television stations in New York. And we welcome the efforts of this entrepreneur, who has become an American citizen, to preserve the tradition of New York media.
But legislative work at the federal and state levels has little relevance. Now it is federal senators who are eyeing Rupert, and they can only express verbal support at most. Rupert was still under a lot of pressure, especially from the instigator "New York Daily News". He quickly asked his secretary to contact the reporter of this newspaper, which he usually despised, hoping that they would limit the report to the unlucky Scars. Egg.
…
"What's going on with this bill? Does it mean we can't control the Daily News and WPIX Channel 11 at the same time?"
Of course, Ronald also knew about this new legislation targeting cross-type media, and summoned Ed Bastian, who was in charge of the acquisition, and lawyer Lindsay Doerr to inquire about the situation.
"It actually has little impact on our acquisitions. This amendment, ultimately, it is up to the interagency Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce whether our acquisition of television stations and newspapers, radio stations, infringes on the cross-ownership of the same city, and ultimately It's up to them to decide. And in our case, even the most far-fetched judge would not think that we violated this act that was originally designed to make it easier for the media to operate."
Ed Bastian explained to Ronald that this bill would allow two or more competing daily newspapers in a city to combine certain aspects of operations and production to prevent the interference of news organizations. collapse.
The purpose is to promote the diversity of news and prevent the sources of news and information from being too concentrated and being controlled by several large monopoly media groups to control citizens' access to press freedom.
After the emergence of television stations, their profits quickly exceeded those of traditional newspapers, so the newspaper preservation law quickly added content that prohibited the same company from owning newspapers and radio and television stations in the same market.
"I don't understand, why can we not comply with this ban? Aren't we going to buy a newspaper and a TV station in New York?" Ronald looked at it for a long time and didn't see how he could be exempted.
Ed Bastian smiled and pointed at Lindsay, asking her to answer.
"Ronald, first of all, our acquisition does not exceed the standard line that triggers the injunction. Under the injunction, a newspaper is defined as any daily or weekly newspaper of general circulation. The New York Daily News is a tabloid and is not protected by this law. serious broadsheet.
This bill prohibits any person or entity from owning a newspaper and a television station in the same market. According to Senator Kennedy's explanation, a market is defined as an area where 50% or more of the households in the area are reasonably expected to be able to receive newspapers or television stations. The WPIX channel 11 we want to acquire does not have such a large viewership share in New York.
Secondly, this law prohibits the same person or entity and does not prohibit some exceptions, such as newspapers and television stations owned by different companies or non-profit organizations.
Finally, if a company can demonstrate that its cross-ownership of television stations and newspapers has a significant interest in serving the community. Or without its existence, the community's news services will be significantly reduced, then the FCC will grant an exemption.
Our newspapers and television stations are unique sources of news for certain groups of people in Staten Island, Brooklyn, and lower Manhattan. "
Lindsay Dole said three reasons in one breath, and Ronald understood it. The newspapers and TV stations he wanted to buy were still small players in New York and did not trigger the ban. And even if the business scope is successfully expanded in the future, different entities can be established to use legal weapons to fight legislation.
Finally, your own media can also rely on certain groups of people to obtain exemptions, as long as it is their main channel for obtaining news.
This condition is met very well by the media that Ronald wants to buy, such as the source of gossip news for black people in Brooklyn, live traffic broadcasts by taxi drivers, and Asians in Manhattan. For educational programs on TV stations, they are all unique. .
Ronald nodded, acquiescing to this reason, and also thought of the important reason why Australians are attacked. He is not a native American citizen. These are common unspoken rules for self-made Americans like himself. If he is a When the Australians used it, in the eyes of Senator Kennedy and some voters, it was the original sin full of evil thoughts.
"This process is outrageous, and the reasons given by some politicians are ridiculous and extreme, I call them liberal totalitarianism, and their purpose is nothing more than that we often criticize senators, and this is the true meaning of press freedom... I condemn this discriminate……"
That night, Rupert also gave a rare interview on television, and his Australian vowels seemed very stiff.
Ronald and Little Doug watched TV together. They had received a call from the Australian tycoon, asking them to restrain the editor-in-chief of the Daily News from expanding the scope of the news attack.
Of course Ronald agreed. The attack on the Australians might also affect Sony. This would do no good to Ronald and Norio Ohga. His target was only against the upstart who wanted to make money in Columbia Pictures. .
Rupert was very happy to hear Ronald's personal promise, and he also wanted to give Ronald some new and exciting information about Scars. For example, he asked the board of directors to pay him an annual salary of 13 million, and visited many Wall Street bankers to seek financing.
Ronald understood that Rupert also wanted to drive the country bumpkin away from America to avoid being implicated. After thanking Rupert, he happily called Norio Ohga to inform him of the good news.
Dahe was very excited and immediately said that he would send a team to Queensland, Australia, to try to seize the home of this Australian guy who dared to make trouble on Sony. The Japanese dare not resist easily against America, but they are still willing to deal with an Australian.
Arrangements were made, and Ronald and Diane got on a plane to Los Angeles. Several movies have been produced and are at the test screening stage, waiting for him to make a decision.
"Honey, I'm a little tired, I'll take a nap first..." Many things happened together, and Ronald felt a little less energetic, so he covered himself with his coat on the plane and fell asleep by himself.
"Ronnie, Ronnie, does this look good on me?"
In the dream, Diane seemed to be no longer young, and the crow's feet in the corners of her eyes were clearly visible. She lived with him in a small house. In the narrow fitting room, Diane was wearing a violet dress and skirt, and was shouting. Give your own opinions.
"You are beautiful, Diane..." Ronald in the dream also became a middle-aged man, with a little gray hair on his temples. Judging from the house he lives in, his financial situation seems to be average.
"I know you don't want to go, but my father wants to see me get an Oscar nomination, and I want to give him a comfort..."
Diane leaned against herself and gave Ronald a kiss.
"Mommy, Daddy..." A child's voice called outside.
"We'll come right away..."
The dream then shifted to the Oscars. Ronald and Diane were present together. Reporters came over with microphones to yell at Diane, asking her what she thought of being nominated for Best Actress. Some reporters also chased Ronald and asked him what he thought about his wife starring in a movie directed by Adrian Lyne and having a passionate relationship with the two leading actors.
"..." Ronald had a sad expression on his face, said some polite words, and finally waited for Diane to finish taking the photos and entered the awards hall together.
"No...NO...", Ronald shouted excitedly, why did Diane want to act like this? They didn't seem to be doing well in this time and space. He reached out and grabbed it, and the picture of the two people slowly faded and disappeared.
"Ronnie, Ronnie?" When Diane was watching Ronald sleeping, he suddenly raised his hands and started talking in his sleep. He came over and patted him gently. Ronald turned over and went back to sleep, his coat falling to the floor.
Diane picked it up and wanted to cover Ronald. After hesitating, she asked the flight attendant to get a blanket for Ronald.
She stood up and hung her clothes on the chair behind her. The hand touched the pocket, as if there was a stack of paper in it. Diane glanced at Ronald's sleeping figure and put his hand in.
"Ronnie, Ronnie, I'm going to be late soon, can you see me off?" Ronald was still sleeping soundly, and this time his dream changed. He and Helen Hao also lived in a small house, both dressed up. Very ordinary, in line with Helen's usual taste.
"Okay, I'll send you off. Anyway, the child will be sent to his aunt to spend the weekend with Donna's child."
"We haven't acted alone like this for a long time, hee hee..." Helen took out a set of Superwoman costumes and stuffed them into her bag, "Do you still remember? It was you who gave me the idea back then..."
This time the two of them went to a comic convention in Manhattan. Helen's appearance has become middle-aged. She doesn't have much acting now. She makes money by going to comic conventions across the country and dressing up as Superwoman to sign autographs and take photos for movie and comic fans.
Helen is actually liked by many movie fans. In this time and space, Ronald seems to have no fans who recognize him as a director. It seems that he drives a Toyota car and has not directed many blockbuster movies. Taking advantage of the time gap, Ronald in this time and space was still revising the dialogue for other people's scripts.
…
"Huh?" Ronald saw the name of the script in the dream, "Superwoman (TV series)..."
It turns out that if I wasn't a director, I would have been so miserable? Ronald sighed in his heart that this might be a crossroads in life. Fortunately, I got lucky and became a film director.
"Yeah, I understand. You can help me find a lawyer and I'll talk to him. Thank you, Donna." Diane hung up the phone. This is a service recently launched by business jets. You can swipe your credit card to make calls on the ground. , to achieve air-to-ground dialogue.
"Diane?" Ronald had already woken up from his dream. He felt very thirsty and blurted out Diane's name immediately.
"Are you awake? I asked the stewardess to give you a glass of lemonade..." Diane quickly hung up the phone...
"Who are you talking to on the phone? Where are my clothes?" Ronald took a sip of water and felt a little more comfortable.
"Here, you just turned over and fell to the ground.
"Oh, thank you..." Ronald put on his coat, then took out the many documents of Daydream and read them.
(End of chapter)
