December 7th, 2009 // comments (0)

RUPERT MURDOCH DIVORCE?

Here’s your hot rumor of the day. Australian blog runs wild with rumor that Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Weng have separated. The truth, after the cut…

A report on Crikey.com cites a senior News Corp figure in the U.S. and cranks up a discussion about the media titan’s marriage. Rupert Murdoch generally avoids commenting on personal issues.

So when the Melbourne-based Crikey website posted a rumour on Monday that Murdoch had split with his third wife Wendi Deng, what would normally rate as front-page news barely made a blip on the media radar.

”The first I heard of it was when I read it online,” Murdoch’s Sydney spokesman Greg Baxter told PS this week, adding he had no comment to provide, unable to confirm or deny the rumour. A subsequent email to Murdoch’s New York office on the subject predictably disappeared into the ether, failing to clarify the status of the 10-year marriage.

”It’s the oldest trick in the book,” Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff told PS from New York. ”They [the Murdochs] never deny anything because they know it will just inflame it regardless of whether it is true or not.”

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