This morning’s Observer column…

Opinions vary on Rupert Murdoch. Some see him as the genius who has built the world’s only truly global media empire; others as the Tyrannosaurus Rex of mass culture. Playwright Dennis Potter despised him so much that when he was dying of cancer he christened his tumour ‘Rupert’. In between are a lot of media folk who spend every waking hour wondering what Murdoch is up to – and what he will do next…