CURIOUS is a series of talks that aims to spark interest and conversation in a series of wide-range contemporary issues.
The second talk I attended drew a larger audience, held in the Drama Theatre. The talk, promoting ‘Bonfire of the Murdochs’ by award-winning journalist Gabriel Sherman, who has been reporting on the Murdochs since 2008, was moderated by Australian journalist Janine Perrett and she got straight into it by brashly asking, ‘between Donald Trump, disgraced Fox News chairman Roger Ailes and the Murdoch family, who was the biggest arsehole?’ And so began a thread of questions that served to inform the audience of Sherman’s credentials as a journalist – early interviews with Trump leading to investigations of Fox News heavyweights and ultimately an interest in the Murdochs – the result was a culmination of insights into personalities that have wielded power and influence across a changing media landscape for decades.
Sherman started by establishing the chasm between his own life and the lives of those he has investigated, self-deprecating as he explained his ‘boring life’ enables the distance to see lifestyles of the rich clearly, ensuring he reports with perspective. This approach clearly works for him, with his clear descriptions and anecdotes capturing the complexity of the people he reported on.
Before leaping into the key discussion points, Sherman and Perrett discussed why investigative journalists find it increasingly difficult to get support for their work, with the concentration of power amongst tech companies seen as a threat to our culture. Perrett’s questions were direct, and before long Sherman shared his initial naivety, underestimating the extent to which power is wielded across the media spectrum and the impact that investigating the powerful had on his own life.
Much of the discussion linked the Murdoch family empire to Succession, although Sherman said that as strange as the HBO television series was, real life is stranger. With that, Perrett navigated the talk towards the ironically named Project Harmony, a legacy plan for the Murdoch empire which ultimately tore the family apart, leading to a Nevada court case, leaked documents and what Sherman described as ‘compulsive reading.’
Sherman critiqued the Murdoch Empire and the subsequent fallout through the lens of a family driven by competition, resentment and insecurity. He painted the Murdochs as a family where the refusal to deal with issues ends up hurting everyone, where regardless of how connected they think they are, anyone that is not a member of the family is dispensable and where the dream of building a successful empire can ultimately destroy the family it was meant to unite.
The talk ended by speculating if sibling relationships could be restored, where the family empire was heading and suggested that if Murdoch’s are yesterday’s story, the Ellison family is tomorrow’s story.
This talk was held on Sunday, 4 October 2026 at the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre
