Love Quote by Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch frames celebrity the way he frames news: as a loyalty test. The image is theatrical on purpose - a restaurant, a table rising, applause - the kind of scene that makes fame feel like a referendum. But the punchline lands in the whiplash: in “other places - or even the same place” people refuse eye contact. Recognition doesn’t produce a shared public moment; it produces sorting.

The intent is almost disarmingly candid. Murdoch isn’t claiming he’s loved for his charming personality or even for journalism; he’s loved “because they love Fox News.” He positions himself as a proxy for a brand, which is also a confession about power. If strangers clap for the mere association, it suggests the product isn’t information so much as identity merchandise - a signal that says, “you’re with us.”

Subtext: he’s describing polarization as a lived, consumer experience. The same room can flip depending on who’s watching, which underscores how political affiliation has become social etiquette. Applause and aversion are both forms of participation; they’re audience reactions to a culture-war performance. Murdoch’s presence triggers either gratitude (you built my tribe’s megaphone) or disgust (you built theirs).

Context matters. Coming from a publisher whose outlets helped professionalize outrage and partisan entertainment, the anecdote reads less like complaint than validation. The point isn’t that public life is unfair; it’s that his media machine has made him legible as a symbol. In that sense, the line doubles as a status report: Fox didn’t just capture viewers. It captured the room.