Bombshell (2019) is a story based upon the accounts of the women at Fox News who set out to expose CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.

The film provides a narrative of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM, in the same way that we could look at other stories that are concerned with other institutional prejudices – racism, homophobia, Islamophobia etc. In other words, this film presents a version of the story of INSTITUTIONAL SEXISM and MISOGYNY. It suggests a link between the presentation/ representation of the female form and the ideas of a ruling patriarchy (Fox News, specifically Roger Ailes).

Leading the allegations against Roger Ailes was Gretchen Carlson, a news anchor on Fox News from 2005 to 2016. Other women at the Fox institution such as Megyn Kelly came forward, giving their accounts. Ailes left his position at Fox News in July 2016. He passed away in 2017.

Rupert Murdoch’s ‘Media Empire’

“Murdoch is the 31st richest person in the United States and the 71st richest in the world”

 “By 2000, Murdoch’s News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries, with a net worth of over $5 billion.“

• In 1954, He took over his fathers Australian newspapers ‘The Sunday Mail’, and ‘The News’
• Murdoch bought the newspaper, ‘News of the World of London’, in 1968
• He generated news on “crime, sex, scandal, and human-interest stories with boldface headlines”, putting emphasis on gossip in hope to improve circulation.
• Murdoch bought ‘The Sun’ in 1969 and changed it into a ‘tabloid’ newspaper.
• In 1981, Murdoch bought British newspaper ‘The Times’ after moving to New York to expand his work to America.
• Murdoch became a US Citizen in 1985 in order to be able to expand his market to US television broadcasting.
• During his time in the UK, his political stance (which was shown through his publications) was towards Margaret Thatcher but this changed after her era when he begun to support Tony Blair and the Labour Party.
• His holding company ‘News Corporation’ acquired ‘20th Century Fox’ in 1985 for $325 million
• Murdoch bought in a new development which included use of electronic printing processes to his newspaper in Australia, Britain and The USA. This meant that many jobs were lost, causing violent disputes within the industry. Over 6,000 employee’s went on strike, resulting in their dismissal.
• The ‘News Corporation’ had accumulated $7 billion of debts due to Murdoch’s buyouts in the 1980’s, causing Murdoch to sell many of his magazine interests.
• In 1990, Murdoch founded the British Broadcasting group ‘BSkyB’ better known now as (The Sky Group)
• In 1995, the FCC scrutinised the Fox Network, saying that due to his base for News LTD in Australia made Murdoch’s ownership of Fox, illegal.
• Murdoch creates the Fox News Channel which broadcasted 24/7 news coverage. This was known as ‘Cable News’
• In 1998, Murdoch offered £625 Million to buy Manchester United FC, this was rejected.
• Murdoch announced that he was moving his holding company ‘News Corporation’ from Australia to the United States in 2004.
• 2005 saw ‘News Corporation’ buy ‘Intermix Media’ which owned ‘MySpace’.
• Murdoch made a $5 Billion offer to buy ‘Dow Jones and Company’ from the Bancroft Family, he acquired the company in 2007.
• Murdoch resigned as head of ‘News Corporation’ in July 2012.
• 2015: Murdoch resigned from his post as the CEO of 21st Century Fox, he still owned the company until it was bought by Disney in 2019
• 2016: Roger Ailes resigned from his ownership of ‘Fox News’ due to allegations of sexual harassment against him. Rupert Murdoch, acting CEO of Fox News from 2016-2019, was given ownership over the company. He later founder The ‘Fox Corporation’ in 2019.

News International Phone Hacking Scandal

Employee’s of Rupert Murdoch’s news papers, including ‘News of The World’ (no longer running), were accused of phone hacking and also police bribery.

2005 and 2006 investigations proved that the phone hacking conducted was only involving celebrities, politicians and the royal family. However, further investigations in 2011 showed that the employees had hacked the phones of murdered school girl Milly Dowler, victims of the July 2005 London bombings and also family members of dead soldiers.

Public controversy led to many ‘high-profile’ resignations, including Rupert Murdoch resigning as the director of ‘News Corporation’. The ‘News of the World’ was forced to close after many advertising boycotts.

Former Prime Minister announced a public inquiry, known as the Leveson Inquiry. This would look into the ‘News International’ scandal and also the way in which the culture and ethics of the British media are handled. Murdoch and his son were forced to give evidence at the inquires held throughout 2011 and 2012.

Murdoch apparently  “exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications”