Extract from oral history of Tom Fitzgerald by Ken Inglis
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John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. Records
of the National Library of Australia. Interview of Tom Fitzgerald, 01/02/1998
- 3/09/1998. JCPML00658/1. Original held by National Library of Australia
TRC 2247
When he [Rupert Murdoch] first approached me, possibly before that...
he approached me umpteen times over a period of... it was ten years before
I agreed, for a range of reasons, to have a try with him... to try myself
with him, he was quite adamant that I couldn’t be both his editorial
panjandrum, whatever it was, and have Nation.
And when I jibbed immediately at that... it’s hard for people to
realise, Ken, that to a journalist who was in the kitchen of a daily newspaper,
having the freedom to produce your own paper, however small, is infinitely
more rewarding than to be the nominal editor of any bloody metropolitan
paper. People at the Herald couldn’t understand this any
more than Murdoch. It’s... it couldn’t be more... and I’m
sure most journalists would... would automatically say so. Angus Maude,
when Editor of the Herald, used to speak enviously to me about
my having Nation. He had miseries. The editors of the Herald
in my time all had their miseries. In my time. There was a great interlude
when James Fairfax, after I left, made things different.