The murky details surrounding Stuart’s confession led to appeals and ultimately a royal commission. When headlines on The News’ posters accused the three commissioners of not giving Stuart a “fair go”, Rivett was charged with seditious libel (not used in South Australia since 1928). This trial was the perfect prism through which to refract the decade’s usually muddled hues of media ownership, ethics, influence, power, law and justice, the latter two not always the same.

Murdoch remained tight-lipped on the stand, but employees threatened with contempt explained it was likely he who signed off on the offending posters. Rivett was eventually acquitted, but the trial shed light on the workings of the Adelaide Club, the inner cigar-smoke filled sanctum of politics, business and The Advertiser.

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The breadth and depth of Marsh’s research, his eye for detail and his truly exceptional storytelling brings what may have been a dry history into vivid relief. His exploration of character, particularly of Rivett, and the scandals of the moment earn him the right to nostalgia when it all, as it must, begins to crumble. Such sentiment seems unshared by Murdoch, who is quickly overseas buying papers, movie studios and television stations. Relationships, citizenship, everything is disposable in the acquisition of power.

Also illuminating is the flexibility of position for advantage used by Murdoch when grappling charges of monopoly. As an underdog, Murdoch levelled accusations of monopolising against established papers, but once established and hoping to acquire television broadcasting rights, he changed tack. Now competition created a race to the bottom through cost-cutting and sensationalising. Of course, charges of monopoly will always trail a magnate. Perhaps his first honest quote on the subject was uttered once regulators and governments were cowed into submission: “Monopoly is a terrible thing – till you have it”.

Yet, despite these glimpses, he remains a mystery. His transformation from exuberant socialist to writer and editor to international magnate happens out of sight. When forced to rely on the public record, where everything is shaped for advantage, an authentic character is difficult to locate. To consider his transformation from comrade to tycoon does perhaps solve one of our time’s great riddles: why is change so rare when the appetite for it is so large? Because idealism ends where power begins.

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