Getting the details with Murdoch

Zeke Turner of The New York Observer writes how former Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Ellison was able to obtain many of the details she used in her book “War at The Wall Street Journal,” including the scene of when News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch got rid of the paper’s managing editor, Marcus Brauchli.

Turner writes, “Ms. Ellison’s book has been a hit among media writers, and we wondered how she was able to write that gripping chapter when she was traveling with Rupert Murdoch the day he was in Washington and hammering out the details of Marcus Brauchli’s dismissal.

“Ms. Ellison, holding her clutch and a reporter’s notepad, told us that she was with Mr. Murdoch on his plane that day.

“‘I asked if I could travel with him because I had always learned that was the best way to really feature someone is to spend time with them on a trip,’ she said. ‘They said, O.K., he’s going to Washington, D.C., and I originally thought that’s a very short trip. They might as well have offered me a cab ride with him down to Canal Street from midtown!’

“‘But it ended up being this really dramatic day,’ she continued. ‘Following him through that day was really chilling in terms of how you can watch a corporate murder unfold. I didn’t write myself into that scene because I wasn’t remotely important.'”

Read more here.