No looking back: Redbird Capital’s Gerry Cardinale, also the owner of Italian football club AC Milan, at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on September 03, 2022, in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)
Welcome to the latest edition of Breaker. If this email has been forwarded, you can subscribe here and send your questions and complaints here. If you have a tip contact the 24/7 Breaker Tip Hotline via text or Signal # 551 655 2343. Anonymity guaranteed!
Gerry Cardinale’s private equity firm RedBird has created quite the cinematic universe. From investments in Paramount Skydance to Air Puck, they are one of the media stories of 2025. But in tonight’s edition, Cardinale discusses his embarrassing reversal on buying The Telegraph – with the question now, who will swoop in to end the “auction from hell.”
Also tonight, The New York Post is the latest publisher to end remote work, Lachlan Murdoch sets a date for his Christmas shindig, we have a scene report from Harper’s Magazine’s 175th anniversary gala, and you won’t believe where Breaker ran into two of Bari Weiss’ “beefy bodyguards” on Saturday night.
Mentioned tonight: David Ellison, Mark Shapiro, A. G. Sulzberger, David Zaslav, Graydon Carter, Fran Lebowitz, Lord Rothermere, Sam Dolnick, Maureen Dowd, Jake Silverstein, Sir Paul Marshall, Dovid Efune, Janice Min, Michael Wolff, Emily Sundberg, Lionel Barber, Matt Belloni, William Turvill, Josh Marshall, Tucker Carlson, Tina Brown, Ezra Klein, Lauren Egan, Joe Flint, Hadas Gold, Faisal Islam, Rupert Murdoch, James C. Goodale, John R. MacArthur, Christopher Carroll, Charlie Lee, Andrew Trunsky, David McCraw, Danielle Rhoades Ha, Lydia Polgreen, Ben Smith, Maxi Tani, Tina Brown, Carl Bernstein, Cecilia Peck, Vicky Ward, Steve Kroft, Keith Poole, David Droga, Patrick Delany, Penny Fowler, Peter V’landys, Michael Miller, Col Allan, Dan Primark, Deborah Turness, Tim Davie, Chris Evans, and more.
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Cardinale’s Reverse Ferret
(Exclusive.) There is an old Fleet Street mantra that you never launch a campaign that you know you’re not going to win.
So it goes that the journalists at The Telegraph began an all-out mutiny against RedBird owner Gerry Cardinale after he threatened to go to war with the newsroom (a claim Cardinale denied Tuesday), as he sought to secure ownership of the paper.
RedBird dropped their bid for The Telegraph on Friday. “Game set and match to the British establishment!” former Financial Times editor Lionel Barber told Breaker about Cardinale's decision.
Telegraph editor Chris Evans has been on a roll. It was his paper that broke the current BBC crisis; the national broadcaster was accused of institutional bias over a misleading edit of a speech by Donald Trump.
The questionable edit led to the resignation of Chief Executive of BBC News Deborah Turness and Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC. The Telegraph also helped roll Sir Peter Mandelson as the British ambassador in September owing to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
So what now for The Telegraph? As they themselves reported Tuesday, a "poison pill” situation (involving an inherited loan from the UAE to the value of £500 million) will need to be resolved first before any other sale could be considered.
Those that are likely to take another run at buying the Telegraph are…
Lachlan’s Summer Soiree
(Exclusive.) It’s amongst the hottest invites of the year. Lachlan Murdoch and wife Sarah’s annual Christmas party at their home in the leafy eastern suburbs of Sydney. The guest list is always who’s who of prickly politicians, power players, media movers, and sports superstars.
Among last year's guests at the couple's Bellevue Hill mansion, Le Manoir: Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, ad guru David Droga, Goldman Sachs Australia CEO, Simon Rothery, Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany, Penny Fowler, Herald & Weekly Times Chairwoman and Rupert Murdoch’s niece, Peter V’landys, NSW Racing chief and one of Australia’s most powerful men, News Corp Australia Executive Chairman Michael Miller and former New York Post Editor Col Allan.
Breaker has learned the invitations have gone out for this year’s shindig to …
Piers Morgan On The Breaker Pod: Murdoch, Trump and YouTube
(Exclusive.) Never one to back away from a controversial opinion or debate, the man, the myth, the mouthpiece, British journalist Piers Morgan, is this week’s guest on The Breaker Pod.
Morgan launched his successful Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel in February 2024, and he’s recently released a new book, Woke is Dead: How Common Sense Triumphed in an Age of Total Madness.
Morgan was the youngest editor at the Murdoch-owned News of the World at just 28, beginning a relationship with Rupert Murdoch that would span three decades.
“Whenever I've seen or talked to Rupert in the last few years, he's been absolutely the same Rupert I've known for 30-odd years. But you know what, he has an almost childlike curiosity about life, which I find incredibly infectious.”
“He's also one of the most misunderstood people I know. He's tough. Yes. He's an extraordinary business brain. Yes. He has remarkable vision, and he has the guts to back himself to deliver on the thing.”
Catch more in this week's episode of The Breaker Pod. Make sure you check us out and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pods.