When (or perhaps if) Rupert Murdoch goes to the great MySpace in the sky, the obituary writers will be able to save themselves some time if they dig out Kingsley Martin’s assessment of British newspaper tycoon Lord Northcliffe.

Northcliffe:

was his own most appreciative reader; he instinctively appealed in the most profitable way to the millions of men and women whose tastes and prejudices were the same as his own. He lived by flattering. He did not educate or change his public in any essential; he merely induced it to buy newspapers.

Martin didn’t mean it well, but actually…