Rebekah Brooks, the editor of The News of the World at the beginning of the phone-hacking scandal, and subsequently the chief executive of News International, Murdoch’s British subsidiary, played precisely such a role. The disintegration of the business empire is then accompanied and amplified by bitter disputes between the children and the substitute children.
此外，由公司管理层涌现的“代子女”令继承规划进一步复杂化。丽贝卡·布鲁克斯——手机窃听勾当开始时《世界新闻报》的总编辑，默多克帝国英国分支新闻国际集团的首席执行官——恰恰是这样一个角色。子女和代子女的混战，伴随着商业帝国的分崩离析，并且加剧了分崩离析的过程。