Instead, the families' objections have more to do with Mr Murdoch's perceived populism, editorial meddling and rapacity.

ECONOMIST: Media deals

One day Hirohito's armies were rampaging through China, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, leaving a trail of unspeakable cruelty and rapacity.

ECONOMIST: Japanese history

Griffith shows a city in which the largely law-abiding citizens are in cahoots with their outlaw neighbors and alcohol, violence, and rapacity are the social glue.

NEWYORKER: The Musketeers of Pig Alley

The king would get ready cash for his project, while through the exercise of unrestrained rapacity, the tax-farmer crony would generally obtain an excellent return on his investment.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Growing Cap and Trade on the tax farm

Like Davies, Spooner is eventually rejected, but Hirst a man in his mellow 60s, as Mr Pinter was when he took the role has none of the rapacity of the earlier villains.

ECONOMIST: From the archive

The farmers' system and philosophy, he insists, have condemned them to go forth and multiply, peopling the earth and expanding their domain to the detriment of hunter-gatherers, whose philosophy, based on respect for nature and for the equality and freedom of each individual, including children, was no match for the rapacity, technology and productivity of the newcomers.

ECONOMIST: Farming and history