Keach Hagey writing in the Wall Street Journal
[Vice co-founder Shane] Smith says he really got to know the younger Mr. Murdoch when Vice tried to buy News Corp’s News of the World tabloid at the height of its phone-hacking scandal, arguing he could use the paper’s notoriety to turn it into a new kind of international news outlet. The idea didn’t fly, but Mr. Murdoch “liked our cockiness,” Mr. Smith said.