It might not have yet dawned on the insensitive Murdoch head kickers, but there was an exquisite irony in the timing of The Australian’s intrusive hatchet job on CVC equity managing director Adrian McKenzie this morning.

On the very day The Monthly publishes the excellent 10,000-word Eric Ellis profile on Wendi Deng — a piece the Murdoch spinners argued had no editorial merit given she is not an executive of News Corp — The Australian published separate photos of McKenzie’s wife, Charlotte, pushing a pram, her Double Bay bookshop and their $8 million Bellevue Hill home. The news story was bad enough, but at least the pictures are not available online.

The Australian is pursuing Adrian McKenzie as if he is the new proprietor of Channel Nine and ACP after Friday’s deal which saw CVC emerge with 75% and clear control of PBL Media.

The Scottish-born 36-year-old declined to participate with reporter Ean Higgins, so The Australian decided to beat up on his missus. It’s the old story — play ball or cop it.

Once again, the Murdoch press have confirmed exactly why their own proprietor has no grounds to complain — ever — about any intrusion of their own privacy. In days gone by, the Packer press might have responded with a hatchet job in The Bulletin, although if you believe The AFR this morning, McKenzie and the man who will actually run PBL Media, Ian Law, are apparently poised to close the magazine.

The Monthly is well worth the $6.95 cover price just to read the Ellis profile, but it was intriguing to see the advertisement for Maserati spread across pages two and three, which included the following quote from John Lehman: “Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.”

Unfortunately, those words are from a former secretary of the US Navy, not the John Lehmann who will probably go down as the last editor of The Bulletin. I dropped into Machiavelli’s in Sydney last Thursday for lunch and was appalled to see that the portrait gallery is now full of PBL associates as part of The Bulletin’s sponsorship. Some quick shuffling is needed and Adrian McKenzie certainly should be mounted if anyone can get hold of a picture.

Maybe The Bulletin’s famous function at Machiavelli’s last June — when Rupert turned up to accept an award as the most influential Australian in history — will be remembered as the day the old media families started to hand over power.