Australian politicians are glass-jawed and Rupert Murdoch is "fiercely direct", says former News Corp Australia CEO Kim Williams.
In a round of media interviews to promote his new book, Mr Williams said he found politicians were overly sensitive to criticism and had, at times, attempted to bully him while he was CEO.
"Politicians can be pretty severe in prosecuting a case they have, and can be even more severe when they feel that they have been wronged," Mr Williams told Fairfax Radio on Tuesday.
"Politicians in Australia generally seem, to me, to have massive glass jaws and are far too easily offended.
"... At times it can be quite threatening - but you know it's just in the stuff of general discourse between politicians and media companies, you get very used to it."
Mr Williams also said he had a good professional working relationship with Mr Murdoch during his 18-month tenure as CEO.
"Now we obviously came to grief towards the end but that is part of life and those things happen," Mr Williams said.
"Certainly (Mr Murdoch) is never frightened to offer a view and is a very, very fiercely direct person - you'd never die wondering with Rupert as to what he thought about anything.
"He's not a manipulative person because he always says exactly what he thinks."
Mr Williams also said Mr Murdoch did occasionally provide "stern counsel" to the editors of his Australian newspapers, though not to a level asserted by critics.
"The degree of counsel that is offered to editors is ... exaggerated," he said.
Mr Williams' book, titled Rules of Engagement, was released this month.
