Murdock is an illusion.

Several parts to this theory, based on these facts:
–It is impossible to hide your Mark with an illusion
–It is incredibly hard for a famous [person] to hide from news, even if they control the news(see: Donald Trump, the Koch Brothers, the real Rupert Murdoch, etc are all rather large media figures in spite of controlling many outlets).
–Many many many of Murdock's employees have the same Mark.

My conclusion is that:
–Murdock is an created name(possibly completely fictional [person]) for the purpose of making a target for adoration and attack
–Murdock has the same Mark as most of his/her reporters
–S/He goes out among his reporters to get his own scoops
–Possibly, s/he disguises himself in illusion, barring his/her Mark, to seem like a completely different pony.

The result is that he might seem to have a lot more reporters than he actually does, because s/he has appeared as many different ponies. Murdock is very capable of putting illusions of "fact" into the public mind, so why not actual illusions?

Stories in the Continuum that gave me this: Blue is the New Orange, partially Mark of Appeal, Naked Lunch, the last few chapters of Triptych that I've read, and the veritable "infestation"(what if it's really just one or two reporters who use illusion?) of photographers in Ponyville.

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It is incredibly hard for a famous [person] to hide from news, even if they control the news(see: Donald Trump, the Koch Brothers, the real Rupert Murdoch, etc are all rather large media figures in spite of controlling many outlets).

I disagree with this. As long as he stays home and lets his reporters do all the work, he could easily stay out of the public eye.

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That doesn't seem like someone so hungry for That One Scoop would do. Ze seems a lot more proactive.

The reaction of the reporter to Quiet seems to indicate a rather strict Compact with the employer, meaning one hell of a conspiracy. If ze just sat around editing and writing all the time...we'd see a different sort of paper, I think.

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They could do everything through proxies and mail without ever leaving their house.

Mudrock is the Keiser Sosay of Triptich. 'One can not be betrayed if one has no people.'

3616402 You do remember Sosay's secret, right?

A solid theory. My own has Murdocks as a small group of Changelings(I am not sure if they are working for Chrysalis or not) who, similar to your theory, use shapeshifting to appear as more reporters than they actually are.