Opportunism, not ideology, drives Murdoch. Whether backing Tory or Labour, cold warriors like Margaret Thatcher or communists in Beijing, one aim remains: the desire for a friendly market for his expanding media empire. Murdoch’s much-ballyhooed coziness with Margaret Thatcher revolved around business, not ideology, says Sir Bernard Ingham, Thatcher’s former press secretary: “Murdoch was interested in commercial success, full stop.” In New Labour, Murdoch has found people he can do business with. The Sun’s editors have a “several times a day” phone relationship with Blair’s press secretary, Alastair Campbell, says one media critic. And there’s a tight web of connections between New Labour and Murdoch’s companies. BSkyB’s press head was a former adviser to Blair’s Culture minister, while another key Blair aide just opened a public-relations firm. Its key client: BSkyB.
Inevitably, there have been charges of cronyism. Blair’s critics accused him of blocking legislation that would have outlawed Murdoch’s policy of cutting the cover price of his papers. When Murdoch wanted to buy into the Italian company Mediaset, he told his own Times that he asked Blair to intervene on his behalf with the then Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Downing Street denied Murdoch’s claim. And the mogul and prime minister don’t agree on everything. Murdoch, an avid anti-European, minces no words over Blair’s pro-Brussels stance. “[Tony Blair] is deluded if he thinks the U.K. needs Europe,” said Murdoch earlier this year. “If you take someone else’s currency, you lose your sovereignty.” Blair’s government has demonstrated its independence from Murdoch. Two years ago the Department of Trade and Industry denied BSkyB’s bid for exclusive rights to air Manchester United matches.
At the moment the two pragmatists need each other far too much to part ways. Murdoch, who is expecting a child with his 34-year-old wife, Wendy Chen, has another key project: persuading the Blair government to lighten regulatory restrictions on television and other media. “Murdoch would like to go into terrestrial as well as space television,” observes Ian Hargreaves, director for the Centre for Media Studies at the University of Cardiff. “He’s most afraid that the regulatory bite on him will increase, and the regulatory bite on his competitors will decrease.” In the past, the antiestablishment tycoon has praised Blair for trying to make Britain a meritocracy. If he truly believes that, he’ll relish the struggle to come.
