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NEW YORK: Rupert Murdoch, probably the planet’s most powerful
media magnate, is backing a new venture, the Fox Business Network,
months after taking over Dow Jones & Co. and The Wall Street
Journal.
Murdoch has spent decades amassing his News
Corp. media empire through a series of steady acquisitions.
Along the way, he has also dabbled in politics
and allied himself with the likes of George W. Bush, Hillary
Clinton, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.
The Australian-born Murdoch, 76, became a US
citizen in the 1980s and has continued to expand News Corp., which
owns satellite-broadcasters and over 100 newspapers worldwide.
In the United States, Murdoch’s News Corp.
owns the Fox News Channel, the New York Post newspaper, the Fox film
studios and television network and the rapidly growing Internet
social networking site, MySpace.
His holding company also owns satellite
broadcasters including British-based BSkyB, Sky Italia of Italy and
the Asian-based Star TV. Other holdings include The Australian
newspaper and the US-based book publishing giant HarperCollins.
With the planned takeover of Dow Jones &
Co., which owns the Wall Street Journal—America’s leading
business daily—Murdoch will have boosted his empire’s clout and
credentials to even greater heights.
Born on March 11, 1931, Keith Rupert Murdoch
inherited two small Australian newspapers in the 1950s.
In 1969, he switched his focus to Britain, where
he had once studied at Oxford University, and acquired two tabloids,
The News of the World and The Sun.
The Sun, which features scantily clad, young
female models on page three, is one of Britain’s most widely read
newspapers.
In 1976, Murdoch set his sights on America with
the purchase of New York magazine and the New York Post.
His ownership of British titles was boosted in
1981 with the takeover of the highbrow The Times and The Sunday
Times.
Murdoch has used his hefty media clout to
support aspiring American presidents and British prime ministers.
A profile of Murdoch published by The New Yorker
magazine this year recalled that he had played a pivotal role in New
York’s 1977 mayoral election, in supporting a candidate trailing
in opinion polls.
“The Post’s endorsement transformed my
campaign. I wouldn’t have won without it,” said former mayor Ed
Koch, who remained in office until 1989.
An admirer of former British Conservative Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US Republican President Ronald
Reagan, Murdoch has not hidden his dislike of trade unions and
taxes. In 1983, he broke a British union by firing 5,000 of its
members.
In the United States, his cable television
network Fox News features prominent conservative “talking
heads,” and media analysts say the network has shown consistent
support for President George W. Bush’s “war on terror.”
Last year the septuagenarian media baron once
again made political news as he endorsed the reelection of Senator
Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat.
--AFP
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