HILLARY CLINTON - MURDOCH OPEN ABOUT EXERTING POLITICAL INFLUENCE, SAYS EX-FCC CHIEF

MURDOCH OPEN ABOUT EXERTING POLITICAL INFLUENCE, SAYS EX-FCC CHIEF

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt says that unlike most media owners who insist that they don't control the editorial content of their television companies, Rupert Murdoch unabashedly boasts of his political influence. In an interview with the New Yorker magazine, Hundt said, "You know, and he knows, that, if he likes you, you are going to get both news and editorial coverage that is different than if he doesn't like you. For that reason, he creates more power for himself than his peers. You know that there are favors that can be granted and punishments that can be handed out." Murdoch himself indicated to the magazine that he's open-minded about a Hillary Clinton candidacy. As for Bill Clinton's outburst at Chris Wallace on Murdoch's Fox News Channel when Wallace asked why the former president had not done more to pursue Osama bin Laden prior to 9/11, Murdoch said, "I suspect that Bill rehearsed that blowup three times before he did it. ... I think it helps Hillary with the left, and it bullies others into not asking the same question."

09/10/2006