Thursday, April 03, 2008

Murdoch fundraiser for Obama

The Guardian reports:

The Murdoch family are used to people trying to decode their political stance and its implications from their public actions. Now Elisabeth Murdoch, Rupert's daughter who runs a large independent production company, has thrown them a curveball by hosting a London fundraiser for Barack Obama.

In the most high-profile example yet of glitzy fundraising bashes for the US presidential hopefuls spreading across the Atlantic, a string of notable US ex-pats with jobs in media, the arts and finance will gather at the Notting Hill home Murdoch shares with her husband, PR guru Matthew Freud.

[snip]

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp media empire includes the rightwing Fox News, alongside a host of other properties including the New York Post, the News International stable of UK newspapers including the Sun and the Times, Twentieth Century Fox, BSkyB and the Wall Street Journal.

Murdoch's backing is assiduously courted by politicians around the world, with his choices often decided by expediency, and last year he donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton's campaign fund.

Prompted by his son James, now head of all News Corp's European and Asian operations, he has also endorsed former vice-president Al Gore's environmental campaign.

Ahem! Strange bedfellows elections make, ay, mate? Cha-ching!

(H/t Petulant)