WASHINGTON - Rupert Murdoch is a political kingmaker in Britain and his native Australia. In the United States, which is best known for promoting conservative opinion through media properties like Fox News. And in China, is primarily a businessman working to give his empire News Corp. a foothold in that country controlled media market.
The phone hacking scandal swirling Britain has shed new light on the influence of billionaire media mogul from around the world.
Their role is not political standard in Britain will almost certainly be reduced by half of its periodic evidence illegally hacked the phone of people ranging from a young man killed the former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It is less clear what will happen in Australia. Murdoch's political commitment in the U.S. and elsewhere is less intimate and can not be compromised by the growing controversy.
"His newspapers in England are far more directly involved in politics than anything he owns in the U.S," said Michael Wolff, editorial director of Adweek magazine and author of a Murdoch biography, "The Man Who Owns the News." ''He's significantly more influential in the political life of that country."
In the U.S. and other countries, Wolff said, "he's wielded considerable influence but much less than in the U.K. He's focused his influence mainly on the regulatory issues that most affect his business."
Murdoch has been the most influential foreign player in British politics for decades, with the leaders of all ideological tendencies competing for their support. Is often referred to as a member of the cabinet of the country permanently.
The scandal of piracy has released British lawmakers, who have long lived in fear of his power. A warrant was issued for James Murdoch and his son to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating the scandal a step that would have been unthinkable until recently.
In the U.S., the FBI has begun a preliminary investigation on the basis of the concerns in Congress over a report that News Corp. tried to get into the phones of the victims of September 11, a police official told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Murdoch began building his power in Britain in the 1980s, when Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher allowed Murdoch to add The Times and The Sunday Times to his stable of properties of media, including The Sun and News of the World, especially the tabloid scandal connected to the piracy. Murdoch closed the News of the World last week. Murdoch turned in favor of Thatcher, and his papers to his strong support conservative politics.
Murdoch continued to have relations with British leaders after Thatcher left. In the 1992 parliamentary elections when it appeared that the Labor Party leader Neil Kinnock could topple Thatcher's successor, John Major, Prime Minister, The Sun published a bold front-page headline "If Kinnock wins today, the last person leave Britain please turn off the light. "That title was credited with helping seniors and the Conservatives to victory.
Murdoch finally changed his allegiance to Tony Blair, Labour Prime Minister 1997-2007. Blair phoned Murdoch repeatedly before committing British troops to the war in Iraq in 2003, which was endorsed by Murdoch's newspapers around the world.
Blair's successor, Labor Party leader Gordon Brown initially tried to resist the influence of Murdoch. But the wedding of the chief executive of the company, Rebecca Brooks, who was news editor of the world in 2002, when agents of the phone paper cut, 13-year-old Milly Dowler murder victim, giving hope false family that their daughter was still alive. Dowler Brooks family has asked to resign.
Murdoch visited the current Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, shortly after taking office in May 2010 - the only formal meeting held in Downing Street Cameron this month, other than those with foreign dignitaries. Cameron has distanced himself from Murdoch in recent days since former communications director for Cameron, a former World News editor, was arrested in probe of hacking.
Cameron said Wednesday that a judge had placed in charge of reviewing the evidence related to the scandal. "There is a firestorm, if you will, that is devouring parts of the media, police, and indeed the ability of our political system to respond," he said.
In Australia, where it was connected Murdoch journalist father, Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch, and in political circles, the young Murdoch has been equally influential. He became a prominent political figure in his own right in 1964 when he founded the newspaper The Australian. Today, News Corp. controls 70 percent of the news readers in this country and his work has been the main platform for climate change skeptics there.
"He's had very close relationships with every prime minister for the last 30 years," said David McKnight, author of "Rupert Murdoch: Political Crusader" and an associate professor of journalism at the University of New South Wales. "I don't know any country in the world where a single proprietor has such extraordinary penetration and influence."
Murdoch is not as a personal link with the political leadership in the U.S., where he is a naturalized citizen. However, a series of commands right-wing media, including Fox News Channel and the New York Post. He also owns The Wall Street Journal, whose editorial page is influential conservative voice.
Murdoch was not so ideological and political donor, contributing money primarily to Republicans but also Democrats involved in the establishment of policies that may affect the line of News Corp. 's bottom. He gave $ 6,500 and held a fundraiser in 2006 by then-New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democrat who had been pilloried by the New York Post in his first Senate campaign.
News Corp. attracted attention last year when it was revealed that the company had contributed $ 1.25 million to the Republican Governors Association and $ 1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before the 2010 election midterm. In April, the company's board announced that News Corp. declined to disclose their political donations a year on its website.
To be sure, News Corp. is far from the only media company in the hope of influencing policy in Washington. Others, including Comcast, Time Warner and The Walt Disney Co., have contributed nearly $ 38 million to candidates in the past two decades, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which studies political giving.
But Judd Legum, who has researched Murdoch as vice president of communications for the liberal Center for American Policy, Murdoch said the impact of U.S. policy in the conversation- Mostly on Fox News - that unlike other media moguls.
"I would not say it is as big as it is in Britain. But to have that kind of relationship with all the players most influential Republican is quite unprecedented," Legum said, noting that many presidential candidates and potential candidates Republicans have been paid Fox employees, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Sarah Palin, the candidate of the Republican Party and former 2008 vice governor of Alaska.
In Italy, Murdoch has been very aggressive businessman, challenging Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi empire, Mediaset broadcast. In May, James Murdoch sent a press convention in Tuscany and chided the editors for the acceptance of state subsidies, a longstanding practice that the roles which they depend for their survival. He told them that nothing comes without a price.
In China, Murdoch has spent two decades trying to expand the presence of News Corp. 's, but has declined dramatically after the company's plans were blocked by the government controls the media. Murdoch visited China several times over the past 20 years advocating for access to the market, and their offense included organizing a private screening of "Titanic" made by its movie studio 20th Century Fox, by then President Jiang Zemin in 1998.
In 2005, Murdoch News Corp. complained that they had "beaten a brick wall" in China. He said government officials had "paranoid" and did not want foreign investors in the market for media. Chinese regulators, in turn, complained that Murdoch publications sometimes the air in democracy clashed with government censors.
