Wall St. warrior

NEW YORK, (AFP) - Rupert Murdoch, probably the planet's most powerful media magnate, has snared a new trophy: Dow Jones & Co. and its prestigious business newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. Murdoch has spent decades building his 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 more than 100 newspapers worldwide. In the United States, Murdoch's News Corp. owns 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 takeover of Dow Jones & Co., which owned the Wall Street Journal -- America's leading business daily -- Murdoch has boosted his empire's clout and credentials to even greater heights.

"We feel this is the greatest newspaper in America. One of the greatest in the world," Murdoch, who is chairman and chief executive of News Corp., said in an interview with Fox News television network after the bid was unveiled. 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 high-brow The Times and The Sunday Times. News Corp. has a market value of about 67 billion dollars.

Murdoch has used his hefty media clout to support aspiring American presidents and British prime ministers. A profile of Murdoch recently published by The New Yorker magazine 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 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."

In Britain, Murdoch also caused political waves when his newspapers, including The Sun and News of the World, backed the first 1997 general election candidacy of Labour's Tony Blair after previous supporting the Conservative Party. Blair won the poll and became one of his party's longest-serving prime ministers.

The New Yorker magazine article recalled how the future British prime minister in 1995 had traveled 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) to participate in a News Corp. conference. Last year the septuagenarian media baron once again made political news as he endorsed the re-election of Senator Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat.

But the announcement was not totally out of the blue, considering the ties between the wife of former president Bill Clinton and Murdoch, who organized a fundraiser for her election campaign. Asked whether he would support Hillary Clinton in a 2008 presidential bid, Murdoch said last year: "If you go on her history, I would say she would be a lot more liberal than I am, but I don't know. If she makes it, we'll see."