Thatcher files: Secret Murdoch meeting detailed in archives. Rupert Murdoch owns too many newspapers. Rupert Murdoch owns too many newspapers. This was the uncompromising message from the Shadow Culture Secretary Harriet Harman at the Westminster Media Forum yesterday as reported in the Guardian. It’s not solely a British problem. Here in the European Parliament we have debated media pluralism, or plurality as we call it in the UK, on many occasions.One of the first debates after the 2009 European elections was about Silvio Berlusconi’s vast and often unedifying media empire. The vote on the resolution went narrowly against the appalling Berlusconi to the surprise of many on the centre right who wrongly foresaw an easy victory for their side. The media pluralism question raised its head again during the Hungarian EU Presidency. Control of the media, specifically media plurality, is a polarised issue in the European Parliament. This is very welcome news and I for one will be following the progress of the forthcoming Communications Act closely.
Mary Honeyball is a London Labour MEP. Rupert Murdoch’s empire must be dismantled says Labour party leader. SNP links with Rupert Murdoch savaged by Labour leader Ed Miliband. Politics SNP in Aberdeen: Alex Salmond uses conference speech to persuade women to vote yes in referendum FIRST Minister vows to help females land top roles in business in bid to close gap in independence race. David Torrance: Possibility of independent Scotland has increased thanks to positive Yes campaign Three in five Scots think September referendum should settle the independence debate once and for all, says YouGov poll David Torrance: Possibility of independent Scotland has increased thanks to positive Yes campaign POLITICAL commentator David Torrance, who is also Alex Salmond's biographer, says the First Minister is not taking win for granted but is confident momentum for independence is gathering impetus.
SNP in Aberdeen: Alex Salmond uses conference speech to persuade women to vote yes in referendum SNP Conference: Alex Salmond insists now is the 'time to say Yes' to independence David Cameron fears more gay sex scandals will emerge as the Tory leader braces for a sleaze storm Bingo. Tony Blair 'godfather to Rupert Murdoch's daughter' 5 September 2011Last updated at 11:06 Tony Blair angered many in his party when he decided to woo the Murdoch press Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is godfather to one of Rupert Murdoch's young children, it has emerged. Mr Blair was present last March when Mr Murdoch's two daughters by his third wife, Wendi Deng, were baptised. The revelation comes in an interview with Ms Deng in a forthcoming issue of fashion magazine Vogue. Tony Blair's office declined to comment on the report, which sheds new light on Mr Blair's ties with the media mogul.
Mr Blair, who is said to have been "robed in white" during the ceremony, is the godfather to Grace, the second youngest of Mr Murdoch's six children. The nine-year-old was baptised with her younger sister Chloe, on the banks of the river Jordan, at the spot Jesus is said to have undergone the same ceremony, according to Vogue. 'Closest friends' In the Vogue article, Mr Blair is described as "one of Murdoch's closest friends".
"He was hard no doubt. Rupert Murdoch: Labour forays into the lion's den | Politics. Drinks, dinners and audiences with Rupert Murdoch have long been a political rite of passage for those at the top – or those on the way up. In July 1995, Tony Blair incurred the wrath of old Labour by accepting an invitation to address the News Corporation conference on Hayman island in Australia. Despite the fury of much of his party – not least Neil Kinnock, who felt he had been vilified by the Sun – Blair decided it was too good an opportunity to miss. "It seems obvious," he writes in his memoir, A Journey. "The country's most powerful newspaper proprietor, whose publications have hitherto been rancorous in their opposition to the Labour party, invites us into the lion's den. You go, don't you? " Blair also notes that Paul Keating, then prime minister of Australia, felt Murdoch was "a bastard, but one you could deal with".
What did the man who led Labour to victory in 1997 make of the media mogul? "The 'outsider' thing was crucial to understanding him. "I accept. Rupert Murdoch and Labour: goodbye to an uneasy friendship | Analysis | Politics. Labour's neurotic relationship with Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate may best be illuminated by a pithy phrase of President Franklin Roosevelt who said of one sordid Central American dictator: "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch. " Since the demise of the TUC-owned Daily Herald (it later resurfaced as the Murdoch Sun), successive Labour leaders have always known they can only say "he's our son of a bitch" about the loyal Daily Mirror stable. Clem Attlee (leader from 1935-55) did not let it trouble him much.
Jim Callaghan (1976-80) was resigned, John Smith (1992-94) philosophical, about the fact that Fleet Street's core loyalty was that of its wealthy – often foreign – proprietors, to the Conservative party. But most Labour leaders fret a great deal about the press. Wilson was in power when Murdoch outfoxed rivals to buy the News of the World in 1968. They have since made him millions, as did his trailblazing populist tabloid, the Sun. It did not do him much good.