Rupert Murdoch: it’s all business in the end

Should Rupert Murdoch impose more control on his editors and journalists? A strange question, you may think, but, in an interview widely disseminated this week, Murdoch expressed "regret" that his "editors in Britain" had turned against Gordon Brown "who is a friend of mine".

Though he seemed to support the Fox News presenter Glenn Beck, who had accused President Obama of racism, a News Corporation spokesman later assured us that Murdoch "does not at all, for a minute, think the president is a racist".

So what is going on? In fact, Murdoch has always insisted his editors are free to make up their own minds. A glance at his newspapers exposes the claim as risible. They display a unanimity that Bruce Page, author of The Murdoch Archipelago, described as "the intellectual equivalent of synchronised swimming". None opposed the Iraq war, none ever doubts the benefits of free markets and, in Britain, none questions the need for drastic reform of the BBC (rival to Murdoch's Sky) or scepticism about the European Union.

True, Murdoch rarely issues direct instructions to his more upmarket editors, but their opinions happen to be coterminous with his and they are appointed for that reason. Tabloid editors, chosen for technical skills rather than political sophistication, get closer supervision, partly because a tabloid's stance is as much a matter of commercial as of editorial judgment.

The position, however, is more complex than it once was. First, Murdoch has ceded control of his British papers to his son James.

Murdoch Jnr takes global warming seriously and, after he took over, even the Sun switched smartly to firm support for reducing carbon emissions. Global warming deniers, once prominent in Murdoch papers, now scarcely get a hearing, even on the letters pages.

Second, Murdoch himself is engaged in low-key re-branding, partly because he senses the world is moving in a more liberal, less pro-market direction. From his latest biography, written by Vanity Fair’s Michael Wolff with Murdoch's co-operation, there emerges a more tolerant, loveable, moderate, humble man - who represents the last, best hope for old-fashioned print journalism - than previously imagined.

Third, Murdoch hopes a Conservative government will relax requirements for 'balance' in UK broadcast news. Distancing himself from Beck at his American operation Fox News reassures the British that Sky News could be trusted not to abuse such freedom.

But the bottom line remains. Murdoch's opinions are fungible, his business interests aren't. What he says and does is always what he judges best for business.