Rupert Murdoch has blown hot and cold on President-elect Barack Obama, and is still doing so, to judge by the tone of his media outlets.

The New York Times has an article this morning pointing out that the New York Post has been displaying a lot of warmth towards Mr Obama since the election, although it did not take such a friendly line before November 4.

Meanwhile, Fox News is apparently unrepentant about its hostility towards Mr Obama on shows hosted by figures such as Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly. Fox News is run by Roger Ailes, who does not appear to be a fan of Mr Obama.

The article points out that Mr Murdoch exercises differing degrees of political oversight over his newspapers. In general, he is more inclined to set a political line for his tabloids such as the Post, and The Sun in the UK , than his upmarket papers.

I wonder whether the Post’s outbreak of Obama fandom is an effort by Mr Murdoch to solve the problem he may have created for himself by setting up a three-way meeting among him, Mr Obama and Mr Ailes earlier this year.

At the meeting, Mr Ailes promised to be fair to Mr Obama during the campaign. In fact, the overall tone of Fox News coverage varied between scepticism and outright hostility. Mr Obama clearly noted this and indeed mentioned Fox’s view - and particularly Mr Hannity - several times during the campaign.

If Mr Obama feels that he was sucker-punched by Mr Murdoch and Mr Ailes, that does not bode well for future relations.

Mr Murdoch seems to allow Mr Ailes a fair degree of latitude to go his own way with Fox News but he has historically tended to get along with governing parties in countries such as the UK and Australia, even if they are leftwing.

So perhaps the Post’s coverage is a signal that, even if Fox News is unrepentant, News Corporation as a whole would like to make peace.

November 17, 2008 5:44pm in Business | Comment