THE BULLETIN: Let’s start with Iraq. How do you see events unfolding at this stage?
MURDOCH: Oh, I believe Bush is right. We can’t back down now. I think Bush is acting very morally, very correctly, and I think he is going to go on with it. The fact is, a lot of the world can’t accept the idea that America is the one superpower in the world.
What happens after the war? Reports say that the allies will occupy Iraq. What are the implications for the Middle East and the world’s stability?
I’m not close enough to know what [the allies] really are planning. They’d certainly want to establish a democratic regime as soon as possible and get out as soon as they can. It’s got to be a question of handing the assets of Iraq back to the people of Iraq under a responsible government as soon as possible. The greatest thing to come of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That’s bigger than any tax cut in any country.
Blair says Iraq will make or break him in the next general election. Do you think it will be the same for Bush as well?
He will either go down in history as a very great president or he’ll crash and burn. I’m optimistic it will be the former by a ratio of 2 to 1.
Has your view of him changed since 2000?
I favored him over Al Gore, who I didn’t have a lot of time for. But Bush has surprised everyone. Even his opponents have a great deal more respect for him than they did when he was elected. One senses he is a man of great character and deep humility.
On the other side of the Atlantic, we have Blair, and there’s a lot of speculation in Fleet Street about the way that The Sun’s editorial stance has changed. They claim that you feel Blair and his colleagues are too much like Old Labour than New Labour.
I think Tony is being extraordinarily courageous and strong on what his stance is in the Middle East. It’s not easy to do that living in a party which is largely composed of people that have a knee-jerk anti-Americanism and are sort of pacifist. But he’s shown great guts, as he did, I think, in Kosovo and over various problems in the old Yugoslavia.
But about The Sun… The Sun certainly has been consistently against him on the euro, and most European matters. We are more against [British Chancellor of the Exchequer] Gordon Brown than we are against Tony Blair, and Gordon is, if anything, more of a friend. I admire him as a person. But his insistence that only the government can provide health services and education and just locking out the private sector is really a huge mistake. No one government, one cabinet or one person can run a health service with over 1 million employees. It’s just impossible.
What about the AOL-Time Warner merger? You were a skeptic from the very outset.
I was a skeptic, yes. But, like everyone else, I was overawed by the sheer size of it. Now, it’s just coming apart at the seams. The more it goes on, the worse it gets. You know AOL is just not getting broadband distribution–any quantity. Even with their own dial-up service, they have now been challenged by a lot of half-price competitors. So they’re getting caught at both ends and their earnings are going down very fast.
Ted Turner said the deal was better than sex.
He’s changed that statement.
So you don’t think there will be a fire sale at AOL Time Warner. Nothing for you to pick up?
I don’t think so. There are some things you’d love to have, but I don’t think so.
In your 50 years of business, who have been the politicians and the businessmen who have most impressed you?
That’s a tough one. I’d have to say in Britain, there’s only one, and that’s Margaret Thatcher.
I thought you’d say that.
And Ronald Reagan. I mean, together they changed the world–I think for the better.
You’re about to become a father again. Will you spend more time with your children?
I spend a lot of time with my children now.
It’s a way of asking you about retirement.
I’m very blessed both at home and with a happy office life with News Corp. I think things are pretty good on both points at this stage.
