Murdoch’s Daughter Hosts Obama Fund-Raiser

Invitation to the fund-raiser. Click to see pdf.

Insert a new twist to the political parlor game that involves following the moves of Rupert Murdoch and his clan: his daughter, Elisabeth, is hosting at her London home a fund-raiser for Senator Barack Obama.

Ms. Murdoch is one of a slew of “event chairs,” which also includes Gwyneth Paltrow, for the April 28 event at Ms. Murdoch’s home in Notting Hill. David Blood, who runs an investment fund with former Vice President Al Gore that specializes in environmentally-friendly companies, is also listed as an “event host.”

A contribution of $2,300 offers access to the V.I.P. reception; attendance to the main event only requires a $1,000 donation.Mr. Murdoch, of course, is chairman of the News Corporation, which includes under its umbrella Fox News and the New York Post. Mr. Murdoch had a much-discussed rapprochement with Mrs. Clinton two years ago, when the Post endorsed Mrs. Clinton in her Senate campaign and he held a fund-raiser for her. Last year, he even contributed $2,300 to her presidential campaign.

But the Post endorsed Mr. Obama just before the crush of states that voted on Feb. 5 in a bruising editorial that excoriated Mrs. Clinton, causing media observers to declare that the honeymoon was over for this political odd couple.

Ms. Murdoch, 39, is Mr. Murdoch’s second daughter, one of three children from Mr. Murdoch’s second marriage, who as a group represent the locus of where the betting over who might succeed him has centered.

She holds dual citizenship in the United States and Britain and left British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation is a major investor and she was managing director of Sky Networks, in 2000 to start her own media company, Shine Ltd. She is married to Matthew Freud—great-grandson of Sigmund Freud—a prominent public relations executive in London.

Reached on his boat floating in the Tobago Cays today, MrFreud said not much should be read into his wife’s role as a host.“I don’t think you can interpret the event as anything other than she is enthusiastic about Obama’s campaign,” Mr. Freud said.

NWN: Oh really !