FT社评：默多克的政界影响力
英国《金融时报》 社评
2012年04月28日 14:19 PM
  
在针对媒体的莱韦森调查(Leveson inquiry)中，鲁珀特?默多克(Rupert Murdoch)称他从未向政客索取好处，但这一说法遭到质疑。

在其漫长的职业生涯中，默多克在无视监管反对、扩张他的媒体利益时，常常需要各届政府的容忍（或者积极支持）。在英国，这样的例子包括：1981年有争议地收购泰晤士报业公司(Times Newspapers)1989年建立天空电视台(Sky)卫星广播网络以及最近的一次——试图在去年全面控制英国天空广播公司(BSkyB)。

默多克曾多次会见政府大臣，如果说他在会见时从没有为上述商业冒险、或者为推动他在英国的庞大帝国的利益而寻求支持，似乎令人难以置信。但这就是他的性格和英国政治的本质：他说的话或许没有听上去那么牵强。

直到最近，默多克的支持一直是英国政界的护身符，也是各政党领导人的首要追求。确实，当新闻国际(News International)转而效忠于保守党时，默多克声称戈登?布朗(Gordon Brown)威胁要对新闻国际“开战”，而布朗则对此予以了否认。但这个故事的重点是，它并非第一眼看上去就不可信。毕竟，布朗的前任托尼?布莱尔(Tony Blair)为赢得默多克的支持，曾飞越了半个地球，只为在新闻集团(News Corp)的一场活动中发言。

如果政客们认为，他们的角色就是竭尽所能地为默多克扫平一切道路，很可能默多克压根不需要向他们索取好处。在新闻集团收购BSkyB期间，英国文化部愿意私下和新闻集团进行沟通，这让人更加相信这样的观点，即吉夫斯（Jeeves，美国作家P·G·伍德豪斯(P.G.Wodehouse)所著小说中人物 现用来指理想的男仆——译者注）式的大臣们悄无声息地打点好了一切。

就像多数伟大的创业者一样，默多克不愿意预先提出要求。他先采取行动，然后再处理后果。众所周知的是，这样的直觉让他在尚未获得英国牌照之前就启动了天空电视台。

对英国，默多克有时表现出一种应得的权利被拖欠的感觉，他似乎认为他为这个国家鞠躬尽瘁，但得到的回报却寥寥无几。在听证会上，当他谈到上世纪80年代他和出版联盟之间的交锋时，就透露出这样的味道。“如果不是我打败了老出版联盟，你们现在想在手里拿上10份报纸都办不到，”默多克说道，确实如此。

但政客们也太容易接受这个说法，结果，他们以监管让步来回报媒体巨头对亏损的媒体企业的投资。正是这样的交易让默多克一开始就占据了强势地位，随后又加以巩固。

这场调查花了大量时间盘问默多克是否曾要求政客给予好处。悲哀的事实是，他可能从来都不需要提这样的要求。

译者/倪卫国

Leader_Media mogul who never had to ask
Editorial
 
Incredulity greeted Rupert Murdoch’s claim at Lord Leveson’s press inquiry that he had never asked favours of politicians.

Throughout his long career Mr Murdoch has often needed the forbearance (or active support) of governments to expand his media interests in the teeth of regulatory opposition. In Britain there was the contentious acquisition of Times Newspapers in 1981 the launch of the Sky satellite broadcasting network in 1989 and most recently the attempt to take full control of BSkyB last year.

It may seem implausible that in his many meetings with ministers Mr Murdoch never sought their support for these ventures or to advance the interests of his large UK empire. But such is his character and the nature of British politics that what he said may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

Until recently Mr Murdoch’s support was the talisman of British politics – something party leaders sought above all else. True Gordon Brown denied Mr Murdoch’s claim that he threatened “war” on News International when it switched its allegiance to the Tories but the point about the story is that it does not immediately seem unbelievable. After all Mr Brown’s predecessor Tony Blair flew half-way round the world to speak at a News Corp event to court Mr Murdoch’s support.

Quite possibly politicians did not need to be asked for favours as they interpreted their role to be so far as possible to smooth Mr Murdoch’s path wherever it led. The willingness of the culture department to communicate privately with News Corp during the BSkyB bid certainly lends credence to the idea of Jeeves-like ministers unobtrusively helping things along.

Like most great entrepreneurs Mr Murdoch is anyway disinclined to ask beforehand; he acts first and deals with the consequences afterwards. This instinct famously led him to launch Sky before he had a valid British licence to do so.

When it comes to Britain Mr Murdoch sometimes exhibits a sense of disappointed entitlement as if he feels he has done the country a great service and received scant reward. This shone through at the inquiry when he talked about his battles with the print unions in the 1980s. “You wouldn’t be here with 10 papers today if I hadn’t beaten the old craft unions” he said correctly.

Yet politicians have been too susceptible to this argument: it leads them to reward media barons with regulatory concessions for investing in loss-making media ventures. It was just such a bargain that allowed Mr Murdoch to gain his strong position in the first place and later to consolidate it.

The inquiry spent much time quizzing Mr Murdoch about whether he ever solicited politicians’ favours. The sad truth is that he probably never needed to.