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Authors: David Folkenflik
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future Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd to Scores, a popular New York strip club during a visit to New York a few years earlier; the incident briefly clouded Ruddâs career. Allan seemed amused by the disclosure, until some of his former colleagues accused him of accepting free drinks, lap dances, and sexual services at the club. He denied those accusations.
Under Allan, the Australian culture of mateship allowed a frat house aura to flourish at the New York Post .Sandra Guzman, a Latina journalist who had been fired as editor of a Post magazine section, accused Allan of sidling up to her and several other female employees to show them pictures of a man displaying his penis on his cell phone; she also alleged he rubbed himself lewdly against a female colleague, and that she herself was serenaded with âI Want to Be in Americaââan allusion to the Puerto Rican character who sang the musical number of that name in the musical West Side Story .
The paper contested her charges. Yet under oath, Post editors admitted that Dunleavy had called conservative black columnist Robert George âa token nigger,â saying he would never have his job at the paper if not for his race. The city editor, James Murdochâs closest childhood friend Jesse Angelo, chastised Dunleavy. No other punishment was meted out.
THE POST was rigidly ideological, reflecting a conservative populism, except when it chose to diverge from that path. The tabloid had endorsed GOP congressman Rick Lazio in the 2000 race to represent New York in the US Senate, but it did not complicate life unduly for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who ultimately won. Murdoch personally hosted fund-raising events for her fellow Democrat, Senator Charles Schumer, in 2003. The press baron helped her raise money at a dinner three years later as she ran for reelection andthe Post endorsed her for Senate that time around, well aware she would win handily and was laying the groundwork for a White House bid of her own.
The Clintons had found ways to make peace with those who had been adversaries. Former president Bill Clinton broke bread with Chris Ruddy despite the former Post reporterâs seminal role in questioning the official version of the suicide of White House aide (and Clinton friend) Vince Foster. Ruddyâs long articles suggested Foster had been murdered and inspired congressional hearings from Clintonâs Republican foes. By 2007,Ruddy was speaking warmly of both Clintons. The Clintons and their surrogates had publicly praised Fox News for what they characterized as its fair-minded coverage of Hillaryâs historic bid; MSNBC hosts, with a lineup almost entirely male and increasingly dominated by liberals, had favored Barack Obama.
And yet the New York Post endorsed Barack Obama in the Democratic primary. Senator Clintonâs election would presage, the paper held, âa return to the opportunistic, scandal-scarred, morally muddled years of the almost infinitely self-indulgent Clinton co-presidency.â Obama, the paper wrote, was an intelligent man with a record as a conciliator with whom it rarely agreed on substance, but he still appeared the better choice.
Fox News chairman Roger Ailes interceded with Murdoch, fearful that his bossâs more liberal children would convince the News Corp patriarch to endorse Obama in November.Elisabeth Murdoch and her husband, the British public relations executive Matthew Freud, had raised money for Obama from expatriate Americans living in London. James Murdoch had given money to Hillary Clintonâs campaign and his wife was a committed environmentalist.
In early September, for the general election,the Post reverted to form. It tepidly endorsed John McCain, an antitax campaigner, national security hawk, and relative social moderate (on many issues such as gay rights) whose positions meshed decently with the outlook of the paperâs readership, if not its own record. The paper cited
Under Allan, the Australian culture of mateship allowed a frat house aura to flourish at the New York Post .Sandra Guzman, a Latina journalist who had been fired as editor of a Post magazine section, accused Allan of sidling up to her and several other female employees to show them pictures of a man displaying his penis on his cell phone; she also alleged he rubbed himself lewdly against a female colleague, and that she herself was serenaded with âI Want to Be in Americaââan allusion to the Puerto Rican character who sang the musical number of that name in the musical West Side Story .
The paper contested her charges. Yet under oath, Post editors admitted that Dunleavy had called conservative black columnist Robert George âa token nigger,â saying he would never have his job at the paper if not for his race. The city editor, James Murdochâs closest childhood friend Jesse Angelo, chastised Dunleavy. No other punishment was meted out.
THE POST was rigidly ideological, reflecting a conservative populism, except when it chose to diverge from that path. The tabloid had endorsed GOP congressman Rick Lazio in the 2000 race to represent New York in the US Senate, but it did not complicate life unduly for Democrat Hillary Clinton, who ultimately won. Murdoch personally hosted fund-raising events for her fellow Democrat, Senator Charles Schumer, in 2003. The press baron helped her raise money at a dinner three years later as she ran for reelection andthe Post endorsed her for Senate that time around, well aware she would win handily and was laying the groundwork for a White House bid of her own.
The Clintons had found ways to make peace with those who had been adversaries. Former president Bill Clinton broke bread with Chris Ruddy despite the former Post reporterâs seminal role in questioning the official version of the suicide of White House aide (and Clinton friend) Vince Foster. Ruddyâs long articles suggested Foster had been murdered and inspired congressional hearings from Clintonâs Republican foes. By 2007,Ruddy was speaking warmly of both Clintons. The Clintons and their surrogates had publicly praised Fox News for what they characterized as its fair-minded coverage of Hillaryâs historic bid; MSNBC hosts, with a lineup almost entirely male and increasingly dominated by liberals, had favored Barack Obama.
And yet the New York Post endorsed Barack Obama in the Democratic primary. Senator Clintonâs election would presage, the paper held, âa return to the opportunistic, scandal-scarred, morally muddled years of the almost infinitely self-indulgent Clinton co-presidency.â Obama, the paper wrote, was an intelligent man with a record as a conciliator with whom it rarely agreed on substance, but he still appeared the better choice.
Fox News chairman Roger Ailes interceded with Murdoch, fearful that his bossâs more liberal children would convince the News Corp patriarch to endorse Obama in November.Elisabeth Murdoch and her husband, the British public relations executive Matthew Freud, had raised money for Obama from expatriate Americans living in London. James Murdoch had given money to Hillary Clintonâs campaign and his wife was a committed environmentalist.
In early September, for the general election,the Post reverted to form. It tepidly endorsed John McCain, an antitax campaigner, national security hawk, and relative social moderate (on many issues such as gay rights) whose positions meshed decently with the outlook of the paperâs readership, if not its own record. The paper cited
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