Murdoch embarrassed by Fox News

Rupert Murdochs authorized biographer has said that the conservative media baron is quite embarrassed by the output being churned out by his Fox Television network.

New York, Sept.3 : Rupert Murdoch's authorized biographer has said that the conservative media baron is quite embarrassed by the output being churned out by his Fox Television network.

Michael Wolff also writes in the October edition of Vanity Fair that Murdoch's third wife, Wendi, has turned "the angry outsider" into a Prada-wearing fixture of a "socially promiscuous set" that includes liberals like "Tony Blair and the Google guys and Nicole Kidman and David Geffen."

He also claims that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama snubbed Murdoch for months before finally agreeing to "a secret courtesy meeting" this summer.

Obama was "deferential" to the press lord but "lit into" Fox chief Roger Ailes for caricaturing him as "just short of a terrorist."

The meeting produced a "tentative truce," says Wolff.

Despite his leftward slide, Wolff says Murdoch remains "a militant free-marketeer and is still pro-war."

Rupert and Wendi had a legendary "marital battle" when he gave their daughters, Grace and Chloe, the same economic interest his four older children enjoyed in the family trust, but not a voting interest, according to Wolff.

The author also writes that, after "taking advantage of the Bancroft family's weakness" to buy the Wall Street Journal, the 77-year-old Murdoch admits he can't stop his family from losing hold of his empire after his death.

Says Murdoch: "All I can do is delay it."

ANI