Rupert Murdoch to host Hillary Clinton fund-raiser

NEW YORK, May 10: Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch will host a fund-raiser to support New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's re-election bid in November, her campaign office said.

The fund-raiser by the head of News Corp., with such media outlets as Fox News cable television and the New York Post, would be held by July, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story.

A Clinton campaign spokesman yesterday said her office was not contradicting the report, and a Murdoch source confirmed the fund-raiser would take place.

It would mark a dramatic change in relations between Murdoch and Clinton, who once blamed a ''vast right-wing conspiracy'' for attacking her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Murdoch's newspaper and television outlets were highly critical of her first Senate campaign in 2000 and of her husband's 1993-2001 tenure in the White House.

The former president himself has been working with Murdoch, having him appear at Clinton's Global Initiative, a summit of business and political leaders he launched last fall.

Murdoch was expected to attend the second Global Initiative later this year.

The former first lady, who is pondering a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, is widely favored to win re-election.

Reuters