Spin Cycle

Rupert Murdoch is now trying to buy Newsday.He will need FCC clearance. For that, it's always nice to have political support -- from your home state senator, but from the next president of the US, too.

So, let the speculation begin!

For a couple of years, tea leaf readers found evidence of a warming relationship between Murdoch and Hillary. Then, the NY Post endorsed Obama, complicating narratives. Now, as this item in Politico illustrates, the narrative is getting even more complicated, and Newsday is becoming part of it.

The gist:

Over the weekend, Newsweek ran a story on Murdoch's planned assault on the NYTimes through his newly acquired WSJournal, in which Murdoch held forth a bit on the cooling with Hillary ("She's been a good senator for New York. It doesn't mean she'd make a good president.") and outlined his philosophy: "Government should not be too big."

Obama has been grumbling since late last year about media mega-companies getting too big. On Monday -- just before Murdoch's long rumored grab for Newsday became public -- he responded to a question in Pennsylvania by saying voters had a right to be concerned when "Rupert Murdoch starts having his eyes on a lot of different media outlets."

So by yesterday, Politico notes, the NYPost was criticizing Obama's "ugly elitist streak" and his "decided lack of grace." And the Senate Commerce Committee approved a resolution, backed by both Obama and Clinton, to tighten media cross-ownership rules. And Obama announced that he was ending a boycott of Fox News and would appear on one of its Sunday shows this weekend for the first time in more than a year.

What does all this mean? Who knows. But one of the problems with a guy like Murdoch -- who has shown a willingness to both impose an ideological strike zone on his properties and use them as instruments of his power -- is that motives become suspect.

Now, Newsday is the object of the game, poised to become part of that whole fun mix.

To be continued......