“As for influence over the politicians, I never truly felt I had much, if any. Perhaps it was because I was editing a paper which, in the end, would always “vote Tory” at elections – just as the Mirror’s influence is so slight because its loyalty to the “people’s party” is a given.
If Murdoch had a greater power with politicians it was because his papers – the Sun, the Times, the Sunday Times, and the News of the World – had more politically heterogeneous readerships. For the politicians they were akin to marginal constituencies, which, as we know, are always fought for much more intensively than those which are seen to be safe seats for one party or another.”
Dominic Lawson (former editor of The Sunday Telegraph).
Who Runs The Country? Not Murdoch (Independent)