The other major coup of 1985 was Murdoch's computerized newspaper plant at Wapping, England. Over the next year, Murdoch would face-off the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (Chenoweth, 2001: 50) in a union battle that changed Britain's labor union landscape. Murdoch's shift from newspaper compositing to computer pagination created "an archetypal technology war" (Chenoweth, 2001: 59).

The Battle of Wapping created a 'domino effect' that would change the media's ownership structure and political economy across three continents. To pay for his acquisitions (Twentieth Century Fox, Metromedia and launching Fox) Murdoch hoped to save $150 million a year from his Wapping plant, yet the confrontation also triggered a dramatic shift in the Australian publishing industry (Chenoweth, 2001: 87). The deals occurred at the height of the 1980s M&A frenzy and risk management climate. Their recursive effects also highlighted the complexity of off-balance-sheet accounting practices and forward-looking investment statements. Finally, they created the 'risk landscape' that led to the Pittsburgh National Bank incident.

By switching his political allegiance, Murdoch had anointed British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's rise-to-power. Yet the Battle of Wapping also placed the Labour Party in a double-bind between News International's brazen tactics and protester's street violence (Chenoweth, 2001: 62). This created the ideological void for the subsequent rise of Tony Blair and adviser Anthony Giddens. Blair shifted his political allegiance to Murdoch in a 1995 speech at the Sun Valley entertainment economy conference (Chenoweth, 2001: 123). Blair backed Murdoch's efforts to create BSkyB (Chenoweth, 2001: 273) and not join the European Monetary Union. Murdoch consequently supported Blair's 1997 election campaign (Chenoweth, 2001: 277) and received payback when Blair opposed a predatory pricing amendment to the Competition Bill passed by the House of Lords (Chenoweth, 2001: 279). The power of Murdoch's trans-national media empire on British politics, which political analyst and speech-writer Irwin Stelzer noted in the late 1970s, would change "industries in one country to provide a benefit in another . . . the Murdoch effect has rippled from country to country around the globe." (Chenoweth, 2001: 295). Third Way redux.

Chameleon Ideologies

Murdoch's shift from Thatcher to Blair exposed his study of political ideologies and social trends. He thrived in Britain by understanding its class structure and social contract, whereas he thrived in the U.S. by accelerating the extremes of popular culture against the Establishment (Chenoweth, 2001: 20). Murdoch disputed claims by closed markets that he was using cultural imperialism (Rohm, 2002: 6).

Blair's friendship with Murdoch was paralleled in Republican Party mastermind Newt Gingrich's ascension to power in 1994 (Chenoweth, 2001: 186). The conservative perspective on information technology, which was shaping mid-1990s telecommunications deals, was influenced by George Orwell's dystopia Nineteen Eighty-Four and fears of a surveillance society (Chenoweth, 2001: 188). Murdoch countered with views given by the Manhattan Institute's analyst Peter Huber, whose book The Orwell Palimpsest rewrote the Big Brother scenario and its moral dimensions (Chenoweth, 2001: 192-193). Gingrich's touting of information technology and Huber's optimistic rewrite enabled Murdoch to outmaneuver the Federal Communications Commission (Chenoweth, 2001: 194). A House ethics committee investigation into tax-free donations later cost Gingrich a $4 million book advance from the HarperCollins publishing company and created a furor about Murdoch's political ambitions (Chenoweth, 2001: 198-199). Murdoch knew how to play the Prisoner's Dilemma. When Gingrich's power waned he was shed.

Feuding Moguls: Turner v Murdoch

Farquharson's introduction of game theory likely shaped Murdoch's "tit-for-tat" strategies with other media moguls. Murdoch created strategic alliances with Microsoft's Bill Gates and AOL Time Warner's John Malone for the interactive television market. His long-running feud with Cable News Network cofounder Ted Turner revealed how pragmatic foresight made the profiling of media moguls easier.

Turner drunkenly humiliated himself during the closing press conference for the 1977 America's Cup yacht race (Rohm, 2002: 208). Murdoch controlled The New York Post yet refused to publicly comment about the incident (Chenoweth, 2001: 31).

The real genesis of Turner's feud with Murdoch occurred during the 1983 Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Turner's maxi Condor was run aground on 29 December 1983, just six miles from the finishing line, by Nirvana, a Murdoch-sponsored yacht (Chenoweth, 2001: 40). A few hours later in New York City, Steve Ross closed a Warner Communications deal that prevented a Murdoch take-over (Chenoweth, 2001: 41). In retaliation Murdoch attempted to buy CNN (Chenoweth, 2001: 45).

The 1983 incident determined "the chemistry between the two fierce competitors for two decades." (Chenoweth, 2001: 37). Although both moguls had vastly different temperaments and backgrounds they both shared pragmatic foresight about media trends (Chenoweth, 2001: 36). Murdoch's purchase of Twentieth Century Fox was counter-pointed by Turner's bid for CBS (Chenoweth, 2001: 46), Murdoch's purchase of Metromedia stations by Turner's buy-out of MGM (Chenoweth, 2001: 47). Murdoch launched Fox News in 1996 to counter CNN (Chenoweth, 2001: 146). During the 1997 cable wars Turner referred to Murdoch as "the schlockmeister" (Rohm, 2002: 46), a reference to News Limited's content and sports-casting.

The Specter of Michael Clinger

One reason that Murdoch survived where other moguls didn't was that he refused to play by Wall Street's quarterly-earnings focus and instead took a long-term view of investments (Rohm, 2002: 42). He foresaw in 1987 that cryptography would be the "killer app" for delivering content across cable networks (Rohm, 2002: 86). In 1988 when Hollywood studios refused to license him content, Murdoch invested $3.6 million in News Datacom Research Limited, which had licensed the Fiat/Shermin algorithm and RSA encryption from Israel's Weizman Institute (Chenoweth, 2001: 92-93). Murdoch's management team hired American security expert Michael Clinger to oversee their operations. This decision haunted them.

Clinger had left the U.S. for Israel because he faced class-action suits over the August 1986 collapse of laser distribution company Endo-Lase Inc (Chenoweth, 2001: 96). The SEC issued an arrest warrant on 8 November 1990 for Clinger's arrest on 51 counts of insider trading and fraudulent accounting (Chenoweth, 2001: 100) just months before the BSkyB merger and Citibank's latest Debt Override Agreement.