Britain's blair faces grilling over ties to murdoch - Corrugated Carton Box - Cardboard Floor Displ

But the grilling of Blair, who recast the relationship between themedia and politicians by "spinning" news to gain the most favorablecoverage, could undermine Miliband's attempt to portray Labour as aparty above courting media tycoons. While Blair is no longer active in British politics, the inquirymay still prove uncomfortable as it examines issues such as hisdecision after stepping down as prime minister to become agodfather to Murdoch's daughter Grace at a ceremony on the banks ofthe river Jordan. "Blair led the way in having no shame about courting Murdoch," saidIvor Gaber, professor of political journalism at City university. "He set the style and the standard and if you regard Cameron as the'heir to Blair' then it's not exactly surprising that he followedsuit." Murdoch told the inquiry last month that he had never asked a primeminister for anything.

Blair set the tone for his relationship with Britain's press whenhe flew to Australia in 1995 to speak before a gathering ofMurdoch's executives who had previously used their British tabloidsto vilify his Labour Party predecessors. The decision infuriated much of his left-of-centre party who sawthe Australian-born tycoon as a right-winger who had helped to keepthem out of power for years. "People would be horrified," Blair said later in his autobiography."On the other hand ... not to go was to say carry on and do yourworst, and we knew their worst was very bad indeed." "The country's most powerful newspaper proprietor, whosepublications have hitherto been rancorous in their opposition tothe Labour party, invites us into the lion's den.

You go, don'tyou?" The speech received a standing ovation and Murdoch indicated forthe first time that he could be willing to switch the allegiance ofhis newspapers to the Labour Party. "If our flirtation is ever consummated Tony then I suspect we willend up making love like porcupines, very, very carefully," he toldhim. With the backing of Murdoch's top-selling Sun tabloid, Blair sweptto power in 1997 and again in 2001 and 2005. But with an everincreasing reputation for public relations "spin", he started toface questions over his sincerity.

"Tony Blair quickly became famous in Fleet Street for inviting inone group of newspaper people and telling them how skeptical he wasabout Europe; and then inviting in another lot and telling them howkeen he was on Europe," Andrew Marr, a senior BBC journalist, toldthe inquiry. "But the different groups compared notes, and his reputation wasnot hugely enhanced." Much of that came to a head when Blair and then U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush agreed to invade Iraq, going against the publicopinion in Britain.

Blair is likely to be asked why he spoke to Murdoch three times inthe days leading up to the Iraq war and whether this had any impacton the fact that all Murdoch's papers supported the unpopularinvasion. He will also be asked whether his reliance on Britain's press meantthat he did not properly scrutinize their role in society andwhether any group, such as Murdoch's News International, had toomuch control of the market. "There was a desperation to get the Sun onside and to get NewsInternational on side, basically at all costs," LiverpoolUniversity's political professor Jonathan Tonge, told Reuters. "Andif that meant sacrificing a serious analysis of the relationshipand the health of the relationship, then so be it." (Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Jon Hemming).

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