Rupert Murdoch On Olbermann-O'Reilly Feud: "Bill Shouldn't Be So Sensitive"

Rupert Murdoch, who has called Keith Olbermann "crazy" and is often the subject of Olbermann's rants, weighed in on the Olbermann-O'Reilly feud in a feature celebrating Esquire's 75th anniversary by highlighting the 75 most influential people of the 21st century.

In specific, Murdoch said "Bill shouldn't be so sensitive" and suggested that O'Reilly "ignore" Olbermann:

Keith Olbermann is trying to make a business out of destroying Bill O'Reilly. He's done certain things to Bill O'Reilly that I believe were way over the line. I think that's bad behavior. But it's okay for him to criticize Bill. And Bill shouldn't be so sensitive. He should ignore that.

Murdoch also discussed business strategy and politics in the feature:

I'm not a knee-jerk conservative. I passionately believe in free markets and less government, but not to the point of being a libertarian. After this financial crisis, there are going to be some restrictions. I'm frightened they'll go too far, but certainly there should be something.

It sounds old-fashioned talking about newspapers, but The Wall Street Journal is a unique opportunity. I think there's an audience for a really good national and international paper. If you can make it really strong in national and international news, and keep it at a very high intelligence level, you're going to get the most affluent and influential audience in America -- two million or so discriminating readers. And that's very valuable.

Don't get me wrong -- I don't think for a minute that we're going to put The New York Times out of business. I think they have a future, too. But I think there's certainly room for an alternative, a strong alternative.

It's a libel to say that I use my newspapers to support my other business interests. The fact is, I haven't got any other business interests.