The usually grim-faced media mogul practically swooned in his seat. Moments after Jeb Bush delivered what many in the audience described as an unremarkable talk at a conference in Washington, Rupert Murdoch turned to his seatmate, Valerie Jarrett, the White House adviser, to gush over its content and tone.
Mr. Murdoch was pleased that Mr. Bush, the former governor of Florida, had listed the economic benefits of overhauling the nation’s immigration system, confiding in Ms. Jarrett that Mr. Bush, a likely Republican presidential candidate, had said all the right things on the fraught issue, according to three people with firsthand knowledge of the conversation.
It was the kind of warm embrace, from the powerful and widely courted owner of The Wall Street Journal and Fox News Channel, that Mr. Murdoch denied Mitt Romney during his 2012 bid for the White House — and one that Mr. Murdoch is already signaling he will deprive Mr. Romney of if he runs in 2016.
In the delicate and unseen campaign underway for Mr. Murdoch’s affections in the next presidential campaign, this much is clear: Mr. Romney is out of the running, a reality that has pained and angered his allies.
Presidential politics is rife with grudges and grievances, but it is hard to recall a display of animus as unsubtle as that which Mr. Murdoch and corners of his media empire have unleashed on Mr. Romney in the past few weeks as he has tried to build support for a third presidential run.
–
Then there is Mr. Bush, who calls The Journal his “paper of record.” The fact that he sat between Mr. Murdoch and Ms. Jarrett at the conference hosted by The Journal in Washington was no accident: Mr. Murdoch requested it. Their ties have deepened over the years. Mr. Bush has collaborated frequently on education issues with Mr. Murdoch’s close friend and adviser Joel I. Klein, the former New York City schools chancellor who now leads Mr. Murdoch’s education business, Amplify.
Mr. Murdoch, 83, is executive chairman of News Corporation, which owns The Journal, The New York Post and HarperCollins, among other assets, and is chief executive of 21st Century Fox, the parent company of film and television assets including Fox News and the Fox broadcasting network.
With his characteristic candor and deep, Australian-accented mumble, Mr. Murdoch is making known his high regard for Mr. Bush these days.
“I like Jeb Bush very much,” Mr. Murdoch said in New York two weeks ago. “He’s moving very cleverly, very well,” he added.
