Today's New York Times is speculating whether Rupert Murdoch has a soft spot for Barack Obama. Anyone who keeps up with the New York Post can't help but be aware that the Senator and now President-elect has rarely been subject to the infamous (and endlessly entertaining) lacerations of the Post's front-page headlines. However the Times also points out that the love is not merely cover-deep:

The Post mentioned Mr. Obama's damaging associations with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright and William Ayers less often than several other large American newspapers, including its archrival tabloid, the Daily News

Probably not. Says Michael Wolff who's bio on Rupe is set to publish next month:"It's more a case of, 'This is what you should do to be most attuned to what the readers want and to the zeitgeist.' Apparently when Wolff asked Rupe whether he should vote for Obama or Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, "he said Obama, because he'll sell more papers." Hard not to love a pragmatist, especially in this economy.

And it seems like Rupe isn't the only one to cotton on to this idea. We're all aware by now the effect Obama's election had on newspaper sales the date after but Howie Kurtz also points out a similar, capitalizing trend elsewhere:

NBC News is coming out with a DVD titled Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story...ABC and USA Today are rushing out a book on the election...HBO has snapped up a documentary on Obama's campaign...Newsweek [has a] commemorative issue — Obama's American Dream — filled with so many iconic images and such stirring prose that it could have been campaign literature...Time's cover depicting Obama as FDR, complete with jaunty cigarette holder. Are the media capable of merchandising the moment, packaging a president-elect for profit? Yes, they are.