
LONDON — In July 1995, Tony Blair was so popular in Britain that he was considered prime minister-in-waiting a full two years before his crowning election. Yet, he still felt it necessary to fly 25 hours to the other side of the world to make his case to one man: Rupert Murdoch. Blair’s trip to Hayman Island, an Australian resort off the Great Barrier Reef — and return to London the next day — is emblematic of the singular, and critics would say pernicious, sway Murdoch has held over leaders...