Rival newspaper The New York Times is reporting this morning that News Corporation chairman Murdoch, owner of the Post, phoned in the tip on Monday night, between the printing of the first and second editions -- Murdoch's editors are not known for saying no to their boss.
The result was a front-page headline "Kerry's Choice", with a picture of Dick Gephardt and the sub-headline "Dem picks Gephardt as VP candidate". Unfortunately for the Post, Kerry named John Edwards as his running mate for the November election on Tuesday morning.
An unnamed reporter from the New York Post has claimed that Murdoch was the source of the story, although a spokesman for the Post has denied that this is the case or that he had ordered the story to be run. Staff at the paper are under orders not to discuss the story.
However, the spokesman admitted that Murdoch did phone from time to time to find out how things are going. Murdoch's son Lachlan Murdoch is publisher of the New York Post, a job he took up two years ago.
Speaking to a reporter from CNBC on Tuesday, after the gaffe had been revealed, Murdoch said: "Everybody made a mistake and they are embarrassed and they have apologised for it. It happens even on NBC sometimes."
When Murdoch presided over a smaller media empire, he was well known for phoning editors at his newspapers, including The Sun, to discuss the front-page headline and even dictate what appeared on it.
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