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.

Murdoch positions himself as broadly pro-market and skeptical of expansive government, while distancing himself from two labels that can carry political baggage: “knee-jerk conservative” (implying reflexive partisanship) and “libertarian” (implying an absolutist, minimal-state ideology). The quote functions as a self-characterization aimed at portraying his politics as pragmatic rather than doctrinaire: he endorses market mechanisms and deregulation in principle, but claims to accept limits—suggesting room for state action in areas like national security, social policy, or regulation. In a media context, it also works rhetorically to frame his outlets’ editorial stance as principled but not ideologically extreme.