David Carr of the NY Times reports that Rupert Murdoch was roundly praised by Silicon Valley luminaries at an event for Web 2.0 Sumitt attendees held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The crowd greeted him as if he was Lindsay Lohan, Carr writes.

“This is not just another rich guy — there are a lot of those around here,” said John Battelle, a founder of Wired magazine and The Industry Standard. “He built News Corp. from not much, with his own two hands, and this is a room full of entrepreneurs. The other thing this room respects is intelligence, and they can tell he is smart, really smart, not just from what he says, but what he has done with MySpace.”

MySpace, one of Murdoch’s investments, sponsored the event. Carr went on to write:

The same characteristics that make Mr. Murdoch a nonmember of the club in the East — a lack of correctness and, occasionally, business civility — make him something of a folk hero in the context of the new economy, which is peopled by insurgents who see him as a fellow pirate, even though he already captains a giant ship.

At the party, somebody asked Murdoch if he would like to use his newly acquired Wall Street Journal to “kill” the NY Times. Murdoch reportedly responded: “That would be nice.” (Photo credit: AP, Mark J. Terrill, file)