Edwards vs. Murdoch

John Edwards has been in a dust up with Fox News.

The former North Carolina senator called last week for Democrats to oppose the merger of the News Corporation, owned by British media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and the Dow Jones Company which owns the Wall Street Journal, Rob Christensen reports.

Edwards said media consolidation was a bad trend. And he also asked Democratic presidential candidates to not accept money from News Corp. executives, a slap at one of his rivals, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton who has received $20,000.

"The time has come for Democrats to stop pretending to be friends with the very people who demonize the Democratic Party," Edwards said in a statement.

More after the jump.

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Edwards sent an e-mail to supporters asking for their help on the issue with the headline "Unfair and Unbalanced."

But Murdoch struck back — or at least his newspaper did.

The New York Post countered that Edwards had earned $800,000 from HarperCollins, one of Murdoch’s companies. It reported that Edwards had received a $500,000 as an advance for his book, "Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives" and was also cut a check of $300,000 for expenses.

Edwards has reported $333,334 in royalties from his book.

Update: Edwards says he donated the proceeds from the book to the Habitat for Humanity, the International Rescue Committee, and programs helping  low income children go to college.

"Every dime they gave me has gone to charity," Edward said.

He said it would be "absurd" to return the money paid to him by HarperCollins. Edwards said someone had broached a confidentiality agreement about the money he received from the book.

The Edwards campaign says he gave the money to charity.