Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Network advertises itself at party in Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Network will celebrate American corporations and the free markets, but first the network advertised itself at a glamorous party Wednesday night at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Photo: Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Network advertises itself at party in Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nine days after the channel went live, Murdoch welcomed a long list of celebrities and media titans - including Mel Brooks, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Regis Philbin, Bo Derek and Henry Kravis - to the museum's Temple of Dendur.

"It's been a brilliant first nine days," Murdoch said. He credited his top lieutenant, Roger Ailes, for the channel's "distinctive" and "informative" look as it takes aim at industry-leading CNBC.

In a thinly veiled dig at the incumbent, Murdoch said the United States is home to "the best-run and most corruption-free companies in the world, not that you'd know it from much of the business coverage we see today."

Murdoch said his channel will still cover scandals that affect investors, "but my hope for Fox Business is that we'll also find time to celebrate the freedom and sense of optimism that free markets have given Americans."

Alexis Glick, Neil Cavuto and Liz Claman headlined the numerous Fox Business anchors and reporters who spent the evening receiving congratulations. Counting Crows performed a short acoustic set to a smattering of applause, with frontman Adam Duritz's iconic dreadlocks and baggy jeans providing a stark contrast to the several hundred guests turned out in dark suits and short cocktail dresses.

Ailes provided a few light notes during his short introduction for Murdoch, saying it was fitting the party be held in a temple commissioned by the Roman emperor Augustus - "the Rupert Murdoch of his day."