I think I'm going to throw up... "Rumor Mill: Rupert Murdoch Poised to Purchase Wall Street Journal"

[in_cog_ni_to]

Josh Silver| BIO
RSS

Rumor Mill: Rupert Murdoch Poised to Purchase Wall Street Journal

Posted July 10, 2007 | 02:03 PM (EST)

Rupert Murdoch's move to acquire the Wall Street Journal is sending shock waves across the media industry, as well-documented reports fill the pages of our most credible newspapers and magazines detailing the media tycoon's consistent practice of using his media properties to advance his political ideology and business agenda: from Fox News to the New York Post to The Times of London. The latest rumors are that a deal is imminent, as a UK business news site recently reported an unconfirmed agreement.


But the debate over News Corp.'s $5 billion acquisition of the Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones goes far beyond Rupert Murdoch's quest for power. To a broken media system brought by rampant consolidation and the commoditization of news, this potential acquisition is another major blow to hard-hitting journalism. It means one less national outlet watchdogging our government and big business -- and one more chasing after "infotainment" stories about Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith.

During the first three months of 2007, according the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Murdoch-owned Fox News' coverage of Anna Nicole Smith's death "trailed just barely the airtime spent on the Iraq policy debate. Fox also stood out for its lack of coverage on the firings of the U.S. attorneys, compared with the other (cable news) channels."

Murdoch's defenders emphatically argue that he is hands-off with his editorial staff, but history shows that he backs away only after he has replaced senior editorial staff with those in line with his personal ideology. In 1976, Murdoch bought the liberal New York Post and pledged to "maintain its present policies and traditions." It is now a right-wing tabloid with nary a pre-1976 policy or tradition intact.<snip>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/rumor-mill-rupert-murdoc_b_55618.html