Gothamist: Wall Street Journal Inches Closer to News Corp. and Murdoch

Olen Soifer

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 14:18:28 -0500

Rupert Murdoch scares the living daylights out of me and I can't believe that the WSJ would retain editorial independence and integrity if he got his money-grubbing hands on the paper. Frankly, the WSJ is a bit too conservative for me already, but I can't imagine what would happen is Murdoch is able to purchase it. Mr. Murdock needs to spend the rest of his life enjoying his wealth...and maybe, spreading some of it around...and leave the WSJ to do what it already does best. I urge the Bancroft family to resist selling their paper to this old vulture.

DaveH

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:44:35 -0500

The WSJ's op-ed page is certainly somewhere-leaning, but it is an independant entitiy, whether one likes it or not. Also, the Journal's newsgathering entity is generally considered unimpeachable in its integrity. And the page-one feature writing at the Journal is of a quality that's hard to march anywhere else. I think the general objections to Murdoch purchasing the paper is that it would lose its credibility as an independent voice, and possibly become a shill for Murdoch's large and varied interests.

Ivan

Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:31:00 -0500

I don't want Murdoch to own the WSJ only because I don't like Murdoch. Otherwise, I can't see what he would do to it. Push it more to the right? Impossible. Nor can I see him making it more like the NY Post--the primary readers of the WSJ wouldn't like that. Not that a power-mad Oz-hole like Murdoch wouldn't give the WSJ a complete makeover, but what would be the point?