Dow Jones Board Approves Murdoch Bid

The Board of Directors of Dow Jones Inc. yesterday approved the bid by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to buy the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and Barrons. While the board was not unanimous in their support of the $5 billion bid, there was a “strong majority” in favor of it. With the recommendation of the board, there is now only shareholder approval standing between Mr. Murdoch and the crown jewel of American business journalism. While many are wringing their hands over this possibility, this journal is having a hard time caring.

While no self-respecting fish would let itself be wrapped in a Rupert Murdoch newspaper (thanks, Mike Royko), newspaper readers and editorial writers are less discriminating. The big worry defenders of the current Dow family have is whether Mr. Murdoch will lower the journalistic standards of the publications in pursuit of profit and his own extreme rightist agenda. A quick review of the record will show that Mr. Murdoch’s ownership does dumb down a paper, but it can’t kill a good title.

Long ago, in a country far, far away (1980s England to be exact), Mr. Murdoch bought the most famous newspaper in the world, The Times. Attached to it was and is the worst tabloid on the planet, The Sun. Mr. Murdoch has run both for around a quarter of a century, and they are still largely what they were back then. The Times did run a stupid lottery game based on stock prices called “Portfolio,” but the caliber of journalism remains untouched. The Sun meanwhile still has accurate soccer scores and a topless woman on page 3. One of the benefits of Mr. Murdoch owning these papers was the launch of The Independent in response to his fingers being all over the Fleet Street pie. Said paper is England’s fifth quality national paper (preceded by The Times, the left leaning Guardian, the reactionary Daily Telegraph, and the peach colored Financial Times).

The concern that Mr. Murdoch will begin to tamper with the journalistic integrity of the WSJ and dumb it down to boost circulation is misplaced. After all, WSJ reporter R. Foster Winans was convicted in 1985 on 59 counts of conspiracy and fraud for using his inside knowledge as a reporter to help himself and others profit off of stock moves. After 22 years, the staff may well have cleaned up after one bad apple, but there is an uncritical approach to business news at the paper that suggests profits count for more than investigative facts. The paper is among the best on the planet, but it has a blind spot for business leaders.

As for its editorial page and op-ed columns, they are unreadable for anyone who accepts empirical evidence as the basis for interpreting reality. In the recent Conrad Black case, the paper defended the man on the grounds that living large isn’t a crime. It then proceeded to pardon him on the grounds that his trip to Bora Bora was nothing compared to what other CEOs got – never mind that maybe they should receive much more than their pay either. Still, by the logic deployed, Charles Manson and Jeff Dahmer shouldn’t have been arrested because Mao killed more people. And Lord Black was also convicted of obstruction of justice having been videotaped removing boxes from his office, evidence that could have convicted him of much more.

Mr. Murdoch wants the Dow Jones name to brand his business TV efforts to overtake CNBC, and it would put his monstrous ego on an upward trajectory. While he may well change the way things are done at Dow Jones, it is hard to imagine him killing the goose that is laying the golden eggs. He hasn’t before, and he won’t this time either, if the Bancroft family allows the sale. And for those who really can’t bear it, there’s always Investors Business Daily, and the Financial Times prints a North American edition. Who knows, there could even be an American business version of the Independent ahead.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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