What Would Murdoch Do to the Journal? (The Nation)

[marmar]

What Would Murdoch Do to the Journal?
Nicholas von Hoffman


Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp are after the Wall Street Journal. The Journal, which has been a pillar of probity, accuracy and journalistic responsibility for more than a century, is quaking in its Nikes at the prospect of being taken over by a man who is generally regarded by journalists as a bum.

Only the other day, Murdoch reinforced his bumminess when his Boston Herald newspaper did the near-impossible. It lost a libel suit.

It takes a particular kind of genius on the part of a newspaper management to lose a libel suit. The law makes winning such a suit next to impossible, and if that were not enough, newspapers and their media conglomerate owners have the kind of muscle that makes judges' knees knock. But this time the court did not find in their favor.

The Boston Herald is going to have to pay a Massachusetts judge 2 million smackers for persistently libeling the man by making up stories about him that had no basis in fact.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court said in upholding the verdict, "There is an abundance of evidence that, taken cumulatively, provides clear and convincing proof that the defendants either knew that the published statements found by the jury to be libelous were untrue or that they published them in reckless disregard of their probable falsity."

The first thing the Journal will lose if Murdoch buys it is credibility, a quality it has in rock-solid abundance--as opposed to Murdoch's publications, which have a history of printing fiction.

...(snip)...

As if that were not enough for the Journal and its readers to contemplate, a Murdoch ownership may also bring with it a prolonged and nasty squabble of the succession at News Corp. Wendi has two children by Murdoch. So do his previous wives, and if the gossip is accurate, they do not get along. One son, Lachlan, has already walked out in a high huff in a battle over the trusts that control the corporation.

There is nothing else like the Wall Street Journal. It is a uniquely valuable service. If Murdoch, who turns whatever he touches into fecal matter, succeeds in getting it, its staff and its huge readership (900,000 for its Internet edition alone) will be at a serious loss as to what to do. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070528/howl

[muntrv]

1. He'll have Paris Hilton be the editor in chief, knowing this moran.