News Corp., Dow Jones

[usakos]

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is expected to reach a definitive agreement to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc. on Tuesday evening, capping his three-month pursuit of the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, a source familiar with the matter said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070731/...es_newscorp_dc


I'm just freakin' angry, because I don't really favor News Corp's Fox News, and I believe that WSJ will end up becoming a biased right-wing publication, just like the Fox News Channel.

[The Stealthy One]

I don't think so. MySpace has stayed the same.

[usakos]

I don't think so. MySpace has stayed the same.

Yes, but I won't categorize MySpace with The Wall Street Journal. MySpace is a new mediawhile WSJ is a newspaper publication.

[Paint and Air Sportz]

Its not really fair to call out Fox and say that their biased, when just about every commercial for profit media company including the wsj is biased.

And besides im pretty sure the wsj is keeping the same editors and writers and is only changing ownership. and that murdoch intends to keep it the way it is now.

[Morpheus]

While he says he plans on "staying out" of interfering with the paper, I, along with notable people in the field, doubt that.

[usakos]

Did you watch the CBS Evening News tonight? They had a report on this and they have similar views, just as I stated above.

Also, most of the senior editors of WSJ have resigned in protesting of this deal.

It's a known fact by most liberals that Fox News is biased.

[usakos]

Here is an excerpt from The New York Times;
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/bu...a/01react.html

“It’s a sad day for journalism,” declared Jason R. Bader, a Wall Street lawyer who picks up The Journal every day on his way to work and said he had been watching the story develop with disdain.

Sitting under a tree at lunchtime in Zuccotti Park at Broadway and Liberty Street, Mr. Bader said he feared that The Wall Street Journal would take on the tone of another News Corporation media property: Fox News Channel, which he considers sensationalist and biased.

“Rupert Murdoch is the devil and I will never believe another word out of that paper,” Mr. Bader said. “I will never read it again.”

[usakos]

Why Murdoch shouldn’t change the WSJ
http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.com/2...hange-the-wsj/

News Corp. (NWS) and Dow Jones (DJ) have FINALLY done it. The two companies agreed late Tuesday night to News Corp.’s $60-a-share takeover bid. Will News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch destroy the credibility of The Wall Street Journal? Is this the end of business journalism as we know it?

While I do think that the demonization of Murdoch is a bit excessive in the mainstream press, it will be interesting to see if Murdoch changes the culture of Dow Jones’ most important asset. And since News Corp. is paying a not insubstantial amount for Dow Jones, it will be extremely important for Murdoch to make sure that News Corp. shareholders get their money’s worth.

If he embarks on a radical editorial overhaul of the Journal, that could bolster the readership of publications like The New York Times (NYT), Pearson’s (PSO) Financial Times and dare I say it, Time Warner’s (TWX) CNNMoney.com, the owner of this blog.

Advertisers may not care that much about “editorial integrity” but they do care about eyeballs. If News Corp. alienates the core readers of the Journal, whom I suspect care more about stocks and bonds and less about politics and celebrity gossip, then Murdoch will have lots of angry News Corp. shareholders to deal with.

There are already some investors who aren’t thrilled with the fact that News Corp. is buying Dow Jones, since it increases the company’s exposure to the slow-growth publishing business. Buying Dow Jones may enhance the prestige factor of News Corp.’s newspaper unit but it won’t make News Corp. a sexier, more exciting media company.

As far as I’m concerned, the most important thing to keep an eye on in the months and years ahead is whether Dow Jones can boost News Corp.’s profits or if it will be a drag on earnings.

Anyway, I’ve discussed this merger saga endlessly for the past three months, dubbing it the lamest bidding war ever. And now that it’s finally over, I’m not the slightest bit sad. This was a story that, despite all the Bancroft bickering, lacked the drama of other takeovers, namely because there were no legitimate counteroffers to drive the price higher.

But as a treat (or trick depending on your tolerance for my rants) for my readers, I figured I’d end my coverage of this soap opera with a humorous little musical interlude. Apologies to the great Etta James…and to my wife for taking our wedding song and turning it into a Weird Al Yankovic-esque parody. (Sorry Beth!) But please, just imagine Rupert singing this in the shower this morning. Or not. That is a bit of a disturbing image.

At last, my love has come along

Now I own Dow Jones

For which I payed a song

Ooh At last


the Journal, can it be true

well my Fox News Channel praised me

the night that I bought you

I found a respected paper

that I could speak to


an editorial page I could call my own


Reporters to leak my right-wing thoughts to

a thrill that I have always known

well

You bluffed

I smiled

oh and then the spell was cast

Three months and $5 billion later

And you are mine at last

[The Stealthy One]

It's a known fact by most liberals that Fox News is biased.

And it's a known fact by liberals and conservatives both that no media outlet can be trusted to get all of the facts straight - no matter who they are!

On another note, do you read all of the same news sources I do? The links you post are all for articles I just read myself before seeing you post them here!

[bopa media]

First off im surprised no one has mentioned why Murdoch bought this specific paper in the first place. He's going to use the information and creditability of Dow Jones to help him on the launch of Fox's version of CNBC. Sure he'll make some changes and throw out some of that liberal garbage that just makes me cringe as i read wsj every morning, but the liberals who complain about this fail to notice that the Times and Newsday are strongly bias to the left.

News corp will just use this as a launching pad to help build foxs business news (or w.e they call it) sure he wants to add wsj to his portfolio of papers but he actually NEEDS Dow Jones is what most people forget

[usakos]

And it's a known fact by liberals and conservatives both that no media outlet can be trusted to get all of the facts straight - no matter who they are!

On another note, do you read all of the same news sources I do? The links you post are all for articles I just read myself before seeing you post them here!

Yeah, I guess we probably read the same news media and watch the same news channels.

I mostly read and watch CNN and CNN.com, BBC and BBC.co.uk, CNNMoney.com, CNBC, Yahoo News, and sometimes Bloomberg, and if I find a really interesting story, I tried to read different blogs and news articles in different papers for the same article, just to read the views of most writers.

I'm not going to comment on this WSJ+Fox any more, because we will never stop arguing about it. So, we, like everybody else, have different opinions about Murdoch and Fox News.

When I used to work for NBC and when I was living in London, I used to like watching Sky News, and I used to find it really good in terms of balanced news, that was before Murdoch took over, but whenever I go to London now, I don't watch it any more.

So, no more comment from me about this WSJ+Fox deal.

[eich41]

It's a known fact by most liberals that Fox News is biased.

LOL....Kettle, meet Pot...