It's a rare occasion when I agree with Margret Wente. But her comment on the Rupert Murdoch's takeover of the Wall Street Journal hits the nail on the head.
Inside the Journal, you can cut the fear and loathing with a knife. The champions of unfettered capitalism are terrified that somebody is actually practising it on them.Of course she is not the only one to note the irony of the whining of the WSJ staff and their media sycophants.
All of which means that in an ideal world, the Bancrofts wouldn't let Murdoch within a mile of the Journal. But this is hardly an ideal world, as far as the newspaper business is concerned. I'm not one of the doomsayers who see The End of Newspapers As We Know Them lurking around the next corner, but it doesn't take a genius to see that our industry is in the midst of some of that good old "creative destruction" that the Journal's editorial page regularly praises as the engine of capitalism.The pro capitalist journalists at the WSJ, purveyors of the American Dream are afraid their will lose their journalistic integrity under Murdoch. Please gimme a break. What do they think that Murdoch will put Bill O'Riley on the editorial board?
And while folks have focused on the WSJ, the Dow Jones publishing company owns other papers which may not share the same fate as the august voice of capitalism. And there are concerns raised about media concentration, in other words good old monopoly capitalism in action.
And before the signatures are dry on Murdoch's purchase of the WSJ there are questions about those in charge of maintaining the journals much lauded editorial independence.
Wall Street Journal watchdog member has Murdoch links
Yep business as usual.
See:
Liberal Or liberal Media
Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
media, USA, media-bias, capitalist press, Fox News, Globe&Mail, WSJ, newspapers, Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, politics, Rupert Murdock, liberal, conservative, leftwing, rightwing
