"If I had known what I know now, I would have pushed harder against" the Murdoch bid, said Christopher Bancroft, a member of the family which controlled Dow Jones & Company, publishers of The Wall Street Journal.
Its been a difficult time for Wall Street Journal staffers.
In the last week and a half, reporters and editors at the august Journal have had to come to terms with the fact that they share corporate DNA with publications that have paid police for news, paid large settlements to keep phone-hacking victims quiet, and provided Parliament with incomplete information, among other sins against journalism, writes Newsweek senior writer Nick Summers in the Daily Beast.
Questions have been raised about the Journals coverage of the scandal, including its interview with Murdoch in which the questioning seemed anything but aggressive.
New York Times columnist Joe Nocera who back in 2007 wrote approvingly of Murdochs takeover of the Wall Street Journal takes a tougher line, charging that the Journal has been Fox-ified.
Under Mr. Hintons direction as publisher, Nocera writes, Soon came the changes, swift and sure: shorter articles, less depth, an increased emphasis on politics and, weirdly, sometimes surprisingly unsophisticated coverage of business.
Along with the transformation of a great paper into a mediocre one came a change that was both more subtle and more insidious. The political articles grew more and more slanted toward the Republican party line, Nocera writes. The Journal was turned into a propaganda vehicle for its owners conservative views.
That may seem unduly harsh, a reflection (as Nocera writes) of his own mea culpa.
But theres no doubt that Murdochs influence in the United States has been considerable.
Over the past decade, Murdoch and his company News Corp. have spent close to $50 million sowing the seeds of goodwill here in America through well-heeled lobbyists, seven-figure political donations, and large charitable contributions to key nonprofit groups, writes Daily Beast reporter Laura Colarusso. Murdochs money trail can be traced deep into the halls of Congress and the powerful federal agencies overseeing the industry that has made him wealthy.
