Conventional wisdom in most mainstream newsrooms has it that corporate consolidation has undermined traditional journalism by imposing a narrow-minded, profit-driven uniformity on the American media. In fact, thanks mainly to talk radio, cable news and the Internet, the public policy debate has never been healthier, more expansive or energetic.
Among the men responsible for creating this diverse media landscape has been Rupert Murdoch, soon to be the owner of Dow Jones and its flagship daily, The Wall Street Journal. But one would never know that from reading The New York Times and The Washington Post concerning Murdoch’s efforts to obtain this gem of American publishing.
Typical was a Times story on reaction to Murdoch’s success earlier this week that led with an anguished Wall Street lawyer declaring it “a sad day for journalism.” The Times described the lawyer’s fears that Murdoch would “take on the tone” of another Murdoch media property, Fox News, which allegedly is “sensationalistic and biased.” This meme has dominated The Times’ coverage and has been echoed elsewhere throughout the mainstream media’sreportage on Murdoch and The Journal.
Similarly, Post columnist David Ignatius, a Journal alumnus, lamented the passing of the golden age in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when The Journal made incredible amounts of money and became the nation’s first truly national daily newspaper. The Journal was, according to Ignatius, “a demonstration of the proposition that good journalism and good business go hand-in-hand.”
But then came the bad times of falling circulation and shrinking ad revenues. The Journal’s editorial pages continued to go their own way, “with equal portions of journalistic hustle and ideological spin.” Said Ignatius: “Advertisers in the end perhaps weren’t enthralled with a newspaper distinguished by vitriolic right wing attack editorials.” But wait, weren’t those glory days also when Robert Bartley, the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial page editor, poured forth a torrent of commentary in support for Ronald Reagan, supply-side economics and American victory in the Cold War with the Soviets?
The coverage of Murdoch and The Journal illustrates yet again that liberal mainstream journalists often know many things that just aren’t true. It was Murdoch, after all, who broke the iron grip of the unions on Britain’s Fleet Street newspapers and created Skye News, then came here and created America’s most popular cable news operation at Fox. Based on the record, odds are excellent that Murdoch will make The Journal even better. As The Journal’s editorial page observed: “No sane businessman pays a premium of 67 percent over the market price of an asset he intends to ruin.”
