Mogul's Interest In Journal Is No Passing Fancy

Groundwork for Murdoch's Dow Jones bid dates back decades
By Colleen Barry,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 25, 2007 8:16 AM CDT
Mogul's Interest In Journal Is No Passing Fancy
Pedestrians walk outside the News Corporation's corporate headquarters, in this May 1, 2007 file photo in New York. Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate News Corp. reported a 6.2 percent profit increase for its latest quarter Wednesday, May 8, 2007, on higher earnings from movies including "Night at...   (Associated Press)

Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones may have seemed to come out of nowhere, but the Australian media mogul has had his eye on the Wall Street Journal for years. In three decades in the States, Murdoch has made his mark in news, entertainment, and, of course, politics. The Times takes the measure of an impressive set of tentacles.

Perhaps the most pertinent situation in Murdoch's checkered history of media acquisition concerns the Times of London, which he bought in 1981. An agreement to keep him from influencing news coverage quickly fell by the wayside, thanks in no small part to a hiring policy encapsulated by a former editor: "He puts people in who will do his bidding." (More Rupert Murdoch stories.)

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