Murdoch's Journal Wins Back a Fan

Was lax on owner, but says it's better now

(NEWSER) - The Wall Street Journal did a lousy job of initially covering Rupert Murdoch's phone hacking scandal, admits the paper's special editorial committee. The paper was "slower than it should have been at the outset to pursue the phone-hacking scandal story" and failed to ask tough questions when it interviewed Rupert Murdoch for his side of the story, according to a report from the WSJ committee set up to oversee the editorial integrity of the paper after Murdoch bought it in 2007. More»

'Ideological' competitors aim to spread blame

(NEWSER) - Those at the Wall Street Journal—and "thousands of other journalists"—don’t deserve to be implicated in a mess caused by a single British tabloid, write the editors of the Journal , whose own publisher, Les Hinton, recently stepped down amid the phone hacking scandal . In a lengthy defense of their paper they begin with Hinton, arguing that he brought the Journal back to profitability in tough economic times, displayed sound ethical judgment, and invested in journalists. More»

Clash of titans recalls Hearst v. Pulitzer

(NEWSER) - A newly Rupert Murdoch-ified Wall Street Journal throws down the gauntlet at the New York Times tomorrow, reports Newsweek, in the biggest battle of newspaper titans since Hearst v. Pulitzer. Murdoch is looking for (more) power and respect from the journalistic elite at a time when the Gray Lady is weakened by a huge loss of advertising and revenue. More»

Billionaire Journal owner hopes to poach business from Gray Lady

(NEWSER) - With the ink still drying on his takeover of The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch is already setting his sights on the New York Times—the current newspaper of choice for the Northeastern elite. The Australian tycoon is planning to challenge the Times by expanding the Journal's "coverage of national, international and nonbusiness news," the LA Times reports. More»

(NEWSER) - The looming Murdochization of the Wall Street Journal highlights what people should have realized long ago, writes Gary Weiss: just how disastrous public ownership is to the newspaper business. Every time that investors' bottom lines are matched against journalistic integrity, journalism gets tramped. "The only solution," he says, "is to get rid of the shareholders." More»