Predictably, some critics have decried the current efforts by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to buy the Dow Jones company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal. But let’s imagine the dynamics that might emerge if Murdoch gains control of that newspaper.
Like viewers of his Fox News Channel, readers of The Wall Street Journal under Murdoch could look forward to jaw-dropping claims along the lines of “We invest, you decide.”
The Wall Street Journal would need to make some changes in order to be in sync with Murdoch-brand journalism. The Journal’s recent design make-over could provide a tidy framework for spreading the content of the editorial page to the rest of the newsprint pages.
But executives at News Corp. would swiftly face a dilemma. Investors and money managers — prime demographic targets of The Wall Street Journal — are apt to be intolerant of financial news reporting that’s unduly screened through an ideological mesh.
Slanted journalism may be fine for big commercial enterprises when news consumers largely base their outlooks on prevailing media biases. But investors and others who move large amounts of money are apt to be less forgiving when political agendas behind news reports might impede the quest to maximize profits.
Each day, investors seek accurate news as the basis for their
money-related decisions. On Wall Street, they can recognize when an
editorial page is spinning and grinding ideological axes. But investors
will quickly stop relying on financial news pages if those pages are
more dedicated to political maneuvers than well-founded portrayals of
business reality.
In other words, if a newspaper is just distorting reality to the
detriment of civic understanding and democratic discourse, the most
powerful corporations may not mind at all. In fact, corporate elites
are likely to appreciate any storyline that helps them to consolidate
power over the nation’s political system.
But if a business-oriented newspaper claims to be reporting the
financial news and keeps skewing that news to serve ideological
agendas, many investors and business leaders are likely to turn away in
disgust. It’s one thing to bamboozle the American public — but quite
another to mislead high-end readers about how to get even richer.
Right now, the editorials of The Wall Street Journal are the rough
equivalent of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh (with an occasional dose
of Ann Coulter thrown in). The grasp of right-wing ideology is notable,
but the grip on reality is loose to the point of routine slippage.
At times, we all find ourselves wishing that the world were different
than it is. But on the job — at least in theory — reporters can’t allow
themselves the luxury of turning wishful delusions into straight-faced
news accounts.
However, like those who call the shots at Fox News Channel, the Dow
Jones employees in charge of the editorial page at the Journal have
been unstinting in their fantasies: The Iraq war remains a noble
enterprise. Global warming is a liberal fraud. There is no widening gap
between the rich and poor in the United States. And so on, and so on,
and scooby-dooby-doo.
It’s all well and good to mislead voters and cover up for an
administration in Washington that is functioning more like a massive
criminal enterprise than a legitimate executive branch. But if press
ideologues serving as apologists for the Bush presidency try to blend
their contempt for reality with purported financial news, the media
result could prove less than satisfactory for the nation’s upper-crust
money movers.
If his current media properties are any indication, Rupert Murdoch
would quickly turn The Wall Street Journal into a news operation
engaged in a dizzying regimen of spin and distortion. For several
decades, he has enjoyed notable success in marketing right-wing
political fantasias to the general public. Whether the nation’s
financial elites would be such easy marks is another matter.
Norman Solomon’s book “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep
Spinning Us to Death” is out in paperback. A documentary film based on
the book will premiere this month. For information, go to:
www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org
It might be possible to argue that Rupert Murdoch's media empire be charged with massive illegal contributions in kind to the Republican party. It sounds crazy now, but the climate is changing.
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May 06, 2007
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Predictably, some critics have decried the current efforts by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. to buy the Dow Jones company, which publishes The Wall Street Journal. But let’s imagine the dynamics that might emerge if Murdoch gains control of that newspaper.
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