I must say that I never really got why so many journalists were against News Corp.’s bid for Dow Jones, but reading this, you get the idea, from David Sweet, of MSNBC.com:
Though I’ve never worked for News Corp., I was employed by Dow Jones for five years at The Wall Street Journal Online. There, I wrote a column — one that was fortunate enough to appear in print form scores of times in The Wall Street Journal. During that span, I witnessed the workings of a rare news-gathering operation.
Standards are the lifeblood of WSJ and its related properties. Back in 1998, a source called to ask me to attend a World Series game with him at Yankee Stadium. When the request was shared with WSJ.com’s managing editor, it was denied — even if I paid for the ticket — because it was a ticket I was unlikely to be able to procure on my own, thus making me indebted to the source if I accepted it. Along the same lines, I remember being told in a meeting that not only were advertising representatives who sold for WSJ.com on a different floor; we weren’t even allowed to know their names. That way, ad reps and their clients could never influence a story.
It is hard to imagine that News Corp. — a juggernaut with more than $25 billion in revenue in 2006 — will keep such ideas in place, considered almost relics in a struggling business. Since Murdoch’s bid was announced, The Wall Street Journal has excelled at covering the story about itself. If bad news erupts about News Corp., will Murdoch dare let reporters investigate the problem and potentially scare off advertisers?
Read on.
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