WSJ journalists should fear Ailes and Cavuto, nut Murdoch

Wall Street Journal reporters and editors shouldn’t fear News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, their likely new owner, but Fox News head Roger Ailes and Fox Business News head Neil Cavuto, with whom they will be working more closely, writes Eric Boehlert on the Media Matters for America web site.

Boehlert wrote, “It will be Ailes who has final say over the new FBN. And a note to Journal editors: Murdoch has already publicly promised that the Fox Business Network will be ‘more business friendly’ than its competitors, and not ‘leap on every scandal.’ Ailes agreed, telling The New York Times, ‘Many times I’ve seen things on CNBC where they are not as friendly to corporations and profits as they should be.’

“As for the day-to-day face of the FBN, that will be Cavuto. When not denouncing Happy Feet, a children’s animated movie about penguins, as being ‘offensive’ liberal ‘propaganda,’ Cavuto recently waded into the Don Imus controversy by asking an on-air guest, ‘I mean, a ho is a ho, right?’ This, from an anchor who once suggested he cannot simultaneously be both ‘a good American’ and ‘a good journalist.’

“Back in April 2003, when Cavuto’s beloved war in Iraq was still flying high, he hit back hard on the air against a journalism professor who had been quoted as saying the FNC anchorman had ‘abandoned objectivity for overt nationalism’ during the war coverage. ‘So am I slanted and biased?’ Cavuto responded. ‘You … bet I am, professor.'”

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