Murdoch unlikely to micromanage WSJ

Bob Richter, the public editor at the San Antonio Express-News, writes Sunday that he doesn’t believe News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch will micromanage The Wall Street Journal if he is successful in acquiring its parent, Dow Jones & Co.

Richter wrote, “I’m betting he won’t alter the journalism. Why, for example, would he alter its editorial page, which is more conservative than he is? I wrote editorials for the Express-News when Murdoch owned it, and he never directed us where we didn’t want to go.

“In 1992, we were set to endorse President George H.W. Bush for re-election. We backed him in 1988 and felt he’d done nothing to lose that support.

“However, sometime after the ’92 political conventions, either Larry Walker, then the Express-News publisher, or Sterlin Holmesly, the editorial director, heard that Murdoch had met Democratic challenger Bill Clinton at a Hollywood event, and was charmed by him.

“Holmesly asked Walker to ask Murdoch if he had a favorite, and Walker said he’d find out.”

Read more here. The paper never heard from Murdoch about an endorsement, and endorsed Bush.