WSJ has gotten better under Murdoch

Alex Beam, a columnist with the Boston Globe, writes Tuesday that The Wall Street Journal‘s coverage has gotten better during its ownership by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

Beam writes, “The news coverage is faster, better, and broader. It certainly helps them that the tanking economy is the number one story in the land. The political coverage, always good, is still fine.

“The paper hasn’t lost its investigative edge, and has even preserved the winsome ‘A-hed’ features at the bottom of Page 1. Ever wonder how those lunkheads on the lacrosse team get so rich? Other lunkheads hire them into lucrative jobs on Wall Street trading desks, as this feature reported last week.

“Everyone is watching the China coverage for signs of softness, which I haven’t yet detected. (Murdoch notoriously bootlicks the Butchers of Beijing.) Though I certainly haven’t seen the kind of long, narrative sociological take-outs about ordinary Chinese life that I read a few years ago. Everyone has a beef with the editorial page. Not me. I don’t read it.”

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