Murdoch complained to WSJ editor Tucker over Darcy article

Rupert Murdoch, the majority shareowner of Wall Street Journal parent News Corp., complained to Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker over a recent article about media reporter Oliver Darcy, who has started a newsletter and is a frequent critic of Murdoch’s Fox News, reports Lachlan Cartwright and Ravi Somaiya of Breaker.

Cartwright and Somaiya report, “Media writer Isabella Simonetti trumpeted the success of former CNN journalist Oliver Darcy and his newsletter Status. ‘Oliver Darcy left CNN, one of the most recognized news outlets in the world, to start a newsletter,’ Simonetti wrote. ‘It has quickly become a must-read for the power brokers of publishing and entertainment.’

“But, we have learned, one Journal reader was absolutely ‘livid’ about the piece and made their complaints vehemently known to Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. Rupert Murdoch, who owns the Journal, called Tucker and berated her about the article, a person with knowledge of the matter tells us. What may have drawn Murdoch’s rage? Darcy aggressively reports on another outlet Murdoch owns — Fox News — and regularly calls it a ‘propaganda network.’ And in a piece for CNN’s Reliable Sources last year he criticised the Journal’s reporting on Joe Biden’s mental acuity. A rep for Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal declined to comment.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.