WSJ’s Tucker had Darcy story “desurfaced”

Lachlan Cartwright and Ravi Somaiya of Breaker report that Wall Street Journal editor in chief Emma Tucker had its story about media reporter Oliver Darcy “desurfaced.”

Cartwright and Somaiya report, “Murdoch was perturbed because Darcy has aggressively reported on Fox, which he has called a “right-wing propaganda network.” And it seems that Tucker has mastered a key skill for Murdoch editors — reading his mind.

“Hi guys,” reads an internal message between editors from before Murdoch’s call. “Emma wants a story completely desurfaced,” it says with a link to the Darcy story.

“The newsletter one,” it adds. “Also no more socializing.” (We presume it would be a bit much for Tucker to ban her staff from social activities, and that this meant no more positing on social media.) Her stance, the message continued “is that this story should’ve never been done.”

The story was duly desurfaced — pulled from the Journal’s app and home page. Ironically, one staffer said, the story had great traffic. (We don’t find it ironic).

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