Categories: OLD Media Moves

Ethical considerations for Dow Jones/News Corp. deal

Peter Siris, a columnist for the New York Daily News’ Your Money section and also a money manager, asks in his Wednesday column some pertinent ethical questions about the pending acquisition of Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch.

Siris wrote, “What will Murdoch do with the paper and how will it affect all of us?

“His pledge of editorial independence is foolish. The editorial page of The Journal is already on the same page as the political commentary on Fox News Channel. Both are staunchly Republican and heavy-handedly pro-business.

“The deal leads to other interesting questions. Does anyone want to take on Murdoch? Will someone like me, who writes for a competitor of Murdoch’s New York Post, still get interviewed in Barron’s, part of Dow Jones?

“More importantly, will Wall Street analysts at brokerage firms have the guts to post ‘sell’ ratings on Murdoch’s News Corp. when they know it also controls The Journal?”

Read more here.

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.