Friedman: Let's remember that Murdoch is a businessman

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Monday that through all of the coverage of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch acquiring Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, the fact that he is a businessman seems to get lost.

Friedman wrote, “I’ll tell you where I’ve stood on this deal from day one: Murdoch is acquiring Dow Jones primarily as a way to provide respected content for his new cable-television venture, the Fox Business Network. If he has long harbored the desire to buy the Journal to inflict his personal and political views on unsuspecting readers, that would be a secondary goal (if at all).

“At the Dow Jones meeting, nerves were running so high that I’m not sure staffers weighed Zannino’s words at the moment. He sought to assure them that Murdoch’s top priority had nothing to do with editing their copy or setting agendas for the news division.

“At one point, Zannino said, neatly summarizing Murdoch’s operating philosophy: ‘If it doesn’t make business sense, it won’t get done.'”

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