The New York Times has an exhaustive look on its Monday front page at the business and political dealings of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, who is now trying to purchase Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal.
The article is reported by a team of four reporters and written by one of them, Jo Becker. Although the majority of the article looks at how Murdoch has wielded influence and power in political circles, it also discusses what might happen to the Journal by looking at what Murdoch did after purchasing the Times of London.
The article stated, “Harry Evans, who was editor at the time of Mr. Murdoch’s acquisition and was forced out soon after, wrote a memoir vividly describing his constant fights with the new publisher. In his affidavit, Mr. Evans describes Mr. Murdoch’s ordering the publication of a cartoon that Times editors had deemed tasteless and his complaining that too many stories had a left-wing bent. Another former editor said Mr. Murdoch once pointed to the byline of a correspondent and asserted, ‘That man’s a Commie.’
“Fred Emery, another former Times editor, said Mr. Murdoch once said to him: ‘I give instructions to my editors all around the world; why shouldn’t I in London?’
“The turmoil of those first years subsided, in part, one former Times editor said, because Mr. Murdoch got rid of those who did not adhere to his politics. ‘He puts people in who will do his bidding,’ said Mr. Neil, the former editor.
“The current editor of The Times, Robert Thomson, paints a different picture: ‘I’ve had absolutely no interference and a lot of investment in a loss-making newspaper, for which Rupert Murdoch gets no credit.’
“Under Mr. Thomson, the business pages of The Times expanded, and there are now 18 foreign reporters, compared with 8 when he came to the paper. The Times is the only British newspaper with a Baghdad bureau.”
Read more here.
