Categories: OLD Media Moves

Murdoch and the Wall Street Jiggle

Marie Therese writes on the News Hounds web site, which constantly critiques Fox News, that looking at Neil Cavuto‘s recent coverage on Fox News should be an indication of what News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch would do with The Wall Street Journal if he owned it.

Therese wrote, “Neil Cavuto’s obsession with lingerie, sexually suggestive video clips and loose women is the stuff of comedy. Yesterday, the pudgy, baby-faced Vice President for Business at FOX News scheduled another interview with buxom porn-star-turned-Republican Mary Carey. (Cf. Melanie’s 2006 post for more information.) What on earth does this watered-down-Jayne-Mansfield wannabe have to do with the stock market? More importantly, how on earth could the Bancroft family, owners of Dow Jones, ever consider selling their high-class, respected company to Rupert Murdoch, a man who permits a voyeur like Cavuto to waste national air time on bimbos with big boobs? Is this what the Bancrofts want the Wall Street Journal to turn into – a sleazy outlet for tawdry titillation? With video.

“Cavuto opened the segment with a lower chyron that read “MARY ON PARIS?”. That double entendre set the stage for what followed.

“Mary Carey dressed like a little girl, a caricature of a caricature of a baby doll. She simpered and giggled her way through a stupid piece of commentary about poor little rich girl Paris Hilton, who might have to spend some time in jail. Throughout the entire interview, Carey made goo-goo eyes at Cavuto and ended the segment with a blatant proposition. Unbelievable!”

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.