Why the outrage over Murdoch owning WSJ?

That’s what David Olive of The Toronto Star wants to know. He questions whether News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch will be a worse owner than the Bancroft family when it comes to running Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal.

Olive wrote, “Politically, we’re not in the same book as Murdoch, much less on the same page. But what are opponents of the admittedly brash press baron afraid of, exactly? That Murdoch might find a way to make the Journal‘s daffy editorial pages even more right-wing? That his ownership would be characterized by repeated rounds of newsroom layoffs; bureau closings; anemic European and Asian editions; and a 20 per cent reduction in news in the recently redesigned North American hard-copy edition, giving the U.K. Financial Times and The Economist an opening to widen their already impressive foothold in the Journal‘s home market?

“By now you’ve guessed the lax stewardship described above is the legacy of the Bancroft family, which has controlled Dow Jones and its flagship Journal for more than a century. Murdoch’s News Corp. is a $27 billion (U.S. sales) global juggernaut that has the resources to make good on Murdoch’s promises to beef up the Journal‘s New York newsroom, open (or re-open) more foreign bureaus, re-brand a proposed Fox business TV channel with the word ‘Journal’ and otherwise strengthen the Journal franchise.”

He concluded, “It’s time for Dow Jones’s absentee controlling shareholders to cash in for good. And allow Murdoch or another hands-on buyer to realize the Journal‘s unique opportunity to become the pre-eminent English-language provider of business news worldwide.”

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