WSJ oversight committee says agreement violated

The committee designed to protect the editorial freedom of The Wall Street Journal from owner News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch believes that the safeguards were violated when it was not notified beforehand of the resignation of managing editor Marcus Brauchli, writes Steve Stecklow of The Journal.

Stecklow writes, “The criticism came in a chronology the committee released on Tuesday surrounding the events that led to the surprise resignation of Mr. Brauchli on April 22. At a meeting that day, ‘Committee members expressed the view that learning of the Brauchli matter after the fact failed to meet the letter and the spirit of the agreement’ which outlines the body’s powers, the chronology stated. (See the chronology.)

“The committee said it relayed these concerns to officials at News Corp., which in December acquired Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. A News Corp. spokesman declined to comment.

“Mr. Brauchli, a longtime Journal reporter and editor, resigned less than a year after he was named managing editor. He did so about 10 days after a meeting this month with Journal publisher Robert Thomson and Dow Jones Chief Executive Officer Leslie Hinton –- both News Corp. appointees –- in which they suggested it might be better to have their own person running the newspaper.”

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