Free Republic

FishbowlDC editor Patrick Gavin live blogged Rupert Murdoch's speech and Q&A at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall yesterday. The News Corp. chairman was asked about media bias, and responded with a shot at CNN. "It's very hard to be neutral. People laugh at us because we call ourselves 'Fair and Balanced.' Fact is, CNN, who's always been extremely liberal, never had a Republican or conservative voice on it," Murdoch said. "The only difference is that we have equal voices on both sides but that seems to have upset a lot of liberals."

The Murdoch clan is used to the rest of the media, politicians and the chattering classes trying to decode their political stance and its implications from their public actions. The early signals were that Rupert Murdoch favoured Hillary Clinton in the US presidential election. But yesterday Murdoch-watchers were digesting the news that Elisabeth Murdoch, Rupert's 39-year-old daughter, who runs a large TV production company, will host a London fundraiser for Clinton's rival, Barack Obama, this month. Despite the extensive coverage in the UK media, for high-rolling US expats election fever must seem a long way away. But in the most...

Rupert Murdoch's New York Post had been, at least off and on, surprisingly kind to Hillary Clinton for quite some time -- she is a home state U.S. Senator after all. That ended today when on its Web site (in print tomorrow) it endorsed Barack Obama in next week's key primary, and used some of its usual colorful language in doing it. *snip* His opponent, and her husband, stand for déjà vu all over again - a return to the opportunistic, scandal-scarred, morally muddled years of the almost infinitely self-indulgent Clinton co-presidency. Does America really want to go through all...

Excerpt - The Wall Street Journal's Web site, WSJ.com, will keep a significant portion of its content behind its paid-subscription wall, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Thursday. Speculation that News Corp. would make WSJ.com a completely free site had been rife in recent months, since Mr. Murdoch had signaled he was contemplating lifting the subscription wall. Mr. Murdoch had indicated that lifting the pay wall could broaden the Journal's online audience and boost its Web advertising revenue, offsetting any loss in subscription revenues. ~ snip ~

Two years after, in effect, renouncing his claim to the title of heir apparent to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp media empire, Lachlan Murdoch may be poised to become head of another media empire formed in Australia by his father's late rival, Kerry Packer. According to published reports the younger Murdoch is teaming up with James Packer to take Packer's Consolidated Media Holdings, Australia's second-largest media company, private in a $2.9-billion deal in which the two will offer to buy the company's outstanding shares at a 25-percent premium. Consolidated controls the Nine Television Network and Foxtel, the nation's leading pay-TV channel,...

January 21, 2008Toppling the Times: Rupert Takes On Pinch By Ed LaskyThe American mediascape is about to experience an earthquake, Rupert Murdoch is preparing to topple the New York Times from its position as the pre-eminent general interest daily newspaper, generating severe financial pressure on a struggling media company reeling from mismanagement. There is every indication he will succeed. The New York Times has long enjoyed the status of America's leading and most influential national general interest newspaper. A wide range of  advertisers, particularly purveyors of upscale goods, have paid escalating advertising rates to reach the elite readership presumed to...

Excerpt - Murdoch's Dow opens Web Journal to some free access LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Dow Jones & Co has begun opening access to previously paid-for online Wall Street Journal content just weeks after the $5.6 billion buyout by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research). An item in the Wall Street Journal Europe newspaper on Thursday said the company has rolled out a new Web site offering free access to all its editorials and opinion columns. Core news content remains a subscription service. The move represents one of the first tangible signs of how Murdoch is putting...

Sean Hannity, the conservative Republican commentator who takes on such controversial issues as Hillary Clinton's legal work in a communist law firm, could be on his way out of the Fox News Channel as a result of Rupert Murdoch's decision to turn the company over to his liberal son James. James Murdoch, 34, who buys into global warming hysteria, has in recent days been labeled the "News Corporation Heir" and "Son King" because of changes in the company that have dramatically increased his power. The Fox News Channel is one part of Murdoch's News Corporation. While James Murdoch is based...

NEW YORK -- The yellow-billed oxpecker stands atop the mighty rhinoceros, gobbling ticks and chirping loudly when danger looms. This tiny bird would make a perfect mascot for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid. Akin to that creature, the New York Democrat leaves tiny footprints and has spent more than three decades riding aboard her outsized, accomplished husband, William Jefferson Clinton. And, like the oxpecker, Hillary Clinton is remarkably unprepared for the presidency. Beyond helping to secure post-9/11 recovery funds for Gotham, her legislative achievements are rather slight. Lighter yet is her executive experience, which is measurable in grams. While...

  Rudy Giuliani laughs off Judith Regan rap BY ADAM NICHOLS DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Thursday, November 15th 2007, 4:00 AM Judith Regan claimed Rudy Giuliani's cronies tried to silence her; now the presidential hopeful wants to sideline her to the gossip columns. The Republican candidate said Wednesday the publishing queen's bombshell $100 million suit was no more than salacious tittle-tattle. "It sounds to me like a kind of gossip column story more than a real story," he said on a campaign stop in Iowa. "The last thing in the world you want to do when you're running for President...

Murdoch Says WSJ Web Site to Drop Fees Anticipating Big Ad Revenue, Murdoch Says He Expects to Drop Subscription Fees Wsj.com ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) -- News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday he intends to make access to The Wall Street Journal's Web site free, dropping subscription fees in exchange for anticipated ad revenue. "We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having 1 million (subscribers), having at least 10 million to 15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch said. News Corp. has agreed to acquire Dow Jones & Co. for about...

REPORTS: PUBLISHER JUDITH REGAN TO FILE $100 MILLION SUIT AGANIST MURDOCH EMPIRE IN NY COURT; WILL BE REPPED BY SUPERLAWYER BERT FIELDS... DEVELOPING... Just a header on Drudge right now.. Regan grew up on Long Island, and graduated from Bay Shore High School in 1971.[1] She then attended Vassar College, receiving her A.B. degree in 1975. Then in 1978, while working as a secretary at Harvard, Regan answered a newspaper ad for a reporter for The National Enquirer and got the job. In the early 1980s, Regan relocated to New York City. After the 911 attacks in 2001, Regan published...

The on-air talent at Fox Business Channel, which debuted last Monday, is uniformly peppy. But since their smiling pusses flooded the airwaves, talking up the jargon-free virtues of capitalism and the sheer fun of business, the market has been grumpy. Have you noticed that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell every single day last week?

About the same time that Rupert Murdoch was telling shareholders that his beloved News Corp. had become the world's most valuable media conglomerate, the company's worth was in the midst of sinking by $1.53 billion. But Friday's massive stock market sell-off didn't alter Murdoch's message. By the end of Friday trading, News Corp. sported a market capitalization of $67.79 billion, larger than Time Warner, the former biggest media company in the world. Friday's stock market swoon, which sent the Dow Jones industrial average down nearly 377 points, or 2.6%, coincided with the 20th anniversary of Black Monday, when the Dow...

Rupert Murdoch, who is set to complete his $5 billion takeover of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, says he wants to move the newspaper beyond its financial core and target mainstream competitors such as the New York Times. Speaking at a conference in San Francisco on Wednesday night, the News Corp. chief said: “We have a lot of plans and a lot of ideas that need to be refined. But I want to improve it in every way – in what it does now in finance to start with, but I also want to add more national and international...

NEW YORK (Thomson Financial) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp will launch a new business channel for US cable subscribers on October 15, in a direct challenge to market leader CNBC, operated by General Electric Co's NBC Universal. In a statement, News Corp said the Fox Business Network will be headed by Neil Cavuto, a Fox News senior vice president. The financial channel will be available to some 30 mln subscribers under contract after securing distribution agreements with major cable operators in top markets around the US. The new channel will form another element in Murdoch's media empire, which includes the...

Fox Business Network: Full of Foxes! Rupert Murdoch's new finance channel just launched its Website, and it lends a little insight into what the network will be offering up when it launches on October 15. Namely, foxy young broads!* Almost all of the on-air talent that's plugged on the site are skinny, youthful beauties like Shibani Joshi (a former model in India), Cheryl Casone (a former flight attendant), Jenna Lee (she played Division One softball in college), and Nicole Petillades (she loves slalom waterskiing!). And the best part is some of the foxy young broads are dudes! Reporter Colin McShane...

Why America needs a national right-to-work law editorials and opinion By DEROY MURDOCK Scripps Howard News Service Thursday, August 30, 2007 Americans will skip work Monday to celebrate what really should be called Leisure Day. But this Labor Day, an estimated 7.2 million privately employed Americans (and even more public-sector workers) could relax more thoroughly if they were not compelled to join labor unions and/or pay union dues as job requirements. That's why the time is now for the National Right to Work Act. Rep. Joe Wilson and Sen. Jim DeMint, both South Carolina Republicans, have sponsored legislation to restore...

It's Forward Into Battle!" That's how Newsweek describes the impending battle between the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, once Rupert Murdoch is legally owner of the financial daily. There are all sorts of predictions about what will happen, particularly how Murdoch might change the Wall Street Journal, And what the New York Times will do to meet the challenge. Newsweek, at least, predicts “all-out war”. Others don't go quite so far, but there is agreement that Murdoch has lots of ideas for the Wall Street Journal once he takes over. If he accomplishes them all, he will...

Despite his remarks on coverage, some expect changes on the Journal's business side first. If the Gray Lady didn't have enough problems battling industrywide woes, now she has Rupert Murdoch to worry about. The media billionaire has made no secret of his desire to take aim at the New York Times once his News Corp. acquires Dow Jones & Co. and its flagship Wall Street Journal in a $5-billion deal expected to close this fall. Murdoch said during an earnings conference call last week that he wanted the financial newspaper to have "more coverage of national, international and nonbusiness news...

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards recently defended taking a lucrative book contract from a publisher controlled by Rupert Murdoch -- whose News Corp. empire Edwards has sharply criticized -- by insisting that “every dime” of his $500,000 advance went to charity. Left unmentioned by Edwards, however, was that Murdoch’s HarperCollins paid portions of a $300,000 expense budget for the book to Edwards’s daughter and to a senior political aide, Jonathan Prince.

In the world of big-time politics and publishing, the $900,000 deal that Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards got for his recent book was not extraordinary. What jumped out was the source of Edwards' paycheck -- conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

LONDON (Reuters) - News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch has said he might make the Wall Street Journal's Web site free, a shift that could compel Britain's Pearson to do the same with the online version of its Financial Times. Numis Securities analyst Lorna Tilbian said any move by Murdoch to make wsj.com free has to put pressure on Pearson, while Dresdner Kleinwort's Usman Ghazi estimates a potential hit of up to six percent on earnings per share. "You can resist if you don't want growth," Tilbian said. Wsj.com is one of the Web's most successful subscription businesses with a $99...

It'll be a few months yet before News Corp. completes its planned $5.6 billion purchase of Dow Jones, but Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is already mapping the road ahead for the company. During a conference call Wednesday to discuss his company's fourth fiscal quarter earnings, Murdoch painted in broad strokes some of his plans for the parent of The Wall Street Journal. In addition to reaffirming that he plans to make "necessary investments" in Europe and Asia, Murdoch said that he intends to expand coverage of "national, international and non-business news, of course without diminishing the Journal's business...

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. on Wednesday reported a higher profit in its fourth fiscal quarter, led by higher revenue and income at its cable networks, but the subject of the day was the media giant's buyout of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. News Corp. said that net income in the three months ending June 30 rose to $890 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $852 million or 27 cents a share. The prior-year figure included a gain of $134 million, or 4 cents a share, on its sale of Sky Radio...

NEW YORK His Saturday business column for The New York Times (available online only via TimesSelect) mainly explores how the Bancroft family blew the deal with the News Corp. But Joseph Nocera closes it with a brief sit-down interview with new owner Rupert Murdoch at his headquarters in New York, just after the deal closes. “The first road to freedom,” Murdoch explains, after (like Nocera) removing his tie and relaxing, “is viability.” This refers to the Wall Street Journal making healthy profits again, thereby allowing it to remain editorial independent. There is no "or else" uttered but it may be...

First, the disclaimer: I appear on Fox News Channel, one of Rupert Murdoch's media properties, as a paid contributor. I received neither instructions, nor promises of benefits, in exchange for what I am about to write. We now rejoin our regularly scheduled column. The grotesque amount of condescension from the elite media concerning the purchase of Dow Jones, which includes The Wall Street Journal, by "media mogul" Rupert Murdoch is astounding. You would think Hugo Chavez had just bought the newspaper with his oil money and announced an immediate tilt to the left. Come to think of it, the elites...

With The Wall Street Journal and a new business network, Rupert Murdoch and Fox News chief Roger Ailes plan their next move: all-out war. Rupert Murdoch, owner-in-waiting of The Wall Street Journal, is taking the high road. After a bitter three-month battle to win approval from enough bickering Bancrofts to buy their Dow Jones & Co., the mogul struck a gracious tone with the family, whose century of control he was now bringing to an end. "Given the Bancrofts' long and distinguished history as custodians of Dow Jones, we appreciate how difficult this decision was for some family members," Murdoch...

Rupert Murdoch is the best boss I ever had. The first time I met the guy was right before he bought this paper [Boston Herald] in 1982, when I was brought into his suite at the Long Wharf Marriott with two other TV reporters covering the story of the sale. Murdoch’s aide introduced me by telling Rupert I had been a columnist for the dying Herald American, but I’d just made the jump to the CBS affiliate in Boston. Murdoch nodded. “You made the right move,” he told me. No BS about the roar of the presses or defending the...

WASHINGTON - John Edwards, who yesterday demanded Democratic candidates return any campaign donations from Rupert Murdoch and News Corp., himself earned at least $800,000 for a book published by one of the media mogul's companies. The Edwards campaign said the multimillionaire trial lawyer would not return the hefty payout from Murdoch for the book titled "Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives."....

Edwards Raps Hillary for Murdoch Ties By NEDRA PICKLER,AP Filed Under: Elections News WASHINGTON (Aug. 2) - John Edwards criticized Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday for taking more than $20,000 in donations from News Corp. officials, arguing that the company's Fox News Channel has a right-wing bias and Democrats should avoid the company. John Edwards says Democrats shouldn't take money from News Corp. Most of Rupert Murdoch's donations go to Republicans, but he gave $4,200 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign and held a fundraiser for her. Edwards led the Democratic candidates' boycott of Fox's plans to host a...

The first person I ever heard accuse Rupert Murdoch of undermining the media’s reputation for trustworthy, unbiased reporting was Ted Turner. He was being interviewed by Mike Wallace. On “60 Minutes.” No, seriously. Please stop laughing. OK, OK, it’s impossible not to laugh when liberal pundits complain that Murdoch might bring a “right-wing” political slant to the Wall Street Journal. What? Bias in the mainstream media? Somebody cue Captain Renault: It’s time to be shocked, shocked! America’s editorial writers insist that Murdoch’s purchase of Dow Jones threatens the nonpartisan purity of the press. Please. Even the most liberal news reader...

Having failed to thwart a Murdoch purchase of the WALL STREET JOURNAL, the NEW YORK TIMES intensifies battle with the NEWS CORP. empire on Thursday, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. The paper is preparing a provocative examination of Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani's relationship with FOX NEWS chief Roger Ailes. MORE TIMES reporter Russ Buettner has been pestering and pumping Murdoch executives for details on Rudy and Roger, company sources claim. The duo "have been pulling for each other for nearly two decades," reports Buettner. "Ailes served as a consultant to Giuliani's first mayoral campaign. Giuliani officiated at Ailes'...

So now what? Since the News Corporation’s offer for Dow Jones & Company was made public three months ago, Rupert Murdoch’s business career, character and motives have been dissected in an effort to predict what he might do as the owner of The Wall Street Journal. Despite how long Mr. Murdoch has wanted The Journal, he may not have a set playbook, according to interviews and more recent conversations with several people in Mr. Murdoch’s camp, who spoke on the condition they not be identified. “There’s a very low probability that there’s a grand plan,” said one person close to...

Excerpt - Rupert Murdoch's courtship of the Bancroft family appears to have triumphed, with enough shares pledged to make News Corp. the owner of the newspaper whose Web site you are now reading. Readers are naturally asking how this will change the journalism we practice. Our sincere answer is that we intend to stand for the same principles and standards we have for more than a hundred years. The Bancrofts have been wonderful stewards of The Wall Street Journal for a century, and we are grateful for the support they have provided for our brand of independent journalism. They are...

A century of Bancroft-family ownership at Dow Jones & Co. is over. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sealed a $5 billion agreement to purchase the publisher of The Wall Street Journal after three months of drama in the controlling family and public debate about journalistic values. The deal has been approved by the boards of both companies, which met separately over the past few hours, according to people familiar with the situation. The two companies are expected to sign a merger agreement and issue statements in the next few hours. One of the oldest and best-known franchises in the newspaper industry,...

NEW YORK, (AP) -- Rupert Murdoch's bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. appears to have won enough support from the company's controlling shareholders to ensure its passage, the newspaper reported Tuesday. The Journal said, quoting unnamed people familiar with the situation, that Bancroft family members representing 32 percent of the company's vote had agreed to the deal. A family spokesman declined to comment. Murdoch's News Corp. must still decide whether it is comfortable with that level of support in order to proceed. With some public shareholders likely to abstain, News Corp. wants a solid majority of...

The Denver branch of the Bancroft family, Dow Jones & Co.'s controlling shareholder, is to vote against accepting News Corp.'s $60-a-share offer, putting pressure on News Corp. to raise its offer, according to a person familiar with the situation. The Denver trust, which holds 9.1% of Dow Jones's voting stock, is seen as an important faction within the Bancroft family. The trust is seen as a seller but had been pushing for a higher price....[snip] The Denver trust has argued that the super-voting B class shareholders should receive a premium of 10-20% over the $60 offer. In their view, News...

The pro-Israel outlook of the Wall Street Journal and many News Corp. outlets could waver if one of Rupert Murdoch's sons, James Murdoch, takes the helm of the publishing and broadcasting company, a new book suggests. The just-published diaries of a communications director for Prime Minister Blair, Alastair Campbell, indicate that James Murdoch launched into a foul-mouthed tirade that suggested that the behavior of Palestinian Arabs was justified by their poor treatment by Israelis. The outburst occurred at a private dinner with his father, his brother, Lachlan, Mr. Blair, and others at no. 10 Downing St. in January 2002. The...

NEWS CORP. REACHED a tentative agreement to buy Dow Jones at its original $5 billion offer price, although the Bancroft family remains divided. The deal will be put to the full Dow Jones board on Tuesday evening. 12:28 a.m.

Board members of Dow Jones & Company plan to meet today with Ronald W. Burkle, the California billionaire, as they continue to hunt for alternatives to a takeover by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, people close to the board said yesterday. The effort to find another bidder has been pushed by some members of the Bancroft family, owners of a controlling interest in Dow Jones, especially Leslie Hill, who is also a Dow Jones board member, said these people, who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiations. They said that Ms. Hill and some family members...

Rupert Murdoch has succeeded with his $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal, according to sources acting for the Dow Jones board. Negotiations have been completed and the board is confident the terms of the deal will be accepted by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of voting shares in Dow Jones, over the next few days. A formal announcement is expected next week. Murdoch’s News Corporation will take over America’s most prestigious financial publisher at the price he originally offered on April 17, when he proposed $60 a share when the stock was...

PBS’s Moyers Disgracefully Rips Fox Owner Rupert Murdoch Posted by Noel Sheppard on June 30, 2007 - 12:06. I’m not sure what derangement syndrome Bill Moyers is currently suffering from, but on Friday’s “Bill Moyers Journal” broadcast on PBS, the outspoken host went into an invective-filled tirade about media tycoon Rupert Murdoch that frankly was one of the most disgraceful exhibitions of liberal bias so far this year.In his closing monologue, Moyers compared Murdoch to the Marquis de Sade, Imelda Marcos, and Satan himself.I kid you not.For those that can stomach it, what follows is a full transcript of this...

Former Lyndon Johnson Press Spokesman Bill Moyers attacks Rupert Murdoch, Fox News Channel in PBS commentary. Video

About 200 Wall Street Journal journalists did not show up for work Thursday morning to demonstrate their opposition to a potential takeover of the newspaper by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the IAPE union said. The number of journalists who participated in the action represented about one-third of the prestigious business daily's US staff. The Journal employs some 700 journalists worldwide, 600 of whom are based in the United States. The paper is owned by Dow Jones Co., which Murdoch is vying to takeover for five billion dollars, and the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees (IAPE) union said the protest had...

NEW YORK - Unionized Wall Street Journal reporters didn’t show up for work Thursday morning to protest Rupert Murdoch’s bid for the Journal’s parent company, as well as Dow Jones & Co.’s proposals for a new labor contract. The Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees said in a statement that the reporters would return to work in the afternoon. Steve Yount, president of the union, said it wasn’t yet clear how many Journal staff participated in the protest. Yount said the employees were concerned both about the pending $5 billion offer from Murdoch’s media conglomerate News Corp. as well as the...

Late Monday, NEW YORK TIMES Executive Editor Bill Keller upped the ante and set a Tuesday Page One placement for a controversial examination of Rupert Murdoch's ties to Communist China, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. The paper has launched an exhaustive investigation of Murdoch on the eve of his possible purchase of the WALL STREET JOURNAL, a NEW YORK TIMES rival. Privately, Keller has been highly critical of Murdoch, sources say. Tuesday's expose will examine Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, a mainland Chinese native. The investigation into Deng has thoroughly enraged Murdoch, insiders say. MORE "Murdoch has flattered Communist Party...

In the fall of 2003, a piece of Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling media empire was in jeopardy. Congress was on the verge of limiting any company from owning local television stations that reached more than 35 percent of American homes. Mr. Murdoch’s Fox stations reached nearly 39 percent, meaning he would have to sell some. A strike force of Mr. Murdoch’s lobbyists joined other media companies in working on the issue. The White House backed the industry, and in a late-night meeting just before Thanksgiving, Congressional leaders agreed to raise the limit — to 39 percent. One leader of the Congressional...

Journalists Prefer Left-Wing WSJ Buyout over Murdoch News media up in arms at prospect of media mogul owning Wall Street Journal and Fox News. By Julia A. Seymour Business & Media Institute 6/6/2007 3:41:15 PM On paper, it’s a match made in heaven. The proposed marriage of the business-savvy Wall Street Journal and the savvy businessman Rupert Murdoch was celebrated by investors and denounced by journalists. “He’s a meddler on one hand and it may not be good for the workers,” CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi said of Murdoch during the May 6 “Reliable Sources.” Just hours after the...

The Bancrofts can't possibly trust this guy with the Wall Street Journal. Having accepted Rupert Murdoch's invitation to sit down with him and his kin to discuss the possible sale of Dow Jones & Co., the Bancroft family should come to the meeting with a bundle of impolite questions to ask the mogul about his plans for the Wall Street Journal. The rotten old bastard intends to charm them all with his lies, as he has his previous marks. To cancel his spell, I suggest that every Bancroft purchase a copy of Marilyn Nissenson's new book, The Lady Upstairs: Dorothy...