GOODY TWO SHOES: Murdoch Wants To “Raise The Bar” At The Wall Street Journal
Last week, shareholders of Dow Jones & Co. voted to approve the acquisition of the company by News Corp., and constituted a five-member Special Committee charged with safeguarding Dow Jones' editorial independence and integrity – which was a condition of the $5.16 billion sale. This committee will be chaired by Thomas J. Bray, columnist for The Detroit News, who previously held several positions at The Wall Street Journal – including associate editor of its editorial page. The other members are Louis Boccardi, president and CEO of The Associated Press; Jack Fuller, retired president of the Tribune Publishing Co.; Nicholas Negroponte, cofounder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Susan M. Phillips, dean of the George Washington University School of Business.
Among the responsibilities of the Special Committee – which are detailed in full in the proxy materials posted on the Dow Jones investor relations Web site – is mediating disputes arising from the Dow Jones Code of Conduct and a set of five principles adopted by News Corp. that require "no hidden agendas in any journalistic undertakings."
Later that day in a presentation to Dow Jones's staffers, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch reassured them that "we know and understand the tremendous values of Dow Jones and, particularly, of course, of The Wall Street Journal and the very high bar you have set yourselves. If anything, you will find us trying to set a higher bar."
The Stiletto hopes that the bar is indeed raised high enough that there are no hidden agendas in what the print and online editions of the paper present to readers – such as editors publishing and promoting articles written by their girlfriends without a conflict-of-interest disclosure along the lines of: “You don’t have to waste your time reading this dreck if you don’t want to. I published it so I can get some nookie tonight.”
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