Times Newspapers had long cherished their independence. In 1966, when the Times was in financial difficulty, the new owner who came to the rescue, Lord Roy Thomson of Fleet, promised to sustain it as an independent non-partisan newspaper – precisely how he had conducted the profitable Sunday Times. Murdoch was able to acquire both publications in 1981 only because he began making solemn pledges that he would maintain the tradition of independence. He broke every one of those promises in the first years.
Almost feels as if there were something in much more recent history along...oh, yeah...
Most readers just write a letter to the editor. Murdoch made a $5 billion offer to buy the Journal's parent company, Dow Jones. To do that, he must first win over the Bancroft family, which has controlled Dow Jones for the last 92 years and has so far resisted all of his overtures, in part because of concerns about what he might do to the Journal.
He insists he will not meddle in the journalism or slash-and-burn the staff. "We're not coming in with a bunch of cost-cutters," he said, but added: "I'm not saying it's going to be a holiday camp for everybody."
Of course he wouldn't. On the one hand, you've got his entire history, and his use of just about every property he ever owned for partisan political purposes, and then you've got the word of...Rupert Murdoch.
Now if only someone could encourage Rupert to put Fox News behind a paywall too...
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