The alarmism, previously simmering, has exploded since the News Corp. deal to purchase Dow Jones was finalized yesterday, as The Washington Times‘ Jennifer Harper :
“The prospect of the Aussie vulgarian lording over the paper has whipped up an end-of-days gloom across the nation’s newsrooms,” according to a New Republic magazine editorial.
“Murdoch will tarnish a journalistic jewel,” said MSNBC columnist David Sweet….
Mr. Murdoch runs a “propaganda network” and the sale of the paper is a “dance of death,” Eric Alterman said yesterday in the Nation.
“That he devalues the privileges and responsibilities of the press in America matters little to Murdoch, who appears to care nothing for traditional notions of respectability and treats journalists as no more important than the people who use his newspapers to wrap fish and chips,” Mr. Alterman observed.
The squawking came mostly from the Left, but the deal reminded me of something the Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell told me in an interview about six years ago:
BB: I did an interview on this last night. How do you explain this? Because the Rupert Murdoch brand of conservatism is the most irresponsible brand there is. It says that it is all about money. He is politically a conservative, but culturally he could care less. I think he just cares about making money.
