All this rumination by Bancroft family is nothing but cheap drama. They want the money and have decided to sell it. So , just let it be done with.

Kevin9 et al
To be fair the Bankroft family is torn about selling the paper. It is the rest of the stock holders that want the windfall profit the sale will bring them. The revenues there have been flat for years.

Under a unique arrangement the family’s holdings vote three times the holdings of all the rest so they will decide ultimately whether Murdoch gets the paper, they are mostly against the sale supposedly but are under great pressure to sell…..Personally I hope they keep the bastard out.

How disappointing to read Mr. Robinson’s rather shallow understanding of the meaning of a “free press”. Perhaps he will be truly happy when all media is under the umbrella of one agendised and politiczed ownership but the rest of us may rue that day.

Rupert Murdoch leaves a stench on everything he touches. But since everything and everyone in this country is for sale why not let him have the journal. The family playing coy is scarcely believable and dishonesty and hype is what the press is about anyway.

#89133 by THOMAS BILLIS on 7/24 at 10:13 am

Thomas, You hit the nail on the head with this one, and I hope Eugene is reading.

•  I understand the power of money but if you are wondering why newspaper readership is down it is the lack of objective reporting and Rupert Murdoch is just speeding up the demise.I could point out the piss poor reporting done in the leadup to war. Do you think Murdoch will improve that situation?Do you have any idea how many newspaper readers such as myself read foreign newspapers to find out what is going on in America?My last supposition to you is would it be better to have a white knight who cuts back on resources or Murdoch expanding so he can spew forth propaganda?

The thing is, he probably really DOESN’T have any idea, of how many readers have come to rely on foreign publications to find out what’s going on in America. I have reflected on the irony of that for many years, even as I continue to direct others toward those foreign publications, so that THEY TOO, can find out what they need to know.

So, the outcome here, will be a much whittled down readership, to where the Wall Street Journal becomes just another tabloid. Non Credo was also correct in pointing out that while under its current ownership, the editorial and news pages of the WSJ don’t always agree. I’ve discovered that with other MSM publications that I do continue to read and appreciate, such as the New York Times. Needless-to-say,  there are more than a few journalists, (including Michael Gordon, their ME bureau chief) who are little more than shills operating under Cabal instructions, though they might actually believe some of what they write.

However, to ignore the entire publication, (just because of them) would mean missing other very good news and journalism. So, on some of these publications, we can manage to hang in there, and sort through the propaganda for the real thing. Still, the overall readership of so many US publications and the MSM cable networks like CNBC or even the Washington Post, has drastically declined.

So, that entire industry and 4th estate is drastically in need of revision, (which is obviously occurring, whether the participants of the old branch realize it or not). And, with Murdoch taking over this one, the only “winners” might be the Bancroft Family, since they would be getting far much more than the paper is currently worth. For the employees of that paper, (which is the position from which Eugene is speaking) they will still become marginalized and less significant. Shall we call it ‘downsized”?

With all of those extra printing presses, Mr. Murdock needs even fewer columnists and editors to put out propaganda. Just a few writers are all he needs, and the machines will do the rest.

Meantime, we’ll just have to keep seaching independant or foreign publications for our news.

TV stations buy newspapers who buy radio who buy movie studios who buy magazines, somewhere in that order.

Time for anti-trust actions by our congress.

There use to be over 50 independent radio, TV and newspaper businesses’ each verifiying the veracity of each others “news”.  Now it’s info-tainment, where various news is stifled and others embellished.

Now with only 6 major “sayanim” conglomerates, Murdoch being one, that are complict in steering the media and the news that’s being reported, the question arises, who gets the spotlight for the moment, Britney or Iraq?

This is the same media who reports the candidate polls and provides coverage for Kucinich, Paul, Gravel and Nader.

I suppose that we can anticipate seeing scantily clad young boys in the centerfold of a Murdoch-owned WSJ - to cater to the tastes of the world’s movers-and-shakers audience Of course, Bush never reads a newspaper but he can look at the pictures. The subscription rolls are likely to burst from new Catholic priest readers (make that lookers)

I don’t care. Let him have it, it will remove the false veneer of respectability from WSJ that it has never deserved.