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The news business made news as Dow Jones approved the $5bn takeover bid by News Corp--or, stated as household names, Rupert Murdoch will now publish The Wall Street Journal. The media consolidation was Story of the Day and the lead item on both ABC and NBC. CBS chose a graft investigation into Ted Stevens, the senior Republican senator from Alaska, as the FBI looked into the billing for his home improvement construction.

All three networks agreed that a key element of the Dow Jones deal concerned cable television at least as much as the Journal newspaper. NBC's Andrea Mitchell stated that Murdoch "anticipates a big boom in financial news and a Dow Jones brand could help him launch a new business channel that will compete with CNBC"…ABC's David Muir (subscription required) predicted that the well-known Wall Street Journal name will "bolster his soon-to-be-launched business channel"…and CBS' Kelly Wallace saw Murdoch "banking" on the Journal's prestige and its army of 740 reporters in 89 bureaus as he launches Fox Business Network.

As for the "aging newspaper industry," ABC's Muir quoted media insiders seeing Murdoch ensure that the Journal "survives for many years to come" while CBS' Wallace debated: is he a "white knight" try to save the newspaper or a "tabloid tycoon focused on shoring up other businesses?" NBC's Mitchell called Murdoch "a controversial press lord for the digital age," but funnily enough did not mention News Corp's digital arm. Only ABC's Muir listed MySpace.com among his properties--and, of course, FOX-TV's The Simpsons, using a wistful Montgomery Burns soundbite: "Well, I guess it is impossible to control all the media--unless, of course, you are Rupert Murdoch."

Andrew Tyndall 8/5/07 3:30:12 pm

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