Foes of media consolidation are wringing their hands over Rupert Murdoch's $5-billion acquisition of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal. The purchase gives News Corp., Murdoch's global media conglomerate, control over the country's second-most popular newspaper -- a nice addition to such assets as Fox Broadcasting Co., the FX cable network, the 20th Century Fox movie studio, 35 local TV stations, MySpace.com, book publisher HarperCollins, TV Guide, the New York Post and a controlling stake in DirecTV. And that's just its U.S. investments.
Michael J. Copps, one of two Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission, called for an immediate inquiry into the transaction. "What's good for shareholders of huge media conglomerates isn't always what's good for the public interest or our civic dialogue," Copps warned. Other critics predicted that Murdoch would sacrifice quality at the Journal for the sake of profits, politics or other corporate interests. Such worries are understandable, given what Murdoch has done with other properties. Yet the doomsayers overlook the force that made the Journal what it is today: investors' hunger for reliable information.
