Fears that Rupert Murdoch would jeopardize the editorial independence of the Wall Street Journal have been a key sticking point in the News Corp. chairman's proposed $5-billion takeover of the newspaper's parent, Dow Jones & Co.
Critics cite as the latest example of those dangers Murdoch's little-noticed introduction in China of his red-hot MySpace Internet property.
Launched in April, MySpace China censors user comments on the social-networking site more than is necessary, analysts say. Its local ownership, they say, means the venture is obliged to cooperate with authorities more than it would have had to if it were based outside China.
Murdoch has paid close attention to the launch, bypassing News Corp.'s chain of command. His Chinese-born wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, a former executive at one of News Corp.'s Asian operations, recently was named the venture's strategy chief, her first executive role since marrying the mogul in 1999.
"It's the first thing she's been active in," said a longtime senior News Corp. executive who socializes with the Murdochs. "Her involvement has been her husband, their two children -- and now MySpace China."
News Corp. executives would not comment for this article, but company insiders say Murdoch felt safest trusting a member of his family with the delicate assignment. He sees China, with its huge population and rapidly blossoming middle class, as the final frontier for his empire, which reaches every corner of the globe through newspapers, satellite TV services, films, TV shows and networks such as Fox News and the soon-to-launch Fox Business Channel, which is set to debut this year.
Like most other Western media companies, News Corp. has been frustrated by the Chinese government's reluctance to open its airwaves or theaters to outsiders. Internet companies are subject to less regulation, so Murdoch hopes MySpace will grow on its own merits, enabling him to promote other News Corp. properties while showing the Chinese government he can be a trusted partner.
Murdoch's relentless expansionism, however, has become a barrier to his takeover of Dow Jones. News Corp. sees the Journal as a way to bolster the new financial news channel, but Dow Jones' controlling Bancroft family has been wary. On Friday, Dow Jones' board sent News Corp. a proposal aimed at protecting the paper's editorial integrity by keeping Murdoch at a distance from reporters, including a team that won a 2007 Pulitzer Prize for stories from China on such topics as deadly factory pollution, illegal coal mines and development in Tibet.
