There’s a lot of activity in the News Corp. boardroom these days. Fox News just announced that their Fox Business Network will launch October 15, 2007. The Dow Jones acquisition, while not a certainty, is still proceeding apace. So it is always good to review what sort of service we can expect from News Corp. properties. PR Watch gives us another good example for why we have a right to worry about the expanding influence of Rupert Murdoch and Co.

[Philip Morris] cultivated a close relationship with Murdoch, and it has served PM’s interests admirably. An internal PM issue presentation titled The Perspective of PM International of Smoking and Health Issues, states PM’s intent to exploit its relationship with Murdoch:

A number of media proprietors … are sympathetic to our position – Rupert Murdoch and Malcolm Forbes are two good examples. The media like the money they make from our advertisements and they are an ally that we can and should exploit.

The PM document goes on to brag about how, “Murdoch’s papers rarely publish anti-smoking articles these days.” This was hardly a happy coincidence of editorial policy given that Murdoch was serving on the board of Philip Morris, and PM CEO Geoffrey C. Bible later joined the board of News Corp.

Murdoch has already promised that the Fox Business Network would be more “business friendly.” These revelations demonstrate just how intimate that friendship can be. How could anyone take such a network seriously? And how will anyone ever be able to take the Wall Street Journal seriously again, if Murdoch’s bid succeeds?