Defenders of journalistic integrity are nervously gnawing at their fingertips now that the Dow Jones board has recommended accepting Rupert Murdoch’s offer to purchase their souls. All that remains now is for the Bancrofts to meet and then reveal their decision. They can still block the sale.
Observers say that it is too close to call. There are a few noble members of the controlling shareholders group that are standing firm against Murdoch. There are also those who are salivating at the thought of the new riches the sale will bring them. For the rest, they would do well to consider the prospects News Corp is floating for the editorial board that is intended to keep a distance between Murdoch and the Journal.
The Rogues Gallery:
Theodore B. Olson: Olsen was Assistant Attorney General under Ronald Reagan, whom he also defended in the Iran/Contra scandal. He went on to become Solicitor General in the administration of Bush, the Elder. Later he represented Bush, the Lesser in the Supreme Court case versus Al Gore.
Jack Fuller: Fuller was president of Tribune Publishing Company, and former editor of the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune Company is an unabashedly conservative enterprise and the Chicago Tribune is newsprint version of Fox News.
Thomas Bray: Bray is the former editorial-page editor of the Detroit News. He has a pre-existing relationship with the Wall Street Journal as a writer for OpinionJournal.com, which the Journal owns. At OJ he shared bylines with ultra-right wingers like Paul Gigot, John Fund, and Peggy Noonan.
Susan Hockfield: Hockfield is president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to her post at MIT, she was a provost at Yale where she was at the center of a bitter controversy surrounding the Graduate Employees and Students Organization and its unionization efforts. She was staunchly anti-union.
With this preview of what Murdoch is proposing for the entity that is supposed to prevent him from influencing newsroom operations, we can see clearly that he is not the least bit interested in keeping his word or adhering to the terms of the agreement negotiated to preserve editorial independence. I certainly hope that the wavering Bancrofts and other shareholders are paying attention.
Update (8/1/07): The latest roster for the board now includes Lou Boccardi, former head of the Associated Press, Jennifer Dunn, former Republican House member, and Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT’s Media Lab.
If this means that Olsen and Hockfield are gone, I’d call this an improvement. But Dunn, Fuller, and Bray, could still cause trouble.
Sheesh! Ted Olson keeps turning up like a bad penny…
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People for the American Way writes that Olson, “one of the most prominent ultra-conservative lawyers in Washington”, “came to Washington in 1981 to work in President Reagan’s Justice Department and later represented the former president during the Iran-Contra scandal. Having argued the Supreme Court case of Vice President Albert Gore Jr. v. Gov. George W. Bush that essentially decided the presidential election in his client’s favor, Olson has remained a key player on the national stage.
“He has served on the boards of various right-wing foundations and think tanks, including the Washington Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm with an ultra-conservative and free-market emphasis, and the Independent Women’s Forum. Olson also was the head of the Washington D.C. chapter of the right-wing Federalist Society.
“Olson, a former law partner of one-time Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, assisted Paula Jones’ legal team in her sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton. Olson also represented Whitewater figure David Hale during Senate hearings investigating the Clintons’ role in the Arkansas land deal. Olson wrote scathing articles about the Clinton administration and Janet Reno, and was involved in the “Arkansas Project” an effort by the American Spectator magazine to use private investigators to uncover damaging information regarding the Clintons. The project was funded with $2 million from right-wing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife.
“Olson is known for his right-wing views on affirmative action and other civil rights issues. During his legal career he unsuccessfully defended both the Virginia Military Institute’s decision to exclude women despite its state funding and the Colorado initiative that would have barred cities and towns from passing gay rights statutes. He won the case that overturned affirmative action admission policies for the University of Texas Law School.”
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http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Theodore_B._Olson
Quite right.
I was trying to keep each bio brief, but it was hard with Olsen because he’s got a long rap sheet. He was also married to Barbara Olson, a right wing conservative TV commentator who was killed in the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11.
Regarding your post at Corrent, I’m all for pimping, coz, “hell there ain’t no laws anymore”. I’m beginning to wonder if there ever were any.
Jeebus, I wish someone would pay me a couple million to rip somebody to shreds, legally or otherwise, since their “ain’t no laws in Bushworld,” anyway.
You did a good job of nailing quite a few of the worst on the citizenry of Wingnuttia.
Now, how in do we get rid of them?
How do we get rid of them?
We fight. We expose them at every opportunity. We force politicians and regulators to enact laws that protect the public interest. We break up the media monopolies.
I didn’t say it would be easy.
This just in:
Negroponte received $2.5 million dollars from Murdoch for a charitable enterprise he runs. He is also the brother of John Negroponte, currently Deputy Secretary of State, formerly Director of National Intelligence.