Wall Street Journal

Go read the amazing homage written in the Wall Street Journal by his father :

When an unarmed journalist is killed, we are reminded of both the freedoms that we treasure in our society, and how vulnerable we all are to forces that threaten those freedoms.

But this still does not explain the attention given to Danny's tragedy. After all, 30 other journalists were killed in 2002, and 118 journalists have been killed in Iraq alone since that war began.

The shocking element in Danny's murder was that he was killed, not for what he wrote or planned to write, but for what he represented -- America, modernity, openness, pluralism, curiosity, dialogue, fairness, objectivity, freedom of inquiry, truth and respect for all people. In short, each and every one of us was targeted in Karachi in January of 2002.

It's not a touchy feely homage, but a reminder that Daniel Pearl's blood is in all our hands, especially the media :

One of the things that saddens me most is that the press and media have had an active, perhaps even major role in fermenting hate and inhumanity. It was not religious fanaticism alone.

This was first brought to my attention by the Pakistani Consul General who came to offer condolences at our home in California. When we spoke about the anti-Semitic element in Danny's murder she said: "What can you expect of these people who never saw a Jew in their lives and who have been exposed, day and night, to televised images of Israeli soldiers targeting and killing Palestinian children."

At the time, it was not clear whether she was trying to exonerate Pakistan from responsibility for Danny's murder, or to pass on the responsibility to European and Arab media for their persistent de-humanization of Jews, Americans and Israelis. The answer was unveiled in 2004, when a friend told me that photos of Muhammad Al Dura were used as background in the video tape of Danny's murder.

[...]

The Pakistani Consul was right. The media cannot be totally exonerated from responsibility for Daniel's murder, as well as for the "tsunami of hate" that has swept the world and continues to rise.

Go read the whole thing.

Rupert Murdoch is trying to buy Down Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal. Now, the WSJ is pretty right wing biased to start with, but they have their own independence that would be sadly lost if Murdoch has his way, becoming another cheap rag mouthpiece of right wing extremists.

But what is interesting is there seems to be a sign that the deal is already done.

For several days now, I have seen that the WSJ in Park Slope, Brooklyn, have been delivered in bags marked "New York Post." At first I thought nothing of it, but it has been consistent for a few days at least and it is highly unusual. You don't expect New York Post to be wrapped in a bag saying "New York Times" or visa versa. Is this some kind of Murdoch pissing on the territory he wants to add to his empire of lying, ranting rags? I would love to know just how one paper winds up being delivered in a wrapper marked with the name of another paper.

On a related note, my concerns about Murdoch ruining the integrity of the Wall Street Journal with his love of lying extremists is apparantly shared by the director of Dow Jones & Co, Dieter von Holtzbrinck .

From Salon.com:

In a letter to Dow Jones' other board members, von Holtzbrinck said he was "very worried" that the company's "unique journalistic values will long-term strongly suffer after the proposed sale." Dow Jones disclosed von Holtzbrinck's departure and included a copy of his letter in a regulatory filing Thursday...