Rupert Murdoch

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...

I all seemed so perfect! How could it possibly go wrong? You get Bernie Kerik's lover, Judith Regan, to edit a thinly veiled tell all book by OJ Simpson and get Rupert Murdoch and Fox to market it to sleaze crazed Americans. Perfect!

You had the tough Bernie Kerik...the sleazy Judith Regan...and of course you had Rupert Murdoch trying to create a new wave of OJ hysteria for his own profit. Clearly it is right-wing Republican family values at it's best, right?

But somehow, this went too far for most Americans...and even for anti-Semitic, lying, splotchy old Bill O'Reilly. There was a mini rebellion at Fox that led to Murdoch backing out, leaving Regan high and dry to once again look like the sleazy one. (And for those who don't know about it, Judith Regan is the woman Bernie Kerik had a year-long affair with, kicking Ground Zero workers out of an apartment overlooking Ground Zero so they would have a place to meet).

So what does Regan do? She takes the Mel Gibson/Saudi Arabia defense: Blame the Jews.

Now, at the risk of fueling her paranoia, since I am Jewish, I just want to say that blaming a "Jewish Cabal" for the collapse of the Kerik-Regan-Murdoch-Simpson Sleaze Scheme and for Regan's getting fired from Harper Collins is just plain insane. At least Mel Gibson had the decency to admit he was drunk and stupid when he blamed Jews for his getting arrested. Regan is just plain nuts and yet this is the woman Kerik and Murdoch loved so much.