News Corp. Looks Set To Lock Down Dow Jones

from the just-about dept

Tue, Jul 17th 2007 8:37am — Joseph Weisenthal

After months of negotiations, News Corp.'s bid for Dow Jones looks like it's close to completion. A tentative agreement still needs to be ratified by the full board, but barring any last minute surprises, it seems as though the original offer of $5 billion will stand. The timing is great for News Corp., as it recently set a date for the launch of its business channel, and it will undoubtedly use the Dow Jones brand to bolster the channel's credibility, helping it take on the industry leader, CNBC. It's safe to assume that there are various measures in place designed to prevent Rupert Murdoch from radically changing the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones' crown jewel, but ultimately, once the Bancroft family hands over the keys, all bets are off.

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Filed Under: media
Companies: dow jones, news corp

13 Comments

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Greg, 17 Jul 2007 @ 9:27am

Oh goddamnit.
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GoblinJuice, 17 Jul 2007 @ 9:54am

Kick ass!
I love FoxNews! =D

Now, as long as the new channel keeps the hot infobabes, I'll be in heaven.

Tell me you wouldn't want your business news delivered by these women: Julie Banderas, Courtney Friel, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Megyn Kelly.
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Brad, 17 Jul 2007 @ 9:59am

More "Fair and Balanced"...
Great that the most blatantly biased and factually inaccurate news company company can start it's magic in the financial markets. GOP TV is on the march!
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Hidden Force, 17 Jul 2007 @ 10:25am

Re: More
It's funny how, compared to the far-left mainstream media (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NY Times, LA Times, Time, Newsweek, etc.) that Fox News appears *so* "blatantly biased" when in reality they are just not as "blatantly pro-left" as the others are. If anything, they are just slightly just (as in mere millimeters) left-of-center. If by "factually inaccurate" you mean they don't spew the same leftist propaganda that the other news outlets do, then you're right, but their news presentation is still not the "far-right propaganda" that you are implying it is.

Yes, Fox News has hosts that are of a conservative bent (Sean Hannity, Ollie North, even Brit Hume), but there are just as many who are of a liberal bent (Alan Colmes, Geraldo, even Shepard Smith). Bill O'Reilly is perceived by liberals as being far-right, but he is perceived by conservatives as center-left, so he's a toss-up.

In any case, if there was a news outlet that was as far to the right as the mainstreams are to the left, Fox News would seem like Pravda or China's Xinhua News Agency in comparison.

In the end, I think the purchase of Dow Jones (and the Wall Street Journal) is a purely business decision to coincide with the start of the Fox Financial channel (as Joe mentioned) and has nothing to do with politics, so think what you want about FNC, but it has no bearing on the purchase.
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Hidden Force, 17 Jul 2007 @ 10:32am

News Babes
Oh, and GoblinJuice is right about Julie Bandaras and Megyn Kelly. ;) Kimberly Guilfoyle... not so much.
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acm, 17 Jul 2007 @ 10:35am

Re: More "Fair and Balanced"...
Care to provide a few examples of TEH FOX NEWS LIEZ!!!!!!111? Thanks.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jul 2007 @ 10:57am

faux news lies
Head over to mediamatters.org and you can see plenty of them. An example would be when showing pictures of pervert Mark Foley labeling him as a democrat.
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Overcast, 17 Jul 2007 @ 11:02am

or you can go to www.infowars.com and see how both sides are ripe with corruption and play this two party ruse while laughing at us all.

I think they love the 'smoke and mirrors' of this two party ruse.
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Jeb, 17 Jul 2007 @ 11:17am

Re: Re: More
I would say the main difference between them is that they use the words "Liberal" to describe anything they don't like.
The other new options while still lame don't seem to invest as much time trying to spew direct propaganda about a political view that is not lining their pockets as directly.
While the other news sources may be ultra liberal or whatever they do not seem to be so crass and classless about it.
If a large piece of the moon fell into the earth the guys at fox news would find the last Democrat that had the opportunity to have some sort of preventative action about it and blame him (even if this was 75 years ago).
In fact I would say they are more about trying to establish the blame for each event then report that the event happened.
For the more fascist minded portion of our culture who would prefer more laws and control under the guise of protecting freedom this is business as usual.
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Charles "Red Beard" Griswold, 17 Jul 2007 @ 12:19pm

Re: Kick ass!
Tell me you wouldn't want your business news delivered by these women: Julie Banderas, Courtney Friel, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Megyn Kelly.
Arrr, ye can deliver me all t'business news ye care t', me proud beauties!

Umm, sorry about that. I've been reading a bit too much of the Talk Like a Pirate Day website. :-)
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anusgeuse, 17 Jul 2007 @ 8:29pm

Re: Kick ass!
You have fallen prey to the noise machine.

Just know that man coulter is not a human.
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Brad, 18 Jul 2007 @ 1:58pm

Re: Re: More "Fair and Balanced"...
http://www.newshounds.us/

Or the Univeristy of Maryland's study:
http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Iraq/IraqMedia_Oct03/IraqMedia_Oct03_pr.pdf

Wake up dude.
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mitchboan, 1 Aug 2007 @ 3:34am

Run!
News Corp has not been able to use blatant propaganda in the United States, but in other countries he broadcasts to.. diff story. Over seas he controls more minds than just the drones that watch Fox over here. If you want to do something devious in America, it takes time, which by the way is an illusion.
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