COLUMN: 06-27-2007

If the Bancroft family is truly concerned about maintaining the Wall Street Journal's journalistic credentials, they should not sell to Newscorp - period. Any of the deals being made on an independent editorial board are absolutely meaningless once the new leadership structure is in place. It's clear that the Bancroft family is interested in increasing their financial stature and Rupert Murdoch is interested in gaining editorial control over a respectable newspaper (unlike his current holdings, which are all essentially tabloid-style newspapers, magazines, radio, and television stations with no journalistic integrity whatsoever). Trying to whitewash the deal with these negotiations will result in absolutely nothing in the end and the Wall Street Journal will take it's place as a mouthpiece for Newscorp. The best recent historical example of this situation was the DaimlerChrysler merger a decade ago. Everyone in the world was sold on the "merger of equals" and the so-called benefits of the deal, which all turned out to be false once the actual deal went through and the ultimate end result will be the death of Chrysler as an American automaker in the near future as it is chopped up and sold off in pieces by the investment firm who recently took it off DaimlerBenz's hands.