The Idea Blog

So what do we think about the WSJ and its new owner? Is this the end of the venerable institution or just the hand-off of a great tradition from one set of owners to another?

I asked my friend Jim Nugent about it. He’s a big fan of the Journal, subscribes to both the print and digital editions. And he’s a media guy, maybe not an “ink-stained wretch,” but he loves the media as a business professional and a consumer.

“Not that big a deal,” he summarized. “I don’t think Rupert is the big, bad media pervert he’s made out to be.” (I’m paraphrasing.) Jim and I agree that Murdoch’s WSJ will likely be a better media property, that it’s always been biased (what’s another bias when the old one already represented a split political personality?) and that time was up for the dysfunctional family on parade we’ve been watching in the news. “The Bancrofts”: how about all the crazy limbs of that family tree?

Amidst all this sturm and drang, however, there remained some excellent reporting by - of all sources  - The Wall Street Journal. I especially liked Cynthia Crossen’s “It All Began in the Basement of a Candy Store,” a marvelous history and retrospective of the Journal’s history.