Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Marcus Brauchli has resigned from The Wall Street Journal...

Why should I care? Wasn’t this inevitable? Ever since Rupert Murdoch bought The Wall Street Journal, whose habitually right leaning op-ed pages have pushed intellectual dishonesty to new heights (read: lows), -the clock has been ticking on this paper’s credibility. I have to tell you, all things considered, it was still one of the world’s greatest newspapers. Its reporters have balls. Read today’s examination of McCain’s “crazy ol’ man tax cut plan” by Laura Melker. She opens her article thus:

“Sen. John McCain is proposing tax cuts that would either cause the federal deficit to explode or would require unprecedented spending cuts equal to one-third of federal spending on domestic programs.”

-I’m not bullshitting. That was in today’s Wall Street Journal, not The New York Times, and not The Nation. See it for yourself right here. There’s even a mucous and rotting grey color bar chart with breakdowns in case you’re confused about exactly how America gets fucked this time while big business rolls along on everybody else’s backs.
Make no mistake, John McCain will be our next president, and so far the WSJ seems to be the only paper asking hard questions about his intentions, their analysis impeccable… for at least a little while longer anyway. So say goodbye to all that useful shit, folks.

It would seem that Marcus Brauchli (who had a very good reputation for protecting reporters and their stories) was installed to calm everyone down a few months ago, staff, investors, editors, reporters, readers included. But now it’s apparent that was his only purpose, and at just short of a year (11 months) he is out as managing editor today, having outlived his uselessness (yes I’m feeling clever today). He filed his letter of resignation after meeting with the editorial independence board that was created when News Corp. bought WSJ’s publisher, Dow Jones. Now think about it... that an “editorial independence board” was formed as soon as Rupert Murdoch crept and slunk in through their window is an indication of how blatant his corrupting partisan elitist influence is. Rupert Murdoch is on a mission to end American journalism. The staff at the Wall Street Journal knew it, and so did you. Expect no editorializing, no talking points, opinions or other castigations and theatrical outrage from Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Anne Coulter or any of those other liars who claim to be watchdogs of bias and unfairness in the news media, while fomenting and perpretrating bias and unfairness in the news media.
Now that Brauchli has resigned, there is no one to protect this paper's credibility from its owner. For a fictional corresponding example, think of J. Jonah Jameson’s patrician mangling of the Daily Bugle… Oh wait, that’s right, JJJ at least went after the King Pin as well as Spiderman but Rupert Murdoch is the King Pin in this analogy. News Corp. executives reportedly visited the newsroom to address editors and reporters about the change and any concerns that might arise. They finished their remarks and purposefully didn’t give Mr. Brauchli a chance to make a formal farewell in the newsroom to his staff, something of a tradition when a managing Editor leaves a paper.

Bulldozing anything resembling the responsibilities of the Fourth Estate is the new tradition that Rupert Murdoch represents.

-SJ











1 comment:

Mycue23 said...

Apparently Rupert Murdoch is on a mission to make fox news the model for all media in America. You wonder why this administration has been allowed to make the Constitution its bitch? Look no further than the toothless "Fourth Estate" courtesy of your Uncle Rupert.