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GUEST: Tim Karr, Campaign Director of Free Press

Last Wednesday, the Board of Directors of Dow Jones voted to approve Rupert Murdoch’s five billion dollar News Corporation bid to acquire the company. The proposed sale still needs the approval of the Bancroft family stockholders who will meet this coming Monday. Descendants of Clarence Barron who bought the Wall Street Journal from its founders, the Bancroft family will have several days to decide whether or not to sell the company. Six weeks prior to the board’s approval, the Bancroft family had initially rejected the proposed five billion dollar deal. Should News Corporation acquire the Dow Jones Company, Rupert Murdoch would control the Wall Street Journal which has the second highest circulation among newspapers in the US. The online edition of the Wall Street Journal boasts the highest paid subscription rates in the world. The Dow Jones Company as a whole has seen an increase in revenue, advertising and subscriptions in the past year. Media reform activists decry any News Corp – Dow Jones deal as detrimental to media democracy and ethical journalism.

For more information, visit www.stopbigmedia.com.

Rough Transcript:

Kolhatkar: Thank you very much for joining us today. So, first, explain for our listeners the significance of the Wall Street Journal in the media landscape today.

Tim Karr: The Wall Street Journal has a mixed reputation but some people feel that the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal are highly ideological and that may be true, but the reporting side of the Wall Street Journal, the business reporting side, the news pages, maintain some of the highest standards of journalism in the United States. It’s a very accountable newspaper of record on international and US business. So, it’s a very important institution for business in the United States and it also holds up one of the highest standards of journalism in the United States.

Kolhatkar: Remind us of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire: He owns Fox News Corporation and basically is one of the largest owners of international media in the world today.

Tim Karr: Yes, that’s right. News Corp., which is Rupert Murdoch’s organization, his company, owns properties across all sectors. They are in publishing, they are in movie production, they own a number of television stations, Fox television stations, across the country. They own cable stations, Fox News Channel most notably, and print publications. They own a New York newspaper, the New York Post and other newspapers and print publications both in the United States and abroad. They’re also in satellite television across the country. He is a very influential man and he has a massive empire that really rivals some of the media mogul empires of old, the Hearst Corporation of old and others. Unfortunately, Rupert Murdoch is a media mogul who is not afraid to push his personal, political and financial agenda across all of these networks and try to create some sort of consensus of opinion, and to strong-arm both legislators and the media to his point of view.

Kolhatkar: Let’s talk about what you anticipate the fate of the Wall Street Journal could be under Murdoch’s ownership. What have we learned from his buying of other news corporations?

Tim Karr: It’s interesting. What he does is, he will buy up properties and he’ll create what a lot of the media conglomerates like to call “synergy”. Synergy is where you have capacities across your various networks and you share them. But, for most people or for actual working journalists, synergy usually means layoffs. It means that oftentimes you’ll have journalists who are working on your television channel doing reporting that will show up on some of your print publications. One thing that’s worrisome in particular about Murdoch is that he’s planning to launch FBN, the financial news network, which is a news channel, a cable news channel to rival CNBC at the same time that he’s planning to purchase the Wall Street Journal. So, you’ll have synergies across these platforms. The thing that’s extra-worrisome is that the financial business news channel will be overseen by a fellow by the name of Roger Ailes, who is also president of the Fox News Channel, which is known, I think you know it’s fairly accepted as a fairly right-wing propagandistic news station. So, when you have Roger Ailes overseeing the financial business network and then you have this sort of synergy between journalists at the Wall Street Journal, you’re going to see this kind of creeping influence that’s going to seep it’s way from the boardroom and from the ownership structures of News Corp. into the news room of the Wall Street Journal, which heretofore has held pretty high standards. The fear is, and I think it’s well justified, that it will be only a matter of time before he influences the hiring of editors who influence the selections of stories and not only that but also the way stories are spun in the Wall Street Journal.

Kolhatkar: Tim, is Murdoch pushing up against any anti-trust laws in this bid?

Tim Karr: At the moment it doesn’t send up any significant red flags. We’re hoping that Free Press, my organization, that people can organize around regulations that exist at the FCC that prohibit the cross-ownership. There are FCC ownership rules that prohibit companies from owning, say, newspapers and television stations in the same market. The Wall Street Journal is a national paper. It’s not considered a local paper, but in the New York market, Murdoch does own two television stations, a local newspaper, The New York Post, and he has received what’s called a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission that allows him to do that. So, I don’t think there is any legalistic way, or policy way, that we can change the outcome of this planned merger. However, it is emblematic of a larger problem in our country and that is the consolidation of media that forces out local views, that forces out the sort of diversity of opinion, and threatens layoffs, layoffs of journalists, which threatens journalism at large, which is a threat to our democracy. We do need a functioning fourth of state, functioning newspapers, independent newspapers to question the powerful, and Murdoch symbolizes not a challenge to structures of power in this country, but someone who is more interested in influencing the elite and being one of them as opposed to representing the so-called disenfranchised, regular people like you and me.

Kolhatkar: Tim Karr is the Campaign Director of Free Press. We’re discussing Rupert Murdoch’s corporations five billion dollar News Corporation bid to acquire the Dow Jones Company which owns the Wall Street Journal. At this point it seems as though the only thing that could stop this bid could be the Bancroft family itself, which owns Dow Jones. Is that correct?

Tim Karr: That’s right. There has been some dissent amongst member of Bancroft family but they are the majority shareholders. So, the process, it’s now been approved by the board and now it goes to a shareholder vote. The Bancrofts do hold the majority. So, on the one hand, they’ve spoken out about preserving the integrity of journalism and they’ve managed to strike an editorial agreement with Rupert Murdoch that in theory that would do that, but it’s got a lot of holes in it; but on the other hand you have this offer of five billion dollars, which is a sixty-five percent increase over the current share price of Dow Jones on the market. So, there is this temptation among shareholders to accept this offer and reap the windfall. Our hope is that they all hold their interest in maintaining journalism’s integrity higher than their interest in reaping the rewards of a very lucrative offer.

Kolhatkar: Tim, is their any murmur of dissent among the staff of the Wall Street Journal that you’ve heard of?

Tim Karr: There’s an interesting story in the New York Times today about a number of high-level editors and journalists who have expressed their concern about this. It’s in today’s New York Times. I also have friends who are editors and journalists at the Journal who said the same. There is, I think, some rumbling dissent amongst the staff. There is a union there, the IAPE, which is the union that’s associated with the Communications Workers of America that has tried to organize some of their members to have a stronger voice in this merger and this buyout. So, there is a chance that they will take a stand but ultimately the final decision is now in the hands of the Bancroft family.

Kolhatkar: Let’s talk a little bit about the broader context of Rupert Murdoch in today’s media landscape but also political landscape. As you mentioned, Murdoch is someone who is not afraid of influencing all of the media that he owns with his own, very conservative views and has been quite a friend to the Bush administration. What do you think his role is going to be in the upcoming presidential elections which could see a change of power in the White House?

Tim Karr: That’s an interesting question because while he has been ideologically aligned with Republicans and the right, he is also a fairly prominent supporter of Hillary Clinton, of course the democratic presidential candidate. So, Rupert Murdoch is an interesting person. Yes, he does use his power, his media power to try to influence policy in America but oftentimes he just aligns himself with the elite, those people who he thinks are going to be in power, as opposed to those who share his ideological views.

Kolhatkar: Or, perhaps it says something about Hillary Clinton herself?

Tim Karr: That’s true. Obviously, Hillary has been called a centrist and even further to the right by some, so he may be just hedging his bets. He has a history of influencing legislation on a number of fronts, even using book deals with his publishing arm with vary influential members of Congress and others in Washington to try to win their favor when it comes time to make key policy decisions.

Kolhatkar: Tim, finally, is there anything that listeners can do about this issue short of becoming more active in the media justice movement?

Tim Karr: The media justice, the media reform movement is an important place to be right now. There is a critical vote coming up at the Federal Communications Commission and they’ve been convening a number of hearings on that. They had a hearing in Los Angeles not too long ago. They are deciding to the extent to which these large corporations, corporations like Murdoch’s, can own local newspapers and local television stations. You can go to a number of the organizations that are involved in the media reform movement. Freepress.net has a coalition website at stopbigmedia.com where activists can get engaged at a number of levels: coming to hearings, writing letters to their members of Congress, writing letters to the editor and also, sending in comments to the Federal Communications Commission.

Kolhatkar: And on this particular issue is it worth getting in touch with the FCC to try to see if there is any regulation that could be emphasized, or could be enforced to prevent this merger?

Tim Karr: I would say it’s always worth the effort to get in touch with the FCC. The current ruling that the FCC is considering is around this issue of local ownership, diversity and cross-ownerships. So, you can get in touch with them and say the Murdoch issue, the Wall Street Journal issue has raised your concerns about this ruling and try to get them to rule in our favor on that front. However, it is somewhat indirect. There is no single piece of legislation or single FCC ruling that could stop this merger at the moment.

Kolhatkar: And they can do that through the website stopbigmedia.com?

Tim Karr: Stopbigmedia.com has a lot of resources that are available to people who want to get more engaged.

Kolhatkar: Tim Karr, I want to that you very much for joining us today.

Tim Karr: Thank you.

Kolhatkar: Tim Karr is campaign director of Free Press and the website again that he mentioned is stopbigmedia.com.

Special Thanks to Jemille Bailey for transcribing this interview