If Murdoch buys Dow Jones,

Will it make a difference? Well, yes, obviously. It will make NewsCorp a bit more powerful, and it will make Rupert a bit happier, neither of which is what I would choose. On the other hand, I can't say that it would make the Wall Street Journal any worse. Probably the opposite. It would make it harder for the WSJ to pretend that it was the model of integrity for upscale conservatism. It owes its circulation to the forced subscriptions of the business class, and it owes its editorial influence to a shameless disregard for truth and a willingness to pander.

I find it unreadable as a whole newspaper; it's one of the few newspapers that I prefer to read as disarticulated items on the web. Typically I prefer reading the paper version of a newspaper because of the inefficiency of it. I like having to physically turn pages to get past the items I don't want to read. I like having to see and acknowledge everything in the newspaper to read what I want to read. It makes me hear the voice of the paper and it allows me to feel that I'm part of a community of readers. The web version of most papers don't allow that. They encourage you to go directly to items of interest--they narrowcast themselves. The WSJ is more palatable if you can consume it that way--if you can skim the information from the pages without having to hear the voice of the paper or feel part of its community of readers. To me, it's more that way than any of Rupert's other properties.

Stuart Hall once described the encounter of feminism with cultural studies this way: We invited them to come in the front door and eat at the table with us. They came in through the window and shat on the table. (Hall thought this was an altogether appropriate way for the oppressed to make their entrance, by the way.) Rupert ain't oppressed, but he sure is coming in through the window, and you can see the folks at the table cringeing, expecting a big steamy one any minute now. It doesn't break my heart.