Murdoch interview could have been tougher, admits WSJ special committee

Source: The Guardian

The Wall Street Journal "could have done a better job" when it published an interview with proprietor Rupert Murdoch in which he said News Corporation had made only "minor mistakes" in managing the phone-hacking scandal, according to the paper's special editorial committee.

In a report published in the Journal on Monday designed to answer critics of its phone-hacking coverage, the committee – set up when Murdoch bought the paper in 2007 – admitted that its journalists failed to cover the scandal as promptly as its rivals. It also offered criticism of a one-sided interview earlier this month, just 24 hours before News Corp lost two of its most senior newspaper executives, including Les Hinton, who was responsible for the Dow Jones newswires.

" could have done a better job with a recent story allowing Mr Murdoch to get his side of the story on the record without tougher questioning," the report said, adding "We have discussed this with the involved editors."

However, in response to a political request for evidence that the US journalists were not involved in wrongdoing last week, the committee found "nothing to even hint that the sort of misdeeds alleged in London have somehow crept into Dow Jones".

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/25/murdoch-interview-could-have-been-tougher-wsj

It looks as if the cat knocked them on the floor while he was sleeping.

were right-wing sycophants, and they loved it.

"Much of the committee's evidence seems to have been gathered by asking relevant editors and reporters: "Is anybody putting political, ideological or commercial pressure on you to influence your news judgment?" The answer, perhaps unsurprisingly, is "no".

Perhaps the true answer is unsurprisingly 'I want to keep my job.'

Thanks for the thread, alp.

Any less "tough" and they would have been feeding him bon-bons and peeled grapes while fanning him w/oastrich feathers. Sheesh.

Get real. Anyone looking to a Murdoch entity for hard-nosed reporting on Murdoch's corruption could somehow hook up the Hubble Telescope to the greatest electron microscope with the finest lenses, use a hawk to look through the viewfinder, and you still wouldn't detect the first scintilla of "tough" reporting.

And could you blame them? As famously petty and vindictive as Murdoch and his employees are, would you want to plunge your bare hand into that hornets' nest?