The sentiments of the commentariat have decisively turned against the family that controls Dow Jones, reports Rachel Sklar at the Huffington Post. Although the Bancroft family's hesitation to sell to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is often dressed up as a concern for the editorial integrity of the Wall Street Journal, it's also been described by a source familiar with the family's thinking as a form of status anxiety. Controlling the company that owns the Wall Street journal has conveyed heightened prestige on the family, a prestige they are being asked to surrender in exchange for Murdoch coin (and probably some News Corp stock).
“Without the paper, they are simply another rich family from Boston,” the source explained.
Sklar's reporting shows that the worst fears of a loss of prestige seem to becoming reality. Sklar quotes from various media commentators who more or less accuse the Bancrofts of selling out.
"The various deals to retain editorial control through promises and pledges, boards of graybeards and watchdog committees seem pathetic, really. It's the roilings of a genteel poor family needing to sell its beloved estate to the parvenus* but not wanting to allow the unwashed to decorate their homestead... If you're so outraged by Murdoch, then don't sell," Matt Cooper has written.
New York media maven Tina Brown says: "The fact is, they're cashing out, and they should just get on with it if that's what they're going to do."
Others seem even more dissatisfied with the Bancroft family, comparing it unfavorably with the Corleone family of the Godfather movies.
Tina Brown on the Bancroft Family: "Why Don't They Just Cash Their Check And Shut Up" [Huffington Post]
Posted by Anonymous, Jul 20, 2007 10:15AM
Or perhaps some Bancrofts have a genuine interest in media integrity - a necessary condition for democracy?