Kurt Andersen

By far the strongest piece of the case against Rupert Mudoch owning the Wall Street Journal are his dealings with China. During the last decade various News Corp. media entitites, in order to remain on the good side of Beijing regime, have tended to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative when it comes to the regime. Therefore, the very plausible argument goes, Murdoch ownership might well compromise the Journal‘s reporting on China. That was the thrust of Joseph Kahn’s big piece in Tuesday’s Times, for instance.

But among the scads of coverage, why has no one — like, say, the News Corp. spokesman Gary Ginsberg — mentioned 24? During the last two seasons of the series, the Chinese government has been the heavy — they shanghaied and tortured both Jack Bauer and his girlfriend, conspired with Jack’s murderous father, and almost caused Russia to attack the U.S. If Murdoch were really as determined to kowtow as he’s been portrayed, why would he let one of his most successful shows consistently and grandly libel his Chinese pals?

This doesn’t, of course, prove that his Journal would cover China aggressively, but it does seem relevant to the discussion.