American newspapers are quick on the draw in disclosing potential conflicts of interest, especially if they are reporting on companies owned the same group. For instance, when the Wall Street Journal reports on itself or its holding company Dow Jones, it ends its reports with this full disclosure:
“Dow Jones publishes the Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron’s, the Far Eastern Economic Review, MarketWatch, Dow Jones Indexes and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones owns Factiva and co-owns SmartMoney with Hearst Corp. It also provides news content to CNBC television operations world-wide and to radio stations in the U.S.”
Jack Shafer of Slate isn’t quite looking forward to the day when Rupert Murdoch will take over the WSJ, but he suspects the Journal‘s mandatory disclosure will read a bit like this when he does:
“News Corp. publishes the Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron’s, the Far Eastern Economic Review, MarketWatch, Dow Jones Indexes, and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. News Corp. owns Factiva and co-owns SmartMoney with Hearst Corp. News Corp. owns 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight, Fox Broadcasting Company, MyNetworkTV, Fox Sports Australia, television stations of the Fox Broadcasting Group, as well as stations in Eastern Europe and other cable channels around the world. News Corp. owns or has large holdings in the satellite broadcasters DirecTV, STAR, BSkyB, Foxtel, and Sky Italia. News Corp. owns or has large holdings in a dozen cable channels, including Fox News Channel, FX, Speed, Fox Reality, Fox Sports Net, Fox Movie Channel, Fuel TV, and the National Geographic Channel. News Corp. owns two dozen newspapers around the world. News Corp. owns or has large holdings in the Weekly Standard, Gemstar-TV Guide International, and many magazines. News Corp. owns MySpace, FoxSports.com, and many other Web sites. News Corp. owns HarperCollins Publishers, Zondervan books, MySpace Records, and News Outdoor Group (billboards). News Corp. has a large holding in the National Rugby League. News Corp. also owns businesses too obscure to describe here, such as Broadsystem (“Closer contact. Great insight.”), Milkround, and NDS.
Read the full article here: Composing Murdoch’s disclosure
IJR 