“Robber Baron Over the Last Century”: Dow Jones Union Head on Likely New Boss Rupert Murdoch

• Free Press video.

With the purchase of Dow Jones and Company, Murdoch adds not just the Wall Street Journal to his holdings but also Barron's, the Far Eastern Economic Review, MarketWatch, Dow Jones Indexes, the Ottaway group of community newspaper and the online database Factiva. Prior to this week Murdoch's News Corp. already owned over 175 newspapers around the world including the New York Post.

His other prized holdings include the Fox TV network, Fox News, Myspace.com, the Weekly Standard, HarperCollins, The Times of London, the Australian newspaper, the Daily Telegraph, the Sun newspaper, the News of the World, Caribbean Life, part of the National Geographic channel, FX, the film company 20th Century Fox and part of TV Guide.

Besides amassing a media empire, Murdoch has repeatedly been accused of using his media holdings to advance his political agenda. In 2003, all of Murdoch's 175 newspapers supported the Iraq invasion. Just last month it was revealed that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair personally called Murdoch three times in the week leading up to the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq.

In his diaries, Blair’s then-communications director Alastair Campbell said Blair was afraid the media would find out about Murdoch’s influence. Campbell wrote: “It was faintly obscene that we even had to worry what [Murdoch] thought.” A deputy to Campbell called Murdoch “the 24th member of the [Blair] Cabinet.” Three guests join me now to talk more about Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal.

• Sydney Schanberg, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has worked for many publications including the New York Times and Village Voice.

• Steven Yount, President of the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, Local 1096, the union that represents more than 2,000 employees of Dow Jones. He is also a newscaster for The Wall Street Journal Radio Network.

• Craig Aaron, Communications director at Free Press, a media reform organization.