2007-08-01
I started reading the WSJ online about 10 years ago because I couldn't get reliable delivery and wanted to save paper. I had an old laptop parked on the breakfast counter and even at dial-up speeds it was a great way to read the newspaper in the morning. I've been reading it that way ever since.
But not any more. Today I deleted my bookmark and sent them an email to cancel my subscription.
The editorial and news pages of the WSJ always seemed to be from two different newspapers. I remember the news page winning a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the lies coming from tobacco executives while the editorials praised the scoundrels. Serious WSJ readers all knew about their split-brain but it didn't bother us. (Besides, any editorial page that ran Chris Buckley couldn't be all bad.)
But Murdoch is a new and dangerous development. Yeah, I know he made all kinds of promises of independence to the Bancroft family (majority owners), but those were from a man who thinks Fox News is "fair and balanced."
Freedom of the Press includes the freedom to read somebody else's press.