September 27, 2007

Juan Williams: Bill O'Reilly Not A Racist

UPDATED.

We meant to go up with something on the Bill O'Reilly controversy du jour on Tuesday, but more pressing news did not permit. The Lede beat us to it: "Mr. Reilly [sic] is guilty of being sheltered, old-fashioned and possibly exhibiting a casual racism." Maybe. We decided to put the question to his sparring partner in the now-infamous interview, NPR's Juan Williams.

Williams, a prominent political journalist who is also black, is the liberal counterpoint on "FOX News Sunday." We reached him by phone on Tuesday, and asked if he thought O'Reilly was a racist. His answer was, "No."

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Posted at 9:00 AM
Posted to: Don Imus, Economy, FOX News, Media, Race
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July 18, 2007

Murdoch Gets One Step Closer

The Dow Jones board backed News Corp.'s $5 billion buyout bid last night, which will put the publisher of the Wall Street Journal in the hands of News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch. The decision was not unanimous among the 16 board members, but one source said a "strong majority" was in favor of the deal.

One of its terms allows Dow Jones shareholders to receive News Corp. stock, which would reduce the deal's tax burden.

Attention now shifts to the Bancroft family, which owns a controlling share -- 64 percent -- of Dow Jones. The family is set to meet Monday, and a verdict could come as early as midweek.

The Gate has background on earlier developments and the media climate surrounding the deal.

Posted at 10:12 AM
Posted to: Dow Jones & Co., FOX News, Media, Rupert Murdoch
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July 17, 2007

Air Of Inevitability To Murdoch Takeover Of Dow

The full board of Dow Jones & Co. will vote on Rupert Murdoch's aggressive takeover bid tonight, and despite the Bancroft family's valiant attempts to run as fast as possible from the $5 billion offer, the sale looks like a done deal.

The Wall Street Journal, the Tiffany property of the company and the center of the Murdoch-Bancroft dispute, reports that the parties had reached a tentative deal, which will be put to a final vote later today. A source close to the negotiations says the outcome is still "too close to call" (subscription). But absent competitive rival offers, it's unlikely the answer will be no.

Many Beltway insiders give credit to the Journal as the country's most respected daily with a conservative editorial board. And in an environment seemingly dominated by relatively liberal ed boards, the church-state separation between the Journal's newsroom and its board, run by the highly respected Paul Gigot, could be reason to give Dow its due.

So it's little surprise that much of the paper's staff has joined the Bancrofts, who have 64 percent voting control over Dow, in resisting the Australian-American media mogul's courtship.

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Posted at 4:32 PM
Posted to: Dow Jones & Co., FOX News, Media
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May 16, 2007

2nd GOP Debate: That's More Like It

Now that The Gate has almost fully recovered from last night's Republican debate (9 p.m. start time? Thanks, FOX), it's time to assess the post-mortems of the action. All the usual suspects have weighed in by now, and there are more thumbs-up than not to the feistiness of the 10-candidate face-off.

(For recaps of the fun, see last night's liveblog of the debate.)

There's lots of buzz around the Republican slate's own Mike Gravel, the libertarian Texas Rep. Ron Paul. They're both long-shot candidates who were thrust into headline status following their debate performances. But unlike Gravel, Paul is taking negative hits for his newsmaking moment, in which he argued that America's footprint in the Middle East was inciting terrorism and got shot down in a big way by The 9/11 Mayor himself, Rudy Giuliani.

There are two things to take away from that moment. One, Giuliani's campaign ought to hire Paul. New Yorkers know better than anyone that the anger on their former mayor's face during that exchange was the real deal. And when it comes to fighting terrorism, a little scariness from politicians is actually a good thing. Giuliani's campaign is betting that his platform on terrorism will trump unhappiness with his social views, and his performance last night was reason to throw a little money Paul's way.

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Posted at 2:20 PM
Posted to: FOX News, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Republicans, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, WH 2008
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