Takeover splits Dow Jones down the line

Overlooking Ground Zero in the heart of New York's financial district, Dow Jones's head office was buzzing with chatter and speculation yesterday about life under the company's imminent new owner. Rupert Murdoch's $5.6-billion takeover of The Wall Street Journal's publisher prompted a mixture of resignation and angst, with frustration that so many members of the Bancroft family had accepted News Corporation's money.

The liberal pressure group MoveOn.org handed out spoof editions of the Journal bearing genuine headlines from News Corporation's Fox News network. Lead stories asked: "Is the liberal media helping to fuel terror?" and "All-out civil war in Iraq: Could it be a good thing?"

MoveOn's Adam Green said: "We want to put Rupert Murdoch on notice that if he turns the Journal into the same unreliable, partisan media outlet that Fox is, people will no longer trust the newspaper."