It's hard to imagine, but there are actually five people who are being paid $100,000 a year to read the newspaper.
Nice gig if you can get it, eh?
The five are members of a committee that was formed when Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal. The committee is supposed to monitor the newspaper and make sure that Murdoch isn't turning it into one of his many other fishwraps.
A couple weeks ago, someone asked what the hell ever happened to the committee since it had not been heard from since 2008.
Was the committee at all concerned about that whole phone-hacking virus that's spreading over in Great Britain and whether the WSJ had been infected?
Probably not coincidentally, the committee has now issued another statement.
The committee would like everyone to know that they have been hard at work, asking lots of questions and generally earning that $100K a year.
Given the recent revelations of telephone hacking, police bribery and other violations of ethical and legal standards at News Corp. properties in the United Kingdom, it's fair to ask of us—as many people have in recent weeks—"What about the Journal?"
Since its inception, the committee has repeatedly reached out to a broad range of staff and management at Dow Jones. We have reviewed ethics procedures and enforcement standards. We have talked with former employees. We have reviewed the journalistic offerings of the newspaper. We have asked again and again:
"Is anybody putting political, ideological or commercial pressure on you to influence your news judgment?"
.......
But, to say it straight, we have found nothing to even hint that the sort of misdeeds alleged in London have somehow crept into Dow Jones.
Well, I'm reassured. For a while I was worried that the resignation of Dow Jones CEO and WSJ publisher Les Hinton over the phone-hacking scandal meant that a "hint" of misdeeds had crept into the WSJ.
But apparently things are just hunky-dory. Nothing to look at here. Move along please.