Let's Hope the Bancroft Family Doesn't Sell the WSJ to News Corp

Fallows explains why the sale of the Wall Street Journal to Murdoch's News Corp is bad news for democracy:

. . . the press has cultural, social, and political effects beyond the purely commercial. But its managers are being forced to make decisions on the same focused quarterly-returns basis that guides choices at Merrill Lynch or General Motors. Sometimes those pressures for maximized return (and rising stock price) make news organizations more efficient. But in general they weaken or destroy the parts of news systems that affect people in any role other than as shareholders - that is, as readers, viewers, voters, citizens.

More on the ethical argument against the sale here (Columbia Journalism Review).