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I have been thinking a lot about the Murdoch offer to buy Dow Jones. I would hope that my book, with a consistent emphasis on the business side of the news business, will help people think about these issues. Based on all my research, I think the form of ownership has lots of consequences.

In the case of Murdoch, leaving aside his political impact for a moment, think about the enormous, inherent conflicts of interest built into his potential ownership of Dow Jones. A case in point: through one of his News Corp's subsidiaries (Star TV), Murdoch is the major supplier of satellite television signals to mainland China. In a censorious dictatorship like China, it may have been inevitable, but Murdoch has been turned into part of the regime's program of controlling information.

Now, suppose Murdoch owns the company that publishes the Wall Street Journal. Some of the Journal's best reporting in recent years has been done in China, where a number of correspondents have contributed to hard-hitting series of articles exploring the costs of China's environmental degradation, or the human suffering caused by the government's persistent human rights abuses.

What can we expect Murdoch to do when the Chinese leaders come to him and say they want him to tell "his" reporters to back off?
Does he say, "To hell with you (and your giant market, too)"?