By Choire, 10:00 AM on Fri Aug 24 2007, 1,565 views (Edit, to draft, Top, Slurp)

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Don't hang up, Wall Street Journal reporters! That creaky Australian twang on your phone line really might be Rupert Murdoch calling. Apparently Rupert has been dialing up the staff at his fave new paper who are being wooed by other outlets and showing them the love. (Something the Journal's higher-ups rarely did, we understand.) The only downside to this canny plan—the reporters who aren't getting calls are gonna be jealous! (Or maybe that's all part of his master plan.... Paranoid yet?) We hear that a number of staffers who got the calls actually thought it was a hoax at first. Antway, Rupert personally called former WSJ columnist Tara Parker-Pope several times and she still left for the New York Times, so maybe his seduction skills are rusty.

Murdoch's presence felt at Journal [LAT]