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Your Marc Jacobs Spring '08 Talking Points
Everyone knows that Marc Jacobs is the only show of fashion week that really matters. But why does it matter, and was it good—and what were those gardening gloves about? To find out, we woke up fashion expert Alice Wetterlund, a part-time model and goddess of working in retail. More »
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What's Happening With The Tribune Deal?
Remember those blissful days back in April, before anyone knew about Rupert Murdoch's evil plans to take over the Wall Street Journal and the biggest media acquisition story going was the one about Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell's plans to buy Tribune? Yeah, we thought we were done with that one too. Unfortunately, not yet! The Times, Journal and Los Angeles Times all take a look at the deal, scheduled to be completed tomorrow, and agree: The damn thing might not happen. Why? More »
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Dysfunctional Bancroft Family Took One Last Bite At Dow Jones Apple
The best piece of the weekend concerning Rupert Murdoch's takeover of Dow Jones came from former Journal employee Joseph Nocera, who wrote (behind the TimesSelect wall, naturally) about how the takeover happened through the lens of a disgruntled Bancroft family member and Murdoch himself. Essentially, the Bancrofts were too divided and dysfunctional to ever stand a chance against the rapacious Rupert. "I just didn't realize that they were so disorganized," says Murdoch, who promises not to fiddle about too much with the paper ("I won't meddle any more than Arthur Sulzberger does."). Nocera buys it. But oh yes there is more! More »
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What's New With The Stupid Dumb Rupert Murdoch Story
Wanna hear a funny story? Guy spends every day of the past three months combing the internets for every bit of Rupert Murdoch minutiae he can find, rising with the dawn to scrape the bottom of the barrel for a daily post of interest to only about seven people. Then, on the biggest two days of the story, when actual civilians are sort of interested in what's going on with the Wall Street Journal? He's trapped in jury duty! Could he be any more bitter? No. Will you have to hear about all about jury duty later? Probably! Life is just unfuckingfair. Anyway, here's the day in Murdoch, like you give a shit. More »
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New Murdoch Employees: "NOOOOOO"
Today, there's a great spasm of coverage of Dow Jones agreeing to Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the company. But what are the people really saying?
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Rupert Mudoch, Dow Jones Close To Deal
Yesterday, the Bancroft family was undecided about accepting Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones. Today? The deal seems likely to happen, but who the hell knows? There's a proposal on the table for "the Dow Jones board to create a fund to cover payments to firms advising Bancroft family members." Those payments are expected to be around $30 million, but "the money would be paid only if at least one of two key holdout shareholders agreed to the deal: Christopher Bancroft and a group of trusts managed by Denver law firm Holme Roberts & Owen." More »
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Joe Bruno Victimhood Campaign Rolls On
New York Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno continues to pound away at Eliot Spitzer, raising the possibility that the Senate may compel the governor to testify in one of the multiple investigations called for by Bruno over whether or not the governor's office improperly used the state police to track Bruno's questionable air travel. Good luck, says a spokesman for the governor, casting doubt on the Senate's constitutional authority to investigate internal executive affairs. More »
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Embattled Spitzer, Emboldened Cuomo
On the second day after the release of a report from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office revealing that staffers working for Governor Eliot Spitzer aggressively attempted to discredit Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno, the stories keep coming. The governor was in Buffalo yesterday, where he couldn't avoid questions about the report. "All I can do is get back to business and that's what I am doing," he said. Meanwhile! More »
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Will The Bancroft Family Recoil From Murdoch's Scary Evil Friends?
Could Rupert Murdoch's takeover bid for Dow Jones actually fail? That's the sense you get reading this morning's Wall Street Journal, which reports that divisions in the Bancroft family have hardened to the point where recalcitrant Bancrofts are invoking dead relatives (and dead Journal journalists) to argue against the sale. At Monday's meeting in Boston, Jane Cox MacElree, whose branch of the family controls 15% of Dow Jones' voting stock, "cited Daniel Pearl's death at the hands of kidnappers in 2002 in voicing her opposition to a bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Journal, according to participants." How dramatic. More »Bancroft Family Meeting: Totally "Productive"
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Is Eliot Spitzer Finished?
How screwed is Eliot Spitzer? That's probably the most important question after yesterday's release of a report by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that accuses "Mr. Spitzer's communications director, Darren Dopp, and a top state homeland security official of ordering state police to take extraordinary measures to track the use of air and ground police escorts by the Republican Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, in an effort to catch him abusing state resources." More »
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Rupert Murdoch: Predator Or Super-Predator?
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What Will Rupert Murdoch Rename The Dow Jones Industrial Average?
We've finally found a way to make our Rupert Murdoch roundups of any interest to the general public! If (when) the News Corp. titan completes his takeover of Dow Jones, he'll have the right to rename the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Would he? The Street.com seems to think so? But what would he call it? The best we can come up with is the "Suck It, James Ottaway Industrial Average," which is not very good. Please leave your alternatives in the comment section! More »
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Rupert Murdoch Purchase Of Dow Jones Limping Towards Conclusion
"News Corp will meet Dow Jones directors this week in a session that could prove decisive in Rupert Murdoch's pursuit of the media group and its crown jewel, the Wall Street Journal newspaper," reports the Financial Times. Not so fast, says the Journal: "As News Corp. pursues its bid for Dow Jones & Co., a key member of the controlling Bancroft family, Christopher Bancroft, has launched his own last-ditch, long-shot crusade to block the deal, according to people familiar with the matter." Bancroft is talking to hedge funds and private equity folks in an attempt to buy more "super-voting shares" so as to scupper the deal. Slate's Jack Shafer still thinks the whole thing is a bad idea.
[Image:A.P.]
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