Readers' needs can be fickle

Yesterday reporters at The Wall Street Journal staged a quiet protest in support of journalistic independence, according to a Newspaper Guild release. Instead of showing up for their editorial duties in the morning, they appeared in the afternoon.

Reasons for the protest were reportedly twofold.

Recent negotiations between Dow Jones management and its primary union flirt with "severe cutbacks" to journalists' health benefits and limits on pay - two compromises that do not a productive reporter make, particularly as Dow Jones awards golden parachutes to approximately 135 of its top executives.

Secondly, the protest sought to remind Dow of The Wall Street Journal's tradition of independent reporting, considered the hallmark of its news coverage. The act can be perceived as an all-too-clear response to reporters' sentiment about the Rupert Murdoch bid dangling over their heads … and perhaps over their typewriters.

"We put the reputation of The Wall Street Journal and the needs of its readers first," said the statement.

"That's why we will be back at our desks this afternoon, producing the day's news reports. But we hope this demonstration will remind those entrusted with the future of Dow Jones that our publications' integrity must be protected, and sustained, from top to bottom."