Wall Street Journal Circulation Scam ...

... claims senior Murdoch executive

by Nick Davies - October 12th, 2011 - The Guardian (London)

Andrew Langhoff resigns as European publishing chief after exposure of secret channels of cash to help boost sales figures

One of Rupert Murdoch's most senior European executives has resigned following Guardian inquiries about a circulation scam at News Corporation's flagship newspaper, the Wall Street Journal.

The Guardian found evidence that the Journal had been channelling money through European companies in order to secretly buy thousands of copies of its own paper at a knock-down rate, misleading readers and advertisers about the Journal's true circulation.

What the article also charges, an even more egregious violation as far as I am concerned, is the Wall Street Journal knowingly fired a whistle blower who reported to upper management about the scam. The individual had been with the Wall Street Journal for 9 years.

Such an action would appear to indicate that the corrupt crony capitalist culture that has engulfed Wall Street has now been adopted as operating practice at the publication most identified with the financial center which the term 'Wall Street' identifies. Wall Street itself has abandoned free enterprise in the last two generations. It now represents a corrupt culture based on mergers, acquisitions, cartels and defrauding the public through secret deals.

That is not capitalism. That is not free enterprise. That is not America. The term capitalism cannot be a phrase that ignores its defense as a superior system. Competition, fair and legal, is the epitome of free enterprise. It is what makes capitalism the best system for a nation. When capitalism has been corrupted to represent corporate socialism, it has become indefensible. That corruption is why Wall Street gives the overwhelming majority of its campaign contributions to Democrats and Progressives. Wall Street no longer represents free enterprise.

It appears the Wall Street Journal has secretly adopted this same deceit.