USA · Bias: Center-right
News Corp (Murdoch family)
Founded in 1889 to cover, literally, Wall Street, the Journal grew into America's biggest paper by circulation and the one business outlet even its rivals grudgingly trust. Its split personality is famous: a rigorously straight newsroom stapled to an opinion page that runs well to the right of it, and the two sides feud like roommates who stopped talking years ago. Rupert Murdoch bought it in 2007 for $5 billion, and skeptics predicted tabloid rot. The newsroom has mostly held the line — which occasionally means embarrassing the boss, as you're about to read.
In October 2015, WSJ reporter John Carreyrou published the investigation that unraveled Theranos, the $9 billion blood-testing startup whose devices, it turned out, mostly didn't work. Elizabeth Holmes went from magazine covers to an 11-year prison sentence. The twist that makes it legendary: Rupert Murdoch was Theranos's single biggest investor, in for $125 million. Holmes personally lobbied him to kill the story. Murdoch told her he trusted his editors — and lost every cent. It remains the gold standard answer to "does ownership always dictate coverage?" Sometimes, remarkably, no.
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