It’s a good thing that there are blogs and such to allow people to discuss their views and pass along news. With this takeover, more of our mainstream journalism is going one-sided.

NEW YORK(AP) – Rupert Murdoch has sealed a deal to buy Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. for $5 billion, ending a century of family ownership and adding a crown jewel to his global media empire, News Corp.

The companies said in the wee hours of Wednesday morning that they signed a definitive merger agreement after the deal won sufficient support to pass from a deeply divided Bancroft family, which has controlled the storied newspaper publisher for generations.

The Bancroft family, descended over several generations from an early owner of Dow Jones, Clarence Barron, clashed long and hard over whether to sell to Murdoch, with several members saying they feared the quality and independence of the paper would suffer under his watch.

Murdoch countered with a promise not to interfere with the paper’s newsroom and has agreed to set up a five-member board, whose initial members would be jointly chosen by both News Corp. and Dow Jones, with the power to approve the hiring or fire top editorial officials.

Yahoo! News Article (time-sensitive)

[Monarchists know Murdoch as the ferverent anti-Royalist who aims to bring them down simply because he doesn't agree with them.]