Heard on the Street

So if Murdoch takes over the Wall Street Journal, does that mean Dow Jones can stop paying taxes?

The New York Times revealed yesterday that Murdoch's battery of financial fast-shuffle artists had managed to make sure Murdoch's News Corp. paid ZERO federal income tax in two of the last four years and not much more for the other two.

Yes, but the firm still faces a tax liability down the road, you say. Well, yes, if his squadrons of high-powered lobbyists and his largesse toward key lawmakers doesn't change things so that he no longer owes the dough.

Murdoch was a big hawk on Iraq. But YOU can pay for the war, thank you.

Murdoch's checkered tax-avoidance career is an international scandal, anyway. He was once in very hot water with the Israeli tax authorities, but he eventually wiggled his way out of serious charges in Israel.