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Leave it to Eric Savitz, dean of the Valley's tech correspondents, to take on Rupert Murdoch. The rest of the media grudgingly sighs as it treats News Corp.'s pending acquisition of Dow Jones as an inevitability. But Savitz — who works at the Dow Jones-owned Barron's dares to ask the forbidden question: What if the Bancrofts, the family which owns a controlling stake in Dow Jones, turn Murdoch down? After asking this question, and exploring what might happen to the stock (short version: It will probably drop by half, from $57 to $30), he picks up 24/7 Wall Street's idea of having Dow Jones buy its U.K. rival, the Financial Times. Let's hope Murdoch keeps his promises about editorial independence. Or fancies having a stable of cheeky employees around. Because we'd sure miss Savitz if News Corp. buys Dow Jones and something, well, unpleasant happens.