When News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch decided to sit down for a rare, on-camera interview, it was of course with two reporters from his own media empire, Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal. In this clip from the Journal's D conference in Carlsbad, California, Murdoch explains how he thinks the Journal and Times will be competing aggressively with one another on all stories — business, political or otherwise — within just "a few months." He also rants about how it's "ridiculous" that an average of 8.3 editors looks at a typical WSJ story, inevitable expanding it beyond reason. "People don't have time for it — there's not a story that you can't get all the facts in (within) half the space." Also: Murdoch confirms he was involved in the Post's decision to switch its allegiance from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama.

Of course, Murdoch is correct that virtually any story in the Journal, or in any other newspaper, can pack in the same amount of fresh information in half the space. But that begs a follow-up question: Aren't newspapers, and the Journal especially, differentiated from newer media by precisely the sort of context and analysis that would end up on the cutting-room floor? Mossberg, interviewing his boss, is disarmed by a Murdoch joke, and doesn't ask that question, at least not in the footage he's released.

On editing and competition with the Times:

On Obama and the Post endorsement:

More Murdoch gushing on Obama is available here, along with his claim that cable channel Fox News conveys both right- and left-wing political perspectives in its news coverage.