Neocon icon nixed

Murdoch has ditched his neocon icon, The Weekly Standard, reports the New York Times, which also pointed out that Standard editor Bill Kristol no longer writes for the Times.

Murdoch, working with Kristol and other neocons, established the Standard in the 1990s and from thenceforth it became a bellicose voice for unilateral militarism in the Middle East. In June Murdoch sold it to a businessman with links to Christian conservativism.

Well, as the Times noted, Murdoch is known for bending with the political wind. So the question is: will the nasty-mouthed neocon crews throughout the Murdoch media empire tone down their attack talk? Will Fox News become more moderate? Will the New York Post's editorial pages become less truculent and pander less to the Israel chauvinists of the New York region?

The Wall Street Journal's editorial pages have long been known for an ugly neocon slant, though Murdoch has begun to intersperse other ideological views in those pages. Will we see a change there -- particularly considering that the Journal editor, Robert Thomson, ran the Times of London for Murdoch and while there published a number of exposes that rocked the boat of the neocon elite?

A principle source of vituperative attacks on 9/11 skeptics has been the neocon commentator contingent, much of which is found in the Murdoch press. So the question is, will those attacks subside and will honest reporters be unleashed to do the legwork that seriously needs doing on a number of unresolved 9/11 issues?