Which would be worse for Dow Jones: Murdoch, Burkle or Pearson?

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So Pearson, which owns the Financial Times and part of the Economist, is talking to GE, owner of CNBC, about putting in a bid for Dow Jones. And now Ron Burkle is apparently contemplating on a bid, too.

Which puts the much-discussed dangers posed by Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones in perspective. Yes, Murdoch has repeatedly toadied to China and interfered with editorial decisions at his papers. But you’ve got to worry that a Pearson-Dow Jones combination might eventually result in the demise of either the Journal or the FT. And Burkle, best known for union-friendly supermarket takeovers and a Page-Six-unfriendly sting operation, is almost a complete cipher, with no record running media properties. Given his Democratic Party ties, he’d certainly be sorely tempted to mess with the independence of the Journal‘s editorial pages, if not its news pages. But beyond that, who knows what he’d do?

Murdoch, by contrast, is a lifelong newspaperman who clearly wants to strengthen and expand the Journal–but might do it in a way that will drive some current fans of the paper crazy. Which, in comparison with the other alternatives making themselves apparent over the past few days, doesn’t sound all that horrible, does it?