Well, at least that's been the case with Murdoch's very high-profile purchase of the Wall Street Journal, whose news pages used to routinely win the highest honors in journalism. Not anymore. Not as the paper continues its transformation into a sort of conservative version of USA Today. The prizes, not surprisingly, have dried up.

Murdoch's Journal has been shut out from the Pulitzer's Prizes for several years running. Goose eggs. And now, as Politico recently noted, the Journal's even getting shut out of top business and financial journalism prizes; a category the business daily ought to dominate.

Oh well, can't say we didn't warn you -- Murdoch always dumbs down his news product.