As previously mentioned, it now looks like General Electric and Financial Times publisher Pearson are considering a rival bid for the Wall Street Journal. With WSJ types skittish over Rupert Murdoch having control over the paper's Op-Ed pages (remember last week's exuberant rant by Jim Cramer in New York about how awesomely conservative the new paper's columns would be?) and the Bancroft family's deep and abiding fear of a WSJ-owning Murdoch, the GE-Pearson team is eager to jump into the bidding process ... sort of. The Financial Times threw some water on their parent company's face by noting that talks are still at an early stage and that a Bancroft family member said "I don't think there's a rush to look at this."

As for another interested party in the WSJ, Ron Burkle, he just got a what every shady media mogul dreams of: a shout out from Michael Jackson.

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