THE ANNOTATED MURDOCH Details from Raymond's portrait
Hot on the heels of Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion done deal to buy Dow Jones & Company, Radar special correspondent Geoffrey Raymond hauls his portrait of the mogul to the steps of the Wall Street Journal and reports on reactions ...

When I first heard that News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch was trying to buy Dow Jones & Company—owners of the Wall Street Journal—I painted a 4-foot by 5-foot portrait of the guy in the style that has made me slightly famous (I'm the one who did the Richard Grasso portrait—imagine Jackson Pollock painting like Chuck Close). It was my way of coping. Then, as the Murdoch deal drew closer, I starting hauling my portrait, dubbed The Annotated Murdoch, and some red and black markers to 200 Liberty Street, the New York Headquarters of the Wall Street Journal.

Barring scheduling conflicts, weather, and suspicious security guards, I've been exhibiting my painting there daily during lunch hours since July 24, asking passersby to share their thoughts about the acquisition on the surface of the painting. The general public is inked in black, Dow Jones employees in red.

[The artist's work in progress after the jump!]

I was hoping for a media feeding frenzy, hoping to get across the growing sentiment that Fox News owner Murdoch and the Journal were a bad mix. On a personal finance note, the vision was that the painting, which is currently for sale on eBay, would increase exponentially in value. Ahem.

The first comment I got stated: "Keep the WSJ out of this scumbag's hands." When the second one read, "Bite me," I knew I was onto something. As for the media feeding frenzy, well, the New York Observer weighed in. As did dealbreaker.com. CBS News shot some footage of me but hasn't run anything. Papers in London and Brisbane—deep Murdoch territory—have covered the story. UPI got things all wrong and that, of course, is everywhere. No word from the New York Post. Ditto Fox News.