Rupert Murdoch has almost certainly lost in his bid to buy Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE :DJ) and merge the Wall Street Journal with the rest of the News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) media empire.

The Ottaway family, which sold its newspaper chain to Journal Dow Jones in 1970 and is still a major shareholder, has come out against the deal. This is the final nail in the coffin since the Ottaways have a seat on the board of the company and own about over 6% of Dow Jones Class B shares.

The Ottaways have a sort of moral authority at Dow Jones. They have been involved with the firm for over 35 years. They entrusted their papers to the company's philosophy of editorial excellence. They don't look for the easy buck. News franchises are a trust, given to media companies in large part by the public.

According to Reuters, one of the senior members of the Ottaways went after Rupert Murdoch directly: "he has for a long time expressed his personal, political and business biases through his newspapers and television channels."

Murdoch made a fatal mistake by not promising to keep Dow Jones properties such as The Journal completely editorially independent. It should have been the first thing out of his mouth.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.