Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal report about proposed budget cuts at Knight Ridder was confirmed Wednesday (Jan. 25) by the KR-owned San Jose Mercury News, which appears to have become an unofficial conduit for KR’s corporate types. While KR executives in downtown San Jose are refusing to make public comments, “sources” are telling the Merc’s Pete Carey which stories in the competing media are correct and which ones are false. For instance, an LA Times piece Jan. 11 claiming that senior VPs Hilary Schneider and Art Brisbane were forming a management group to buy KR was knocked down the next day by Carey. Carey also refuted a CNBC report that Gannett made an offer for KR and then withdrew it. On Wednesday, however, Carey’s story confirmed the Wall Street Journal story.