Did he jump or was he pushed?

The departure of the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal has sparked new doubts about whether Rupert Murdoch is honoring a pledge to maintain the independence of the newspaper's news-gathering operation four months after he took control of Dow Jones.

Marcus Brauchli, 46, is expected to resign today after less than a year on the job, according to a number of reports.

Jeff Bercovici notes that while there had been rumors that Murdoch would bring in his own editor at some point, "more recently it appeared that Brauchli had weathered the transition comfortably." But a report on Time magazine's website suggests that Brauchli was less comfortable than he let on, saying he "tried to find a middle path between the paper's traditionalists and Murdoch's new vision for the paper."

"Emphasis on the 'tried,' presumably," Bercovici says.

Both Murdoch and Brauchli were at a dinner for the Atlantic Council in Washington on Monday night. A speech that Murdoch gave is an op-ed article in the Journal today.

Richard Pérez-Peña of the New York Times reports that calls by Murdoch and Robert Thomson to reduce the number of editors at the Journal had been resisted by Brauchli. "Two people briefed on Mr. Brauchli's thinking said that had become a major point of contention," the Times says.

John Gapper of the Financial Times speculates: "My sense is that Journal staff are uncomfortable about Mr. Murdoch's enthusiasm for taking on the New York Times by broadening the political coverage. Even if it does the job well, it will inevitably lose some focus."

The Journal reports that its publisher, Thomson, "may" serve as interim managing editor. Thomson, a former editor for the Financial Times in the United States and recently chief of Murdoch's the Times newspaper in London, already oversees news-gathering operations at the Journal as well the Dow Jones newswires and Barron's weekly newspaper.

If Thomson does serve as interim managing editor—the highest news job at the paper—he would have direct control of the Journal's news operation. And when a permanent replacement is found—the Journal said the search would consider candidates inside and outside the paper—that person would be Murdoch's pick.

Brauchli, who succeeded former Journal managing editor Paul Steiger shortly before News Corp. announced its bid for Dow Jones last May, "is expected to remain with News Corp.," Murdoch's global media conglomerate, the Journal reported. What he might do there was not clear Monday night.

Murdoch's influence over his media properties, including his history of putting his business interests before editorial objectivity, has been a source of controversy as the merger has been contemplated. (See a related Portfolio.com essay by former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil here.)

The Wall Street Journal is widely viewed as a pillar of integrity, and Murdoch will now directly determine the fate of its editorial independence.

As Murdoch negotiated with Dow Jones' controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, to buy the company, the two sides agreed to appoint a five-member committee to ensure that editorial independence remains intact at the Dow Jones publications. The initial members of the committee will be Louis Boccardi, Thomas Bray, Jennifer Dunn, Jack Fuller, and Nicholas Negroponte.

The fate of that committee is also not clear.

Almost as soon as Dow Jones' shareholders signed off on the $5 billion deal in December, Murdoch started to assert his control over the Journal by taking the unusual step of putting the newspaper's publisher in charge of news gathering, then appointing Thomson to the job.

In the past, the Journal's publisher had been in charge of the business side of the newspaper, and the managing editor was in command of gathering news.