Posted on 11/12/2006 3:05:31 PM PST by shrinkermd
LOS ANGELES - Like a train wreck or a car accident, when rich people do battle, everybody stops to watch. Billionaires Ronald Burkle, Eli Broad and David Geffen haven't taken off the gloves but all signs point to them fighting for ownership of their troubled hometown newspaper, the Los Angeles Times. The fortunes of the Times, the nation's fourth-largest daily newspaper, are being watched closely by a newspaper industry beset by sales, staffing cutbacks and circulation drops.
Last week Burkle and Broad teamed up to bid for Chicago-based Tribune Co., which acquired the paper in 2000 when it bought Times Mirror Co. Details were not disclosed. It's believed that if they succeed they would sell off Tribune's other newspapers, TV stations and its baseball team - the Chicago Cubs - and keep just the Times.
Geffen, who has feuded with Broad for years, has not submitted a bid but is known to be extremely interested in the Times...
...Disputes between the paper's leaders and its corporate owners over costs and profits has led to the dismissal of two Times publishers and two editors. The latest to leave was editor Dean Baquet, who quit last week.
Tribune signaled its willingness to sell all or part of the company in September after being pressured by several large shareholders - among them the Chandler family that sold the Times to Tribune for $6.5 billion - angered by its lagging stock price and sagging circulation.
Many in Los Angeles would like to see the Times returned to local ownership. However, there is some trepidation about whether an owner like Geffen, Broad or Burkle - none of whom returned calls seeking comment - could check their egos and not interfere in news coverage, particularly when that coverage focuses on them or their holdings.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
"What do the Dixie Chicks and Newspapers have in common?
Answer: Neither has a clue as to why they are sinking ,and they are both sinking for the same reason.
You cannot piss off half of your potential financial consumers and still make a profit."
Same thing is happening with the Boston Globe. Several billionaires are salivating over that piece of liberal dung, including Jack Welch, ex GE honcho.
Shouldn't George Soros and Teresa Heinz be in the running for this liberal rag of a paper?
All big progressive Soros-wannabees....
Where is the conservative billionaire to buy it up quickly?
Great opportunity.
Maybe they need to call in "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap
Several billionaires are salivating over that piece of liberal dung, including Jack Welch, ex GE honcho.
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Isn't it amazing how these loons of the left think these filth-printing pinkos are worth money. Just like Air America was a good investment, right ?? Soros seemed to think so, but he, like the rest of the socialist elite, live in a faux reality. It will nice to see what they do when the mindless wealth of Soros and the others finally runs out....
Jack Welch wouldn't be too bad an owner. After all, he hired Roger Ailes to launch CNBC, which became a very profitable property during the 90s.
And I forgot to mention-- if it became a conservative newspaper, it might attract a new customer base and be profitable.
It's just a waste of money.
Depends on why you made the investment :)
Christian news and commentary at: sacredscoop.com ...
Like the old line about "how to make a small fortune"
First, you start with a big fortune....
You're probably right about the newspaper business decline in general. Just thought it might create a new interest in readership if conservative.
Some people do still like to read the paper over coffee or in the evening when they get home. Even now they continue to suffer through the liberal slant...how much more enjoyable (and profitable?) if conservative.
These vultures want to control the press so they can control our country and push it along toward a multicultural, neo-Marxist, open borders, kumbayah future where a clique of rich pricks run the world. Fortunately for us, the DBM is sinking. With any of these pieces of dreck in charge, it will sink even faster.
There could be eternal rewards for helping to fight destructive liberal policies!
That's about the only laugh I've had since Wednesday morning, billionaires battling for a dinosaur. Maybe they figure the fossil will be worth something.
Next thing these idiots can fight over is a slide rule manufacturing company.
Make it $300,000,000 for all the artwork on the 6th floor, and it's a deal.
They will buy these newspapers and become like the elite Fascists of Germany, Italy and Spain before WWII. They will control the printed sections and local tv channels owned by these fishwraps.
Then, they will convince more cut and run Rinos and L's to not vote or cut and run for the Presidental race in 2008.
They will have the massive financial backing of the elite left wing billionaires like $oreA$$, Lewis, Ms Heinzy/Kerry and others in the 2008 election. Fox News will be no different than ABCNNBCBS. GW and those of us who voted for him will become the true enemies of America.
After they win the 2008 presidential election with Clintoon II and retain control of Congress. They will put sites like this out of business, Rush, Sean and other conservative talk show hosts will go to jail or lose their stations.
Then the real lessons of the 2006 elections will pound America into submission for whatever the elites and their Opecker Thugs have planned for us.
I forgot to ping you to this Bella Lugosi backs Murtha for Majority Leader
a fight over the LA Times? i hope they recommend to these billionaires that they'd be better off redeploying to Okinawa
A case of billionaires running the World, eh? But I thought only evil Republican capitalists did that?
The best part about this post is that it doesn't have that infantile Dinosaur Media Deathwatch with the trademark symbol.
I think, if Jack Welch's group does get it, it'll not be what it is today. I don't see Jack doing that.
Berkle is a HUGE Clintonista .. so is Geffen. Whomever of this group gets it, count on it be non-stop anti-Bush, anti-Pubbie trashtalking for the whole '08 election cycle, which started last week.
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