Posted on 02/01/2007 10:54:24 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Surely Fort Worth Weekly publisher Lee Newquist’s phone will be ringing any second now with a call from Australia and an offer of millions of dollars. After all, your favorite alt-weekly criticized the Trans-Texas Corridor in a recent cover story (“Detours on a Super-Highway,” Jan. 10, 2007), and it’s pretty obvious that foreign fat cats who lease U.S. highways and charge tolls to drivers don’t take kindly to criticism. Macquarie Media Group of Australia is set to pay upward of $100 million for American Consolidated Media, which owns small community newspapers across Texas — newspapers that have criticized the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor.
OK now, follow the bouncing kangaroo: Macquarie Media is a sister company to Macquarie Infrastructure Group, one of the world’s major toll road operators. In Indiana, Macquarie has partnered with Cintra, a Spanish company, on a major toll-road project. And Cintra has the contract to build — and reap profits from — a major portion of the TTC. That corridor project, however, is drawing loud howls of protest from Texans who blanch at using eminent domain to take land from thousands of farmers, business operators, and homeowners to build a humongous slab of pavement that people would then have to pay through the nose to drive on. What better way to quell critics than by buying up the newspapers that are questioning the project?
The Weekly cover story included criticisms that the project could wipe towns off the map, gobble up about a million acres of farm and ranch land, crumble the state’s current highway system, and gouge motorists with tolls as high as 44 cents a mile. Static will let you know if any money-waving Aussies show up in the newsroom. In the meantime, we’ll continue poking our noses into this and other stinky public pork plates.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
I wish someone would look up and list which newpapers were part of this deal.
BTTT
bump.
"Fort Worth Weekly? Have you ever read their personal ads?"
The Dallas Observer personals are better.
LIBERALS whining about eminent domain?
Thanks for the ping!
"ACM founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Halbreich has over thirty years experience managing newspaper businesses, including 12 years as president and/or general manager of the Dallas Morning News," Harvey said.
"The entire ACM management team eagerly looks forward to our new affiliation with MMG as we execute continued growth and expansion of our local community newspaper platform," Jeremy Halbreich said.
One of ACM's clusters of papers is just south of the Dallas / Fort Worth Area. ACM is the company that launched the free tabloid AM Journal Express in 2003.
The company owns five daily newspapers – in Waxahachie, Alice, Brownwood and Stephenville, Texas, and in Miami, Okla.
It also owns 19 weeklies and 16 "shopper" and specialty publications and associated Web sites.
Looking at that the 5 daily papers, only one is located in the area where it would be of infuence.
Do you actually mean you'd accept infringement, ignoring Constitutional principles for the sake of your local commute?
That's what you seemed to imply.
Also, it is not mainly Liberals that are concerned with eminent domain abuse in TX or elsewhere.
You're welcome. :-)
It's the MSM for crying out loud. Don't believe their bald-faced lies as the property owners are getting a pretty penny for their property, with those the MSM is claiming are being thrown off their land are holding out for outrageous profits by "playing the victim" for the press.
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