Posted on 04/24/2013 6:24:46 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On May 21, Los Angeles voters will go to the polls to select a new mayor. Who will govern Los Angeles, however, is only the second-most important local question in the city today. The most important, by far, is who will buy the Los Angeles Times.
The Times is one of the eight daily newspapers now owned by the creditors who took control of the Tribune Co. after real estate wheeler-dealer Sam Zell drove it into bankruptcy. Others include the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel and the Hartford Courant. The Tribune board members whom the creditors selected want to unload the papers in favor of more money-making ventures.
Fans of newspapers are a jumpy lot these days. And in the past couple of weeks, their apprehension has gone through the roof with word that right-wing billionaires Charles and David Koch are looking to buy all eight papers.
The Koch boys, whose oil-and-gas-based fortune places them just behind Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison as the wealthiest Americans, have been among the chief donors to the tea party wing of the Republican Party. Their political funding vehicle, Americans for Prosperity, ranked with casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson among the largest funders of right-wing causes and candidates in 2012. Their purchase offer won’t be buttressed by a record of involvement in or commitment to journalism on their part. But it will come complete with a commitment to journalism as a branch of right-wing ideology.
As the New York Times reported Sunday, the Koch brothers told a group of like-minded money men at a closed-door conclave in Aspen three years ago that the right needed to invest more in grass-roots activism, politics and media. Given the nature of the Kochs’ investment in grass-roots activism and politics, that doesn’t bode well
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Release the video of Obama at that Palestinian fundraiser!
Investor’s Business Daily has a different take:
EXCERPT:
The Kochs know how to make money, but they have little experience in the news business. It’s no leap of logic to assume they have other designs, consistent with their long history of bankrolling libertarian causes and institutions (such as the Cato Institute).
This scenario scares the left. Media Matters for America says reports of the Kochs’ interest in the papers are “sparking concerns from newspaper staff members that attempts to influence the editorial process in favor of their far-right political views may follow.”
Labeling the Kochs’ views “far-right” is a mark of the widespread newsroom bias that needs to be corrected.
On social issues such as gay marriage the brothers are, if anything, liberal. If they have any influence on the papers they buy, they would make them more balanced.
If we were among those “staff members,” in fact, we would be grousing less about the Kochs’ views and looking forward more to better times ahead.
If the Kochs do want to influence opinion, they can’t do so for long with failing newspapers. Their first order of business would be to bring the papers back to growth and profitability, and they appear to have the financial resources for a serious effort in that direction.
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With the kinda money those fellas have, it’d almost be fun to buy it just to set fire to it.
Given the pathetic-ness of the LAT, the Koch brothers could do no harm, no matter what they do.
RE: With the kinda money those fellas have, it’d almost be fun to buy it just to set fire to it.
FROM IBD:
Koch Industries, the brothers’ diversified energy and manufacturing business, books revenue of $115 billion a year. So it doesn’t look like much of a financial stretch.
Love seeing the Washington Compost get their panties in a wad over this.
I would love for the Koch Brothers to buy the LA TIMES...what a turnaround it would be in terms of reporting
But I am afraid that the video would go missing before Koch would take over.
I love how the libs claim that the Koch Brothers are on “the far right.” So, apparently, the libs consider themselves to be centrists. If The LATimes, NY Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, et al are in the middle, who the hell is on the left? Pravda??
Almost anything would be an improvement!
Bad Dog.
“But it will come complete with a commitment to journalism as a branch of right-wing ideology.”
Which is a vast improvement over Minitrue’s commitment to journalism as leftist propaganda. Maybe if the Koch brothers buy the LA Times it might begin selling again.
Sell all the newspapers to The Tea Party for $1 each. Get the Truth out, finally.
(start at the 1:00 mark, punch line at 2:25)
Given the nature of the Kochs’ investment in grass-roots activism and politics, that doesn’t bode well for the kind of fact-based journalism that most American newspapers strive to practice.
Laughable in the extreme. Reality has left the building.
It starts here and only gets worse. If I hadn’t seen WP as the paper, I could have wagered a good bet that Meyerson didn’t work for the WT. Couple of good comments at the end of the article, following the first leftist that contradicted himself without even seeing it.
It would be great if the Kock bros. could acquire these papers and get rid of the left wing propaganda.
In a strictly business sense their market is left wing and the paper would be run to serve those people.
Of course, they could be good to reduce taxes
Many of us quit taking our local rags not merely because they were left of Pravda but because there was no actual news for even weather and sports became politics, let alone such things as fires, floods, and God forbid crime statistics!
Since they are gay, they would...oh, I can’t say that here.
I like idea.
I do however expect LA to make it illegal to sell to them by some sort of hate speech thing.
The best thing they can do is let the papers fail. If they want to get in the media business they should start fresh or invest in successful companies they like.
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