............................................................................................................................
Posted on 05/10/2013 9:20:52 AM PDT by smoothsailing
Andrew Beaujon
Published May 9, 2013 9:24 am
Updated May 10, 2013 8:53 am
The possibility of Charles and David Koch buying Tribune Co.’s newspapers “has struck a nerve in this liberal corner of the country,” The New York Times reports from Los Angeles.
Ten unions sent a letter to Bruce Karsh, the chairman of Tribune’s board of directors and president of Oaktree Capital Management, saying such a sale “would provide the Koch brothers a powerful and influential platform by which to promote, at both the local, state and federal level, that enactment of their anti-public pension fund policies,” Adam Nagourney and Christine Haughney report.
Two California legislators also said they opposed the sale: “I believe newspapers are a public trust,” state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told Patrick McGreevy and Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times — one of the newspapers that Tribune would presumably include in such a sale.
“The Los Angeles Times has a long and respected tradition of community leadership and impartiality. The Koch brothers have a long and demonstrated history of a rigid political ideology.”
Koch Industries spokesperson Melissa Cohlmia told McGreevy and Megerian “that about 30% of the company’s workforce —15,000 employees — are represented by unions.”
The advocacy group Courage Campaign bought ads in the Los Angles Times, Nagourney and Haughney write. Courage Campaign is soliciting petitioners online who will commit to canceling their subscriptions in the event of Koch ownership.
Common Cause’s Karen Hobert-Flynn, Craig Aaron of Free Press, and the Daily Kos are among the signers of another statement sent to Poynter yesterday. “This sale would create another Rupert Murdoch, and make papers like the LA Times and Chicago Tribune look more like Fox News and the New York Post,” their letter says.
Murdoch is also a reported contender for the papers, though his News Corp. would face an FCC entanglement in pursuing them because it owns television stations in some of the markets where Tribune has papers. Tribune reportedly would prefer to sell its newspapers together.
“Some 25″ people showed up at a protest Wednesday at Tribune Tower in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Maudlyne Ihejirika reports.
With their demands to meet with Tribune Board Chairman Bruce Karsh rebuffed, they eventually settled for presenting an oversized letter outlining their concerned to the building security chief, who promised to get it to Tribune Co. officials.
Ashley Boncimino of Crain’s Chicago Business counted 22 protesters and notes that “The plan was for ‘hundreds of concerned Chicago community groups, leaders and residents’ to meet outside Tribune Tower, according to a release yesterday from Stand Up Chicago, the main organizers.”
............................................................................................................................By all means they should then buy it, if for nothing else than to pi$$ off all the people that don’t like the idea.
That terrible “rigid ideology” of personal and economic freedom. Those ideas have no place in the USSA.
Wouldn’t that be great if they did buy the Tribune? What if they decided to buy the New York Times? There would be two large newspapers for conservative Americans to read.
My contempt for the left seems to grow every day. Public trust? Seriously? Then start reporting like it, and do it now. Respect the conservative viewpoint. Write stories that accurately reflect the conservative point of view. Employ conservative editorial writers and give them prominent positions on the page. End the blackout of reporting on Democrat scandals.
Public trust? My sweet hind end.
Part of me thinks the Koch Brothers are far too shrewd to make such a crappy investment as these dead-tree newspapers. I think they’re just tweaking the Left a bit to cause this freakout.
This is funny but this is exactly the right thing for conservatives to be doing provided they actually start replacing the liberals at these papers. I’ve always been puzzled that the same individuals that can raise billions for political campaigns can’t do the basic thing of buying a stake in the media which will do more to enhance the political position than buying tv ads. Having a media organization constantly making your case is like one endless ad.
Whether they buy any newspaper or not at this point is, IMO, secondary. The mere fact that it is even being discussed is really causing the libs to get their tricots in a real bind and that is worth so much more.
Wish they would show even half as much concern over the Gosnell and Benghazi murders.
I agree but they are leftists. As journalists they should want to cover explosive stories of any type but they wont so we need to make sure the word gets out and keeps getting out.
“Part of me thinks the Koch Brothers are far too shrewd to make such a crappy investment ....”
Fully agree. And I’m likin’ it!
““The Los Angeles Times has a long and respected tradition of community leadership and impartiality, as long as it follows the party line of our dear leader Odumbo”
There, fixed it for them.
What's really hilarious is the liberals are threatening to quit the papers if the Koch brothers buy them! Imagine the time and effort the Koch brothers will save when they don't have to weed them out! :o)
LOL, thanks, that needed fixing!
Hey, wait a minute, didn't you libs tell us over and over again that the Chicago Tribune is a "ultra conservative" newspaper and that having such a "conservative" paper endorse Obama was a major coup and "big upset" for your side because the paper "always" takes "conservative" positions?
If they're ALREADY "conservative", why is your side so upset about the possibility of the paper being bought by conservatives?
I canceled my subscription to the L.A. Times in the early 60s because it was nothing but a mouthpiece for the communist party!
“I believe newspapers are a democrat party trust,”
Translation complete.
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!
the LATimes has been unreadably biased in its “news” columns, for years.
the quicker it is either taken over and made into a respectable piece of journalism .. the better. Or else, the quicker it is permitted to go bankrupt, so others can enter the marketplace and build respectable newspapers worth reading, the better. (The second approach might be easier...?)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.