Posted on 04/02/2013 1:59:50 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Tribune Company’s moves to sell its newspapers—a string that includes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune—has reportedly sparked the interest of a number of heavyweight financiers. These include familiar media moguls like Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch. But heads turned when another pair of possible bidders emerged early in March: the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.
The Koch brothers, of course, are best known for funding conservative causes and conservative politicians. Unlike Buffett, who has purchased 63 newspapers in the last 15 months, and Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post among many others in Britain and Australia, the brothers don’t have much of a track record of media ownership.
As news of their interest in the Tribune newspapers spread, Koch Companies spokeswoman Missy Cohlmia declined as a matter of policy to confirm or deny a bid. At the same time, though, she sought to dispel concerns that the Koch brothers would seek to transform Tribune newspapers into an arm of the broad network of conservative opinion and policy shops whose activities they underwrite. “We respect the independence of the journalistic institutions referenced in today’s news stories,” Cohlmia said in a brief statement to CJR.
That didn’t stop some observers from worrying out loud, particularly on the left, about the political orientation of those papers, particularly their editorial pages. “You thought Rupert Murdoch was bad? Just wait till you meet the Kochtopus,” wrote J. Gibson on Daily Kos. In fact, there are no apples-to-apples comparisons to help predict whether the Koch brothers would insist on editorial pages at Tribune papers that match their views. Mainstream media outlets tend to have their own news cultures, and can be slow to change their spots. Anyway, the Koch brothers don’t own any....
(Excerpt) Read more at cjr.org ...
Wait a minute I thought Rupert Murdoch going buy my hometown papers LA Liars now Koch family??
I am confused LOL!
It would seem the liberals who own media are willing let these papers go as they move to the Internet. It would be great if all papers became conservative - then we could listen to the left complain about this while the conservative message is put across.
Or RT either.
You can always tell who the stupid, the technology challenged and the low information voters are.
They’re the ones who go out in the morning to grab the dirty waded up roll of paper, with day old news off their driveways every morning.
Ha! Can’t wait for the leftards at the Orlando and Ft Lauderdale papers to get a gutfull of the Koch brothers. I might even have to subscribe again....
Does anyone think these papers would become less liberal if they get bought?
Obama's pastor's Easter message was stop trying to live in the past. The Left will just have to accept CHANGE as print journalism bounces back to the right a bit.
I used to be really keen on the Koch brothers. Then I found out they believe sodomites ought to be “married”...
The left should be estatic if the Koch brothers lose a fortune on the acquisition of these papers.
We need to organize demonstrations and letter-writing campaigns in support of the Koch brothers.
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