Potential L.A. Times, Tribune buyers line up (Koch Brothers)

[TomCADem]

Source: OC Register

The sale of Tribune's eight newspapers has been widely expected since the company emerged in December from a difficult, four-year bankruptcy.

Speculation about the potential buyers heated up last week after the billionaire Koch brothers confirmed they are interested in acquiring newspapers, although they did not specifically mention the Tribune properties.

"We think there are opportunities in various aspects of the media for us to apply our capabilities and create value," Charles Koch, company chairman and CEO, told the Wall Street Journal. "We're in the early stages so we're looking across a broad spectrum."

The industrialists also posted comments on the company's website, KochFacts.com. "We're not ruling anything out at this point," said Charles Koch.


Read more: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/tribune-512060-newspapers-newspaper.html

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I guess the Koch brothers want to join with fellow right wingers Rupert Murdoch and Sheldon Adelson in buying up media properties to spread their right wing jihad.

[Demeter]

1. We Had to Destroy America to Create Value

sounds like Vietnam BS all over again.

[JeaneRaye]

2. controlling the news

Yep. Just like they smothered stories on PBS....they will control what the public reads about, too. A--holes.

[tofuandbeer]

3. In my area of the world there are 2 popular newspapers...

the L.A. Times (which we have delivered daily), and the Daily Breeze (which supported Romney for President).
You know, it really becomes clear why the economy sucks under Republican rule: because they get everything they want in bad times.

Also, I've been shaking my head lately when I pick up the L.A. Times in the morning after walking the pup: they have advertising that covers the front page...if that's not bad enough, the advertising uses the L.A. Times logo, which makes it look like it's the front page of the newspaper. Sad, sad, sad.

[olddots]

4. I can't post what I think of these parasites

[flamingdem]

5. say it isn't soooo

[trublu992]

6. Yeah great move almighty Koch brothers NOT!

to bad most people won't be reading newspapers They'll be on the net where their attention will be much much harder to buy and monopolize assholes

[SoapBox]

7. We will drop our 30 year subscription to the LA Times

if these Terrorist Brothers take over.

[TomCADem]

10. Same here. I am a longtime LA Times Subscriber Who Will...

...once I hear that either Murdoch or the Koch brothers have bought it. I subscribe to the LA Times mostly out of nostalgia and loyalty, but if the Koch brothers buy them, I will drop them.

[Joe Bacon]

11. I gave up on the LA Times when Otis Chandler left.

Ever since the Chicago Fibune bought the LA Times, it's gone back to what it was before Otis took over--a right wing rag pushing "true industrial freedom"...

[alp227]

8. Americans deserve an independent press putting truth and education before profits.

Why can't anti-trust laws prevent giant conglomerates like the Tribune Company that have cross-ownership in multiple papers like the LA Times and Chicago Tribune as well as TV/radio stations as well like the WGN America cable channel and Chicago TV station WGN. Meanwhile the OC gets a paper (the Register) with independent, local ownership, something to appreciate despite the OC Register having a right wing editorial slant. Ditto with the San Diego Union-Tribune.

I live in NorCal and the only choices I've got for newspapers are either a Hearst paper (the San Francisco Chronicle) or MediaNewsGroup paper (San Jose Mercury News). I remember the days when the Merc was a locally owned paper before McClatchy bought the paper back in 2006, and this year the Knight Ridder sign is getting torn down in downtown SJ!

[SpankMe]

9. We're doing this to ourselves. We suck.

The whole nation's news media is being bought up piece by piece by right wingers.

Yet, we on the left can't seem to muster the resources or vision to buy enough stuff to compete with this conservative onslaught. Therefore, we are destined to loose in the long run. It's irreversible as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, we can swing a few small-circulation liberal rags in big blue cities. But, we have to masquerade them as "entertainment weeklies". Properly left and neutral big city newspapers are all going to the Kochs and Murdochs, and their editorial policies will move to the right and take public opinion with it.

We're toast. I'm depressed. Get used to a Ferengi society - few haves, many have-nots, guns, religion dominating the landscape. Banned and criminalized abortion, a rollback of gay rights and everything privately owned or controlled - even "public" institutions. Science manipulated to favor the conservative agenda.

I'm losing hope and the energy to fight. I used to love the L.A. Times.