If Koch Brothers Buy LA Times, Half of Staff May Quit

[red states rule]

I hope it happens and lets see if these "journalists" will walk

I wonder what their chances are of finding another job in CA during this "recovery"

If they do walk, it would be a great chance to replace them with real reporters who keep their personal opinions out of their news reports




At a Los Angeles Times in-house awards ceremony a week ago, columnist Steve Lopez addressed the elephant in the room.


Speaking to the entire staff, he said, "Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by Austin Beutner's group." No one raised their hands.
"Raise you hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by Rupert Murdoch." A few people raised their hands.


Facing the elephant trunk-on, "Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by the Koch brothers." About half the staff raised their hands.
Recent owner of the LA Times, Sam Zell, has been painted as the devil incarnate for slashing the editorial staff and for his vulgar demeanor.


But at least, editorially, he's stayed out of the reporters' business. There hasn't been propaganda reporting, and there aren't topics that are off-limits to the staff, according to a few Times reporters. The editorial page, definitely leaning left but not afraid, for example, to chastise unions, hasn't changed much since Zell bought the Tribune Co., owner of the newspaper and eight others, in 2007.


That may not be the case under the paper's future leadership, even if the group favored by the staff and readers takes over.


As Tribune Co. emerges from a four-year bankruptcy, the predominantly Democratic city is quivering at the rumor that libertarian billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch may be interested in buying the LA Times. The brothers are believed to be the only group prepared to buy all eight Tribune papers, including the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sentinel and Hartford Courant, as a package -- how Tribune would like to sell them.


The ownership that most Angelenos seem to favor is a coalition of LA billionaires who have expressed interest, led by former Democratic mayoral candidate Austin Beutner and including prominent Democratic donor Eli Broad.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathleen-miles/koch-brothers-la-times_b_3180391.html

[aboutime]

I hope it happens and lets see if these "journalists" will walk

I wonder what their chances are of finding another job in CA during this "recovery"

If they do walk, it would be a great chance to replace them with real reporters who keep their personal opinions out of their news reports


That would be wonderful. Finally. Some REAL Journalists will get jobs. Let them walk. Obama his hiring, and they need to learn how to use a shovel. 4922

[red states rule]

That would be wonderful. Finally. Some REAL Journalists will get jobs. Let them walk. Obama his hiring, and they need to learn how to use a shovel. 4922

Yep, get some real reporters who will tell their reads the who, what, when, where, how, and why of the story

BTW, now that Obamacare is the law of the land, those shovels will be great demand

[Robert A Whit]

I don't understand why the Koch Brothers get vilified so much by Democrats.

Who knows if they actually are interested in the media business anyway? In philosophically bankrupt Los Angeles who lean socialist all the way, one can understand left wing reporters saying they would quit the company. The current owner got the company into bankruptcy anyhow. Seems new blood might help.

I watch PBS and the company puts up many thanks to the Koch Brothers for funding various PBS programs. Seems to me they spend plenty of cash to help we the people.

[Kathianne]

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/04/30/will-the-koch-brothers-save-los-angeles/




by Roger L Simon

Will the Koch Brothers Save Los Angeles? (http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/04/30/will-the-koch-brothers-save-los-angeles/) April 30th, 2013 - 12:11 am

...

Despite media attempts to portray them as conservative barbarians, the Kochs, like Los Angeles, are socially liberal (http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2011/02/24/just-one-calorie-not-evil-enough/) [4]. David Koch, who ran for vice president in 1980 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_H._Koch#Political_career) [5] as a Libertarian (not a Republican), quite publicly announced he is pro-gay marriage. This issue is the litmus test for Westside Los Angeles nowadays, bar none. (No wonder the media glosses over the Kochs’ views on this.)


What may no longer be a litmus test for Los Angeles is New Deal/Great Society-style economics. Even some of the more devout liberal true believers are beginning to face reality. Keynesianism isn’t working (http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2013/04/09/the-bad-old-days-revisited-3/) [6] — from Athens to L.A.


Los Angeles, when I arrived back in the early 1970s, was one of the most powerful cities in the world, the media and lifestyle capital for the planet. It is now the shell of its former self, its pothole-filled streets and cracked sidewalks (http://reason.com/reasontv/2013/02/07/sidewalk-miserable-las-new-crack-epidemi) [7] lined with empty storefronts (http://reason.com/reasontv/2012/12/20/the-fall-of-tams-6-how-la-regulated-a-bu) [8], its freeways crowded and outdated.


No one knows how many are really unemployed (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CALOSA7URN) [9] and I don’t think anyone wants to know. The statistic would be too stark, as are the statistics for unfunded pensions, etc., which leave Los Angeles and California teetering on the brink of bankruptcy (http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/09/27/crazifornia-how-california-is-committing-suicide/) [10].


Something has to change and you would think that would be fertile ground for the free market-oriented Koch brothers.


Another rap on them is that they know nothing of the newspaper business. But even that may be an advantage. The newspaper business has been in freefall for some time. Unbiased fresh eyes might do something to save it. No one else has.


So I look forward to a Koch brothers takeover of the LAT and hope it happens. Some of this is personal. I have a nostalgic fondness for the L.A. Times. I used to write for it frequently in the past and it helped-jump start my writing career with rave reviews of my first Moses Wine novel The Big Fix (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1876963336/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1876963336&linkCode=as2&tag=pjmedia-20) [11] and of the film I co-wrote with Paul Mazursky, Enemies, A Love Story (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000696I7/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0000696I7&linkCode=as2&tag=pjmedia-20) [12]. Other books of mine appeared as front-page reviews in their now defunct book section.


Of course that changed when I went to the right. I’m persona non grata now to the Times. Not a word appeared about my memoir of political change (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594034818/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1594034818&linkCode=as2&tag=pjmedia-20) [13]. I understand space is limited, but I don’t think it’s too excessive to say that as a hometown boy, I deserved better. I have strong reasons to believe — even to know — that they no longer wanted to hear from me.


I expect to be treated better under a Koch regime — not favorably, just equally. That would be a good libertarian approach.

[Robert A Whit]

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2013/04/30/will-the-koch-brothers-save-los-angeles/

As I say, to this instant, I can't understand all the bashing by the Democrats of the Koch brothers.

They love to claim they are tolerant. But are they really? To viciously attack the Brothers is not tolerance at all. When Clinton was in office, they attacked Scaife. I did a lot checking on him and he also did a lot of good. But to read Democrats, he was the devil.

I label my views as libertarian. I once was not Libertarian. I am only because that is the group, not that others also feel the same, but the group represents the best of America.

When the Constitution was created, it had some correctable blemishes, but in the main it is brilliant.

To me, the Koch Brothers represent what is great about America.

[Kathianne]

As I say, to this instant, I can't understand all the bashing by the Democrats of the Koch brothers.

They love to claim they are tolerant. But are they really? To viciously attack the Brothers is not tolerance at all. When Clinton was in office, they attacked Scaife. I did a lot checking on him and he also did a lot of good. But to read Democrats, he was the devil.

I label my views as libertarian. I once was not Libertarian. I am only because that is the group, not that others also feel the same, but the group represents the best of America.

When the Constitution was created, it had some correctable blemishes, but in the main it is brilliant.

To me, the Koch Brothers represent what is great about America.

You might wish to re-read this and edit. Just saying...

[red states rule]

The fact that so many "journalists" say they are going to leave the paper if the Koch brothers buy it - shows how many do slant their reporting to fit their opinion

They know they will not get a pass to publish their opinion on pages other then the Op-Ed page of the paper

[aboutime]

The fact that so many "journalists" say they are going to leave the paper if the Koch brothers buy it - shows how many do slant their reporting to fit their opinion

They know they will not get a pass to publish their opinion on pages other then the Op-Ed page of the paper


red states rule. If those former, wannabe, pretend journalists were really as smart as they have led liberals to believe.

They would have gotten awards for posting their own OBITUARIES in their own paper, predicting the unemployment feelings of millions like them.