The Koch Brothers Want To Buy Chicago Tribune, LA Times

[lostinblue 1,989]

Now The Koch Brothers Want To Buy Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Et Al, To 'Make Sure Our Voice Is Heard'

Henry Blodget | Apr. 21, 2013, 9:30 AM | 6,688| 49

If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Billionaire Charles Koch.

The bankrupt Tribune Company has put its bundle of eight huge newspapers on the block.

One of the expected bidders for these papers, Amy Chozick of The New York Times reports, is Koch Industries, the massive energy and manufacturing conglomerate owned by the conservative billionaires David and Charles Koch.

The Kochs may bid for the newspapers, a person who attended a recent seminar held by the Koch brothers in Aspen said, to "make sure that [the libertarian] voice is heard."

The Tribune's newspapers include:

• The Chicago Tribune
• The Los Angeles Times
• The Baltimore Sun
• The Hartford Courant
• The Orlando Sentinel

Buying the papers is expected to cost only about $625 million, which would be a rounding error for the gigantic Koch Industries, which generates a staggering $115 billion of revenue per year.

The focus of the Koch's recent Aspen seminar, Chozick reports, was to put together a 10-year plan for achieving a goal of lower taxes and less regulation.

The seminar produced a three-point plan:

• educating grass-roots activists
• influencing politics, and...
• media

The acquisition of the Tribune papers would obviously go a ways toward supporting the latter tactic.

As many Koch supporters point out, the brothers are not technically "Republicans" — they support gay marriage and other socially progressive freedoms. But there is no mainstream libertarian party in the United States, and the Koch's donations go to the GOP (which is very far from libertarian.) So Democrats will undoubtedly get their knickers in a twist about this.

You can read Amy Chozick's story here >

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/koch-brothers-buying-chicago-tribune-los-angeles-times-2013-4#ixzz2UFaVEk8f

Liberals can't handle this.....

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Nobody actually reads newsprint anymore, and one by one the major online "newspapers" are going subscription, so welcome to an inefficient way to get your voice heard. Save the money and bankroll a few motivated bloggers instead. If you build it, they will come.

[Darnell 8,479]

As much as I hate the Koch brothers for f*cking up the Tea Party,

I think it's a great idea that the Chicago Tribune is bought out by them.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

[Sarah Elle-Même 660]

LOL I like the term Kochwhores too.

But this newspaper buyout harkens back to their roots. Their dear old grandpappy Harry Koch owned the newspaper in Quanah, Texas after he immigrated to the US in 1888. He became known as a notorious mouthpiece for the railroad Robber Barons, eventually collecting quite a lot of investment doe of his own. You could call him a kochwhore for social darwinism. I can only imagine what his progeny will turn the Tribune into but it doesn't matter. Print journalism is going the way of the do-do. Paying off bloggers is the way to go for oligarchical subterfuge.

Funny how those brothers talk about the free market and limiting government. They get hundreds of millions in federal subsidies. Their company would be in the cr*pper if not for said subsidies. Talk about sucking on the teat of ol' Uncle Sam.

Edited May 25, 2013 by Sarah and Adnan

[Sarah Elle-Même 660]

*said subsidies and of course the litany of corporate tax loopholes they avail themselves of.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

*said subsidies and of course the litany of corporate tax loopholes they avail themselves of.

Why wouldn't they avail themselves of these loopholes? They bought and paid for them.