If Koch Brothers Buy LA Times, Half of Staff May Quit:
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.
Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
Call it the Koch Sequester — across the board cuts in otherwise unemployable journalistic ideologues, self-imposed by people who fancy themselves more important than they really are.
As Prof. Reynolds notes happened with regard to the real Sequester, the cuts will barely be noticed by America.
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Comments
I cannot imagine how the threat of so many quitting is bad either for readers or for the Koch buy, if either really happens. It could be bluster on the part of the writers. For some they may not want to be known as a Koch-lover…
But should a Koch buy happen, and should they leave, I suspect new management would consider it a great start to rebuild with the quality and caliber and specific talent they want. What could be better?
Like there’s a shortage of would-be writers and reporters in today’s labor markets. To me, their quitting would save me, as the paper’s new CEO, of firing them.
Usually on a corporation sale the contract includes all present employees are “terminated”. This negates unemployment.
The new owner then has 20 days to either replace or rehire past members.
Uasually
One expression immediately came to mind: BRING IT ON!
It will be one cold day, colder than a well digger’s elbow, before these clowns quit their newspaper jobs.
Buy it and restock it with conservatives.
Libs should love the Koch Brothers.
The brothers are for gay marriage, for cuts to defense spending, for decriminalizing drugs.
And they want to repeal the Patriot Act
http://tinyurl.com/bvtolay
Where are they going to get another job if they quit? Newspapers are circling the drain.
Well, there’s always Al Jezeera.
Al jizzera is more in line with their beliefs.
casualobserver has nailed it. The Kochs wouldn’t be hiring propagandists, they’d be buying a corporate structure and perhaps some of its management. Like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, the news articles emanating from an LAT under new ownership would most probably be written by journalists, who by and large live and vote liberally. But perhaps the new regime would examine subjects the current one masks or excludes, and yes! we might see the Khalidi tapes and begin the vetting of Obama which the MSM refused to do in 2008.
The poor devils who raised their hands in that meeting are in a tight spot – there’s nowhere to go, unless Obama could spin off some of his enormous ‘stimulus’ stash ($840,000,000,000 is really quite a wad of dough) and endow them to set up a new, shovel-ready newspaper company, ready and eager to broadcast The Truth as seen by the high priests of Alinskyism.
“Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by the Koch brothers.” About half the staff raised their hands.
——————————–
Or, put another way, “…a good start”.
1. In the words of a distinguished resident of the Los Angeles area, Go ahead. Make my day.
2. Who would have to buy it to make them all quit?
1. I believe it was San Francisco.
2. Rush Limbaugh would about do it…
You’re right. Eastwood lives in Carmel which is much closer to SF than to LA. Since he is or until recently was an active director, I had placed him near Hollywood.
It’s much easier to raise a hand than it is to quit a job.
I have NO DOUBT that ANY center or center-right newspaper published in America would enjoy robust sales, would have millions flocking to its web site and – unlike the leftist-biased, corrupt MSM excuses for “news”papers, – would be profitable (like the Wall Street Journal is.) It’s a NO-BRAINER that any deep-pocket conservative should buy and actively manage a newspaper, especially one as significant as the LA Times.
Micah, check out the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review some time (online at triblive.com). Its news is what you expect from a newspaper — just the facts, ma’am. Its opinions are conservative with a touch of libertarianism. And it’s gaining against the long-established and self-righteously liberal Post-Gazette.
Awwwww …
Here’s the old editor of my high school newspaper, now a columnist at the LA Times, all star struck at the nerd prom.
https://twitter.com/LATimesrainey/status/328365876787163137
That’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
That would be great if they quit. Save on unemployment benefits and termination expenses.
In an ideal world this would only matter to the editorial writers. For the everyday classically trained unbiased professional journalists with the highest ethical standards, an accident that happens at 5:15pm at the north side of the intersection of 5th and Main street it should be a non issue.
The Koch brothers have no control over either space and time or compass directions. Just report the facts.
I’ve been a subscriber to the WSJ for 30 plus years, and it amazes me that people think it is a conservative paper.
Sure, the editorial and oped pages are conservative (except on immigration where they lost their collective minds years ago), but the general news pages could just as well be printed in the NYT.
They hire from the same pool of “talent” as the NYT, Boston Globe, and WashPo, and their editors and reports share the same worldview.
What makes the WSJ unique is that there is real separation between the editorial page and the rest of the paper, unlike most papers, Tv, and other outlets where the same people run news and opinion.
Mike
“reports” should have been “reporters”
Sorry
Think we can get them to bid on WaPo, NYT and the Austin American Statesman next?
If any method evolves to cull the herd of lemming MSM journalists, I’m all for it regardless of who buys what.
Maybe one or more of the Koch brothers should run for national public office!
Sooner or later, even the stupid, lazy and inept will realize that they are getting screwed just like the rest of us…
Finally, we may have an opportunity to see the Khalidi video!
HEH!!! THAT would be worth it, rite thar…!!!!
I seriously doubt half the staff would quit. Newspapers are laying people off. Anyone quitting would be looking for a new career. Raising your hand in response to a question among you peers is a lot different that raising your hand to volunteer to be out on the street.
I really wish the Koch’s would buy to just to see how many of the “journalists” actually have principles. I suspect very few.