Image Source: act.freepress.net
By Jackie Tortora/AFL-CIO Blog
Some say the press is the fourth branch of government. It serves as a “check and a balance” to our elected and non-elected leaders and informs the public of news for the greater good. But what if that was compromised by a corporate power grab?
That’s exactly what the panel “Should the Koch Brothers Own The Tribune Newspapers?” will examine next Wednesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. As we’ve covered on the blog before, David and Charles Koch have expressed interest in buying the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun and other leading newspapers owned by the Tribune Co.
The Koch brothers also have financed conservative and libertarian causes and founded an advocacy group called Americans for Prosperity, whose stated goals are to limit government, cut taxes and eliminate regulations. Will the Koch brothers’ ownership of newspapers impact fair and objective news coverage?
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement:
It is hard to imagine how the Tribune newspapers would continue to provide quality, independent journalism to the communities they serve if they were under the control of the Koch brothers. As reported by the New York Times, the Kochs’ political strategy includes changing the way the media covers conservative causes. We need newspapers that are dedicated to providing objective and high-quality reporting, not another Fox-news style propaganda machine.
Panelists tackling this discussion are Ryan Grim, The Huffington Post Washington bureau chief; John Nichols, a Washington correspondent at The Nation; Christopher Assaf, video editor at The Baltimore Sun; and Lena Williams, retired senior writer of The New York Times.
The panel will be live-streamed on the AFL-CIO website at www.aflcio.org/Koch-Brothers, Wednesday, June 26, starting at 9 a.m. EDT. The Newspaper Guild-CWA is sponsoring the panel.
If you’re in the area and would like to attend in person, please RSVP by sending an email to invest@aflcio.or
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We are seeing a perfect storm develop in mid-2013 that could sweep away many basic civil amenities that ordinary Californians long have taken for granted.
It is unimaginable — but possible — that those right-wing billionaire Koch Brothers will take over publication of the great Los Angeles Times newspaper. Even if you don’t subscribe, a Koch Brothers takeover of that newspaper would destroy a sterling standard for media reporting the news of life and politics in this state. We truly would be left in the desert.
It is unimaginable — but on track to passage in Sacramento — that Democratic Governor Jerry Brown will sign legislation that seriously dilutes the important California Public Records Act that enables reporters and private citizens to request public information and obtain a response from public agencies within ten days’ time. We the people need to keep the CPRA intact to be able to stay in the know. Brown and his Democratic super-majority in the Legislature need to salvage CPRA.
It was unimaginable until ten days ago that our federal government would maintain vast data banks of Americans’ phone numbers, phone calls and email contacts
and coerce internet providers into providing such information with 100% blanket permissions from a secret court. Obama and the bipartisan Congress need to dial
back the sweeping rules of the Patriot Act that have enabled out-of-control post- 9/11 paranoia, corporate profiteering and an unconscionable intrusion into our private lives.
Warren Buffet owns something like 90 newspapers.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. This issue makes those protesting sound like petulant children who haven’t learned to share.
Maybe having the Koch powerheads owning the Tribune would be a good idea. Only when in-your-face right-wing propaganda is encountered or greatly affects our lives, do we seem to react. People power has not been felt for a very long time. The relentless right wing machine has increasingly dominated since Ronald Reagan. Command efforts, like the single-minded quest for power by the right, fueled by billions — and dictatorships like the Soviet Union, for example, are resisted slowly, like an advancing ice sheet, but suddenly spurred by overreach. The right is approaching that critical mass of overreach.