The media elites are a little obsessed about who is the secretive new owner who paid $140 million to buy The Las Vegas Review-Journal, Nevada’s largest daily newspaper with a circulation in excess of 175,000. “But one rumored purchaser tells Fortune — via a spokesman — that it wasn’t them: Charles and David Koch, co-founders of Koch Industries and major donors to conservative candidates.”
The Koch brothers are infamous capitalist villains to Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the leader of the Senate Democratic minority. Gatehouse Media sold the paper last week to a company called simply “News + Media Capital Group,” shielding the identity of the new owner (or owners). Another popular rumor is major GOP donor Sheldon Adelson, who has offered no comment. Fortune added:
Given Nevada’s recent history as an important swing state in presidential races — Nevadans have picked the winning presidential candidate in 9 straight elections — there has been a lot of speculation that the secretive purchase was made for the purpose of swinging local political opinion. The Kochs were among the possible names bandied about, but a spokesman says it wasn’t them.
The Left was paranoid in 2013 that the “Kochtopus” was going to take over the Tribune Company and its newspapers (including the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, and the Chicago Tribune). “Stop the next Fox News before it starts,” warned one petition. Instead, Tribune split its broadcast and print entities into two separate companies in 2014.
