The newspaper industry as a whole may be dying, but the liberal Democratic Los Angeles city council knows that an editorially-liberal broadsheet is invaluable to its continued monopoly on power. There are actually L.A. councilmen who want to explore using the city's pension funds to prevent the Los Angeles Times from being bought out by the conservative Koch brothers. Catherine Saillant of the Los Angeles Times explained in an April 30 story that:
[Councilman Bill] Rosendahl's motion calls on the council to support a buyer who has demonstrated “the highest terms of professional and objective journalism.” It also calls for a report on how the city can use its pension funds and other investments as leverage to achieve that goal.
“We cannot support the sale of the Times to entities who Times readers would view as a political transaction first and foremost, turning L.A.’s metropolitan daily into an ideological mouthpiece whose commitment to empirical journalism would be unproven at best,” Rosendahl wrote in the motion. “A newspaper isn’t just a business it’s also a civic trust.”
Besides Rosendahl, the motion was signed by Councilman Dennis Zine, who is running for city controller , and Councilman and mayoral hopeful Eric Garcetti. The mayoral election, which pits Garcetti against City Controller Wendy Greuel, will be held May 21.
Hmm, surely Rosendahl must be livid with MSNBC, which is all but an official arm of the Democratic National Committee. Or maybe leaning forward is simply a "civic trust."
