The far left is in a feeding frenzy over the possibility that the Koch brothers might purchase the Los Angeles Times. I tilt to the left on matters political but I hope they buy the Times. If they do they'll join my heroes of journalism, which already includes Rupert Murdoch, who controls the Wall Street Journal and New York Post. 

I realize that if the Koch brothers purchase the L.A. Times the far right, together with the WSJ, would provide powerful forums on both coasts expressing most views that I don’t support.  Does that worry me?  Not at all.  Good luck, Koch brothers.

Here why I hope for their success:

  • Newspapers are a dying business.  If not for Murdoch supporting the Post it would probably be out-of-business.  Rumors about the fate of the WSJ were often the subject of media watchers because of earnings declines before Murdoch bought it.  Murdoch made the paper more reader friendly by adding a sports report, magazine and other new features.  The doomsayers who predicted that Murdoch would transform the respected paper into a British style publication were wrong.  Its editorials, which were always conservative, still are but not in the Fox News way.
  • The L.A. Timesis also not what it was before the Internet changed its business. It needs a white knight who has the financial strength to keep it afloat until it achieves the right formula to become, hopefully, self-sufficient. I haven’t seen their bank statements but rumor has it that the Koch brothers have enough pocket money to do the job.
  • Newspapers’ editorial stances change as new owners take control. In my lifetime the L.A. Times went from conservative to liberal; the New York Post from liberal to conservative. Who’s to say that the same political transformation will not happen in the future?  But if the papers die it can never happen.  Example: The Sun, a New York newspaper whose slogan was "It Shines for All," was a Pulitzer Prize- winning paper whose series about the New York waterfront was the basis for the movie On the Waterfront.  The Sun ceased publishing in 1950 and under new ownership resumed publishing in 2002.  After six years it folded for the print issue for good.  It’s difficult for dead newspapers to be revived. 
  • Newspapers are continually reducing staff in an effort to remain profitable and stay in business. Where is the compassion toward the hundreds of journalists who will lose their jobs with no place to go if their papers cease publication?  The far left that wishes for the death of papers whose political viewpoints are different from theirs should not only consider the people who will be out of jobs but the welfare of their families.  I do.  That’s why I hope the Koch brothers will buy the LA. Times and keep it publishing even though I am sure that I will disagree with the new right-wing editorial viewpoint it will sprout.

Good luck, Koch brothers and I hope you purchase many additional papers that will fail unless someone like you with deep pocketscomes totheir rescue.  And you should know that I enjoy the many performancesI have seen in the David H. Koch Theater at New York’s Lincoln Center.  Thanks for that also.

And two questions to all those who oppose conservative voices like the Koch brothers and Murdoch owning newspapers.  Do you think that the First Amendment of the Constitution was written only for you?  And what did you do to save the many newspapers that have gone out of business since the Internet era?

arthur solomon* * *

Arthur Solomon was a Senior Vice President/Senior Counselor at Burson-Marsteller, where he handled national and international accounts and traveled worldwide with top foreign government and Olympic officials as a media consultant. He is available at [email protected].