When Hedge Funds Own Newspapers

 My local paper was just purchased by a hedge fund. You know, the people who only care about making money. The paper was never perfectly balanced with conservative and liberal agendas, but on more than a few occasions they would print cartoons that made fun of the conservatives. Since the purchase, the cartoons that tease the right have noticeably decreased in number. So, I had to write a letter to the new editor. I was limited to less than 200 words with hopes that it would be printed. There’s not a shot in hell that they will print this as a comment, since it is the commonsense truth.

Dear Press-Enterprise, 

(Regarding the above cartoon in the OP section on 4/16/16)

Let’s see. We have Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders sitting in a dunk tank where both solutions are going to tank the economy.

Bernie is the only candidate who honesty endorses the taxing of extreme wealth, so that the economy may reinstate the America Dream of a growing middle class. A fact that needs to be accomplished for the middle class, of which Hillary’s plan does not fully address. But this right-wing cartoon takes them both down. 

By publishing this cartoon in your newspaper, does this mean the Press-Enterprise is endorsing extreme wealth, non-American ideas of a middle-class, and secretly supports the right’s agenda of corporate wealth over we the people’s economic health? Does this mean you really don’t care about we the people? Is your newspaper under the guise that the information from the left and right deserve equal time, while the syndicated cartoons you choose to print dominantly slant right? Are you trying to brainwash me with this trick?

Alden Global Capital, the NY hedge fund that just bought your paper, welcomes you soundly.

Thanks to the LA Times research, I’m able to quote some of Alden Global Capital’s corporate umbrella. They own quite a few media companies which own newspapers. A quick list of prior investments that they have since sold: Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News, Sacramento Bee, Dallas Morning News, USA Today. Through the recent purchase of Freedom Communications by Digital First Media of Alden Global Capital, they acquired the holdings of: The Orange County Register, Press-Enterprise, East Bay Times, which is actually the gutting of four local newspapers into one, i.e. Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Hayward’s Daily Review and Fremont’s Argus. The Alden group also created the Mercury News, which is the gutting of two papers, the San Mateo County Times and San Jose Mercury News all rolled into one. And finally from this deal, they own San Bernardino’s conclave of papers: The Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Redlands Daily Facts, all of which will most likely be gutted into the Press-Enterprise as one.

Obliviously, Digital First Media has been instructed to gut these newspapers, roll them up, make them profitable by cutting executives, editors, reports, and begin the process of sharing stories, which is exactly what LA Times reports as their actions. And so goes the news world of paper, minus the aggressive reporters that set out to find stories that matter. My region is now stuck with the leftovers of a corporate raid. No wonder the cartoons reflect homage to the corporate gods and bash liberals more aggressively. I think they are trying to keep their jobs. ?

Right next to the Hillary and Bernie cartoon was this:

Yeah! That’s good reporting and highly accurate. As if Obama hasn’t improved the economy and takes all the blame when it is Congress that left the snail trail. Perhaps this is why the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley always ends with a feel good story. Corporate news outlets want us to feel good about their highly controlled products.

Of course there are a lot more words that can go into this piece, but you know what? I think you can figure out the rest of this blog for yourself. I refuse to spoon feed the additional items of this topic, but offer the most important one. When hedge funds own newspapers, bad things happen, like becoming un-news worthy due to a lack of reality and commonsense, which also make the newspapers not worth buying.

Did the LA Times run the details of the deal as a sly effort to warn us of the ineptitude that does not belong in print? You bet they did.

I’m too disturbed to itemize the rest of the list for you. Why? Because it leads to a bigger list in other industries too. There’s a damn book in detailing the principle of forced slavery to money.Money Has Corrupted Practically Everything, would be a great title. You write the book.