Washington Post Reporter Upset that Koch Brothers Might Buy Tribune Newspapers: Socialist Columnist Harold Meyerson Shows His Distaste

Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson , an outwardly socialist leader of the Democratic Socialists of America is in a panic about the Koch brothers buying Tribune company newspapers.

The bankers’ men on the Tribune board likely view the sale of the papers as a financial transaction, pure and simple. But Times readers (and the Koch brothers themselves) would view a sale to the Kochs as a political transaction first and foremost, turning L.A.’s metropolitan daily into a right-wing mouthpiece whose commitment to empirical journalism would be unproven at best. A newspaper isn’t just a business; it’s also a civic trust. The money men who have been plunked down on the Tribune board should remember that as they sell off the civic chronicles of some of America’s great cities.

No word yet on this story from former NYT reporter Jayson Blair.