Sign petition: http://act.couragecampaign.org/sign/latimeskoch/#1
By Miriam Raftery
March 18, 2013 (San Diego) – For weeks, rumors have abounded that the respected Los Angeles Times newspaper and its parent Tribune Company may sell to would-be buyers whose goal is not journalism, but propaganda. On March 17, U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester told MSNBC news that the billionaire Koch Brothers, major financial backers of the TEA Party, are interested in buying the Times empire, which includes the Chicago Tribune as well as the L.A. Times.
Manchester himself has also been rumored to be a prospective buyer. Manchester has drawn criticism in professional journalism circles, including Editor and Publisher, the journalism industry’s esteemed publication, for flagrantly violating rules of journalism and even wrapping the front page of the U-T San Diego in editorials for candidates from president to mayor. But his bias goes far beyond politics. Manchester is a developer; the U-T failed to inform readers when Supervisors were on the verge of approving recommendations of a “Red Tape Reduction Task Force” consisting of developers who wanted to eliminate all community planning groups.
Such bias is dangerous for a democracy. While each person has their own political views, editors and reporters included, in the news business such opinions belong only on the editorial pages if printed at all. Even there, a variety of views should be encouraged. When it comes to news coverage, publishers should make every effort to provide readers with truthful reporting, strongest arguments on all sides of the issues, fact-checking candidates and including all viable candidates in each race, and avoiding influence by exclusion—such as covering only one side of an issue or leaving topics out of the news pages entirely. To do otherwise is censorship and has no place in a democracy.
Our own publication isn’t perfect, but our goal is to strive to meet those goals above. We run reader editorials on a wide variety of issues. We’ve run editorials written by conservatives, liberals, Republicans, Democrats, Green Party and Libertarian Party members. Our comments section is uncensored except if someone violates rules to prevent libel, racism, profanity, or spam. We believe in a free and open exchange of ideas by everyone in our community and we welcome suggestions from our readers. Our news coverage includes as many local issues and some national ones to the degree that our budget allows. We do our best to make sure you know what your local boards and council will be voting on. We keep you informed about major development projects planned for our region. We invite every candidate to be interviewed in the races we cover and provide in-depth coverage, also linking to nonpartisan sites such as the League of Women Voters and the voting records of incumbents to let you have tools to make up your own minds. If an official is engaged in illegal or unethical actions, regardless of their political party, you can count on us to bring you the truth.
As nonprofit media, we also represent the people’s voice – not powerful special interests. That’s not true of a growing number of other media outlets where corporate interests lead to censorship – for instance there are publications in San Diego that won’t run any negative stories about SDG&E because they rely on revenues from the utility giant. When SDG&E approached us about sponsorship, we told them we have a clear firewall between our news and sponsorships (ads in the for-profit world) and that we would continue to run stories on any controversies involving SDG&E. They hung up and never called us back.
Do you really want news publishers to tell you how to think, and what issues you should know about –censoring others that the publisher doesn’t want you to hear about?
The Los Angeles Times is not merely a source of L.A. news. It’s also one of the only reliable sources for information on statewide issues including legislation in the Capitol, as well as regional Southern California issues, some San Diego issues, and quite a few national/international issues. As more and more news outlets become consolidated under massive corporate owners more interested in either fluff/entertainment news or political propaganda for either side, our democracy suffers as a result.
Please join me in signing a petition urging the L.A. Times not to sell to the Koch brothers: http://act.couragecampaign.org/sign/latimeskoch/#1
