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Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

nytimes.com

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Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#51

Post by untog »

chestervonwinch wrote: post #46
untog wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't really make a political judgement about the man based on a soft video interview. The Koch brothers support both libertarian causes and are opposed to action against climate change, to name two. They also put private investigators to dig into the background of a journalist that was writing about them: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/nyregion/what-happened-to... More broadly, they are able to affect the sh…

> The Koch brothers ... are opposed to action against climate change. Even after the results from Berkeley earth that was in part funded by one of the Koch foundations? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Earth

Yes?

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/21/climate-...

You don't have to be completely binary in your judgements of people like the Koch brothers. They can still be politically questionable even if they do things you agree with from time to time.

For instance, their views on criminal justice reform would probably be quite favourably received by many of the same people who oppose their views on climate change. That isn't a contradiction unless you make it one.

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#52

Post by tryingagainbro »

Hasz wrote: post #36

Allegedly, the Koch Brothers don't plan to take an active role in the company. "Steve Lombardo, a spokesman for Koch Industries, also said that the Kochs had no plans to take an active role in the expanded company. “This is a passive financial investment made through our equity development arm,” Mr. Lombardo said. The company’s role in the transaction, he said, was similar to that of a bank." Regardless of what you t…

>>Regardless of what you think of the Koch brothers, this appears to be a mundane deal sensationalized by the specter of the Koch brothers.

Of course, until 5 years from now, they simply frown their faces about an article and editors get the message.

Maybe it is like you said, maybe it will end like this:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/dec/12/newscorporatio... "I picked up the phone and called Murdoch and said that I was speaking not as a shareholder, but as a viewer of Fox. I said that these are not Muslim riots, they are riots," Campaign Middle East magazine quoted the prince as saying.

"He investigated the matter and called Fox and within half an hour it was changed from 'Muslim riots' to 'civil riots'."

Money does strange things.

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#53

Post by JBlue42 »

valleyer wrote: post #25
Lazare wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's what "independence" in the media looks like. The alternative is ownership by massive conglomerates. GE owns NBC, does that make NBC more "independent" than the New York Times (which is owned by the Sulzberger family)? Media outlets are valuable, thus your options for ownership are 1) very rich individuals or families or 2) large corporations. Which one of those did you want to see more of?

Since 2013, Comcast, not GE, owns NBC.

I thought it was Kabletown...

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#54

Post by mc32 »

pavlov wrote: post #16
mc32 wrote: post #9

Now we have two (more) major newsoutlets owned by activist owners --WaPo and Time Mag. Wish there were more independence in the media. Or at least fewer owners who will push agendas. Time will tell.

You’re counting Jeff Bezos as an activist but not Rupert Murdoch? That makes no sense. Most of his media conglomerate is openly political all the time (Fox News, New York Post, The Sun etc.) while some maintains a pretense of objectivity (Wall Street Journal).

They are all problematic, but an additional issue is that Conservative views tend to be labeled such more then Progressive views get labeled such -so the presentation is that Progressive views are more "normal" than conservative views. As in your post, you're implying that most of Murdoch's outlets are politically biased but make no implication about progressive outlets.

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#55

Post by colordrops »

rhcom2 wrote: post #43
colordrops wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. They commonly report negative SpaceX stories, and trashed the hell out of Bernie Sanders during the election, publishing 16 negatives stories in less than a day.

How are those connected to the owner though?

Jeff Bezos owns SpaceX competitor Blue Origin, and was a big Hillary Clinton supporter.

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#56

Post by guelo »

pcunite wrote: post #10
somberi wrote: post #5

I found this podcast, an interview with Charles Koch, interesting. There are two parts to it. Whatever the ideological issues may be, I found he spoke in an engaging way. http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-hate-koch-brothers-part-... http://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-hate-koch-brothers-part-...

Charles seems like a nice guy. Curious, what is the political problem with him? https://youtu.be/Z7Pj2rKdKII A quote from the video: If you don't learn to do dirty jobs, if you don't learn unpleasant work, by the time you're in your 30s, you never learn to work productively ... you learn from that you don't want to do that the rest of your life, so you had better find some aptitude. He says that after telling about a…

They massively distort our democracy by spending billions on political advocacy for their pet causes.

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#57

Post by arca_vorago »

twblalock wrote: post #21
mc32 wrote: post #9

Now we have two (more) major newsoutlets owned by activist owners --WaPo and Time Mag. Wish there were more independence in the media. Or at least fewer owners who will push agendas. Time will tell.

I like the British media, because they don't pretend to be impartial. Impartiality is impossible, so it's better to be honest about that fact than to pretend to be impartial as the American media does.

The rest of this thread is a sad excuse of analysis of the problems with the Koch family, but I just want to say it's not worth pretending the BBC isn't just as bad as the equivalent here, which would be NPR, (so don't go trying to compare it to fox or MSNBC) and I've heard plenty of criticism of British media doing exactly what you say they don't, from one of my favorite and one of the best journalists, Robert Fisk.

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#58

Post by arca_vorago »

knowaveragejoe wrote: post #13
mc32 wrote: post #9

Now we have two (more) major newsoutlets owned by activist owners --WaPo and Time Mag. Wish there were more independence in the media. Or at least fewer owners who will push agendas. Time will tell.

Has WaPo's "activist" owner had any real impact on what they choose to cover?

WaPo is an operation mockingbird outlet through and through now, and has no credibility left over from its olden days.

Re: Time Inc. Sells Itself to Meredith Corp., Backed by Koch Brothers

#59

Post by danenania »

Turing_Machine wrote: post #48
danso wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't hate him, in fact, I've read a lot about and been impressed with some of his goals, particularly criminal reform [0]. However, I've never been overly political, and I'm currently not in the population most affected by the influence of his campaign spending. Someone who is greatly affected by something like, say, reproductive rights, would probably feel differently about how Charles Koch's money -- whatever it…

The Koch brothers are pro-choice, as far as I know. They also support gay marriage and an end to drug prohibition. http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/14/politics/david-koch-gay-rights...

Does that match up with who they fund? My understanding is that they are funding lots of politicians who push xenophobia, homophobia, anti-feminism, and the drug war.

Unless I'm mistaken about that, I don't think it particularly matters what their personal beliefs are, since they are working against those supposed beliefs with their money and their actions.

If you're willing to sacrifice human rights to get tax cuts and deregulation, it shows what really matters to you, and what sort of person you really are.

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