LAPD buys stake in San Diego Union-Tribune, demands reporters critical of police be fired.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/05/la-police-union-wants-san-diego-newspaper-writers-fired.html

The union representing Los Angeles police officers is pressuring the owner of San Diego’s main newspaper to change the paper’s editorial stance on labor issues or to fire its editorial writers.

The feud is rooted in the recent purchase of the San Diego Union-Tribune by Platinum Equity, a private Beverly Hills firm.

Platinum relies on a $30-million investment from the pension fund of Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters, along with large sums from other public-employee pension systems around the state, to help fund its acquisitions of companies. As League President Paul M. Weber views it, that makes the League part owner in the flagging Tribune and League officials are none to happy with the paper’s consistent position that San Diego lawmakers should cut back on salaries and benefits for public employees in order to help close gaping budget deficits.


"Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced," Weber wrote in a March 26 letter to Platinum CEO Tom Gores.

Weber, in an interview, emphasized that the League is not demanding changes in the paper’s news coverage of the issue or in its staff of reporters. "It’s just these people on the opinion side. There is not even an attempt to be even-handed. They’re one step away from saying, ‘these public employees are parasites,’ " Weber said.


Bob Kittle, editor of the Union-Tribune’s editorial page, rebuffed Weber’s comments. While his staff has written several editorials critical of the benefit and pension commitments city leaders have made to San Diego’s five public employee unions, he denied Weber’s charge that the paper is out to hurt public employees.




"We are not anti-public safety or public employee," he said. "All of this has to be considered within the context of what the city can afford. A bankrupt city can’t provide any public safety very well."


Kittle said no one at Platinum or higher-ups at the paper had contacted him about the union’s request.

Mark Barnhill, a principal at Platinum, acknowledged the letter from Weber but declined to comment on whether the firm planned to take any action. In a recent interview with the Union-Tribune, however, another Platinum executive indicated that the League is wasting its time.

"Platinum has no editorial agenda," he said. "We will rely on the newspaper’s professional staff to ensure that its pages appropriately reflect the values of the community it serves."

-- Joel Rubin

Even though I hate cops, I have to agree with this stance.

That's blackmail, IMO. And the problem with our papers is they aren't independent enough. A free press is crucial - and it cannot be free if it's not allowed to criticize police unions or police actions.

and the owners always get a say in how the paper is run. That is just a fact of newspaper life. I worked for a number of papers. I always did what the owner said. If you owned a paper, you would want it run the way you wanted it run.

The only person who has freedom of the press is the man who owns one. --AJ Liebling.

yep sorry.

K&R

I understand this is about the editorial staff, but how far behind can the rest be.

express contrary opinion to it's new authoritarian owners.

JFC, Kurt is rolling in his grave.

the editorial staff of a newspaper has always done what the owner wanted. Fact of life.

You won't find many (if any) newspapers where the staff tells the owner to fuck off. I've only known that to have happened twice -- in my 45 years in the business. Both times, the owners won and the person who told them to fuck off was fired -- on the spot.

after they ran a poll on whether the motorist, unconscious after a chase, deserved to be beaten and kicked by a bunch of officers.

I asked how could they even ask that question because police are not the punishment part of law enforcement. It was like asking the question "should reporters be beaten for writing things critical of law enforcement and undermining public opinion and endangering officers."

being invested in such a way.

But you're absolutely right! Who would invest their pension money in a newspaper right now, with newspaper values going through the floor?

:kick:

If an owner of a newspaper does not like how it is reporting on an issue, the owner usually wins out. The public, as a whole, is largely subject to the results. This is probably why Americans are so misinformed or uninformed. The rich own the presses.

Forget firing the editorial staff. Fire Platinum Equity as the entity to invest pension funds! What a goofy thing to do in this era.

Fucking idiots!

:rofl: