UPDATE: The news in the VOSD story is every bit as bad as I feared. From the story, John Lynch says:
He wants that sports page to be an advocate for a new football stadium “and call out those who don’t as obstructionists.”
“To my way of thinking,” Lynch said, “that’s a shovel-ready job for thousands.”
…
“We’d like to be a cheerleader for all that’s good about San Diego,” Lynch said. “Our motivation, both of us, was to do something good for San Diego.”
Interesting how being a “cheerleader for all that’s good about San Diego” just happens to coincide with the business and political agenda of John Lynch and Doug Manchester.
While the near-bankrupt city struggles to right its finances, here comes the U-T’s new owners pushing a project that will cost the city even more as a jobs bill. Our very own economic stimulus package.
How very Obama.
If Lynch is as good as his word, don’t expect to see much critical coverage of this corporate welfare program in the Union-Tribune. By edict of its new owners, U-T journalists are to become cheerleaders.
If Lynch is successful in using the Union-Tribune in that way, the corporate welfare plutocrats will win. Their political enablers will win. Their allies will win. The loser will be the average San Diego resident and taxpayer.
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If a tweet and upcoming story by Rob Davis of Voice of San Diego is correct, any hope of a fair and balanced San Diego Union-Tribune under its new ownership has gone into the toilet.
Specifically, John Lynch, Doug Manchester’s partner in buying the U-T, is advocating biased cheerleading coverage to support using taxpayer assets for corporate welfare — aka a new Chargers stadium. (I will link to the story when it’s posted).
Crony Capitalism from one of the U-T's new owners
If this is what Lynch is willing to say publicly, I shudder at what instructions he’s giving the U-T staffers privately.
Count me in as one of those “obstructionists” who oppose welfare for the rich. And my colleagues at the Union-Tribune, in sports and the other sections, have my deepest sympathies.
As for the rest of you, just remember that by Lynch’s own words, the sports page must abandon any pretense of journalistic fairness and pimp out its coverage for the plutocrats at Spanos & Co. The Union-Tribune has often supported corporate welfare, but this bald-faced statement takes the bias to a new level of brazenness.
Excuse me while I vomit.
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(DISCLAIMER: The opinions I express do not necessarily represent the views of my employer, the North County Times.)