Steve Pearlstein of the Washington Post offers "How the L.A. Times can stop the Kochs" (link).

This is his advice for how Los Angeles Times staffers can prevent their paper from being bought by the Koch brothers. It had me rolling on the floor, laughing:

All it would take would be a letter to Tribune’s owners and investment bankers declaring that if the newspapers were sold to an owner who would not invest in quality, politically independent journalism, they will take their talent and experience elsewhere. A one-day strike or sick-out on the day the company is put up for sale would help to reinforce the threat.

Under such circumstances, Tribune and bankers would have a legal obligation to disclose this substantial risk to any prospective buyers in its prospectus. The effect would be to lower the eventual sale price, no matter who eventually buys it. And there is a good chance it would scare off any buyers whose aim is to turn Tribune’s news organizations into mouthpieces for ideological propaganda.

1. Reporters are being replaced with computer programs or Mechanical Turk workers from India. There are many people who could do the same job and for less. Those reporters are bargaining from a very weak position.

2. The idea that the Los Angeles Times now does "politically independent journalism" is incredibly funny; see all the entries at the link. Their immigration coverage has consisted of sticking up for attempts to skirt our laws, covering up for the questionable past of Antonio Villaraigosa, and much, much more. The L.A. Times is now a mouthpiece for propaganda, even if the main goal of that is to help crooked companies make money rather than to push a specific ideology. While it's fun to pretend, I don't know if Pearlstein is playing or is actually delusional.

3. Wouldn't lowering the sales price help the Kochs? I think it would.

One way for L.A. Times reporters to preemptively strike against any attempts by Koch would be to try to undercut the Kochs to their target audience. The Kochs would have much less influence if those who are useful idiots for them (such as the Tea Parties) knew about all the other things the Kochs do; see Koch family. Obviously, it's difficult for those like Pearlstein to point out the ways they and the Kochs are on the same side, even if doing so would undercut the Kochs to their base.

P.S. On an ironic note, Pearlstein is the Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University, known around here as "Koch U."