Philadelphia’s two daily newspapers have long been accused of liberal bias, but critics say a group of potential buyers led by former Gov. Ed Rendell would turn the papers into mere mouthpieces of the Democratic Party in a 2012 swing state.
Mr. Rendell, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, is teaming with George Norcross, the Democratic Party boss of southern New Jersey, and others in an effort to purchase the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and the company’s website, philly.com. “The prospect of Rendell’s group owning the newspapers is like the foxes watching the henhouse and all of the sacred cows,” said Paul Davies, former deputy editorial page editor at the Inquirer. “Essentially, the Inquirer will cease to exist as a legitimate newspaper. It will become the insiders’ house organ.”
And no way they would try to slant all their coverage, would they? Seriously, this is disturbing...but typical of liberals.
Even the liberal journalists are worried that Easy Eddie is going to try to create his own echo chamber:
Journalists at both papers are so concerned that nearly 300 of them signed a public statement last week calling on the current and any future owners to protect the integrity of their reporting. They said the current owner, Philadelphia Media Network (PMN), has censored their coverage of the sale.
“As The Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com have gone up for sale once again, we watched with dismay as our own coverage of the process was compromised and censored,” the statement says.
