One of the FUNNIEST stories going around Twitter right now HAS to be about billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong purchasing the Los Angeles Time and the San Diego Union-Tribune. Literally, every liberal media personality in Los Angeles (so about 99 percent of them) are FREAKING out. You know why? Because their soon-to-be new owner has been seen with President Donald Trump and *GASP* there COULD be a possibility that he supports the president.
If you look at who all the freak out is coming from, it’s from mainstream media reporters at places like the LA Times, POLITICO and Slate.
LATIMES owner to sell paper… https://t.co/pou2KAqckk
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) February 6, 2018
Reporters were quick to respond to the situation:
To recap 2018 so far: @latimes unionizes. Publisher placed on leave. EIC ousted. New EIC named. Newsroom revolts against possible move to the Westside. The "Pyramid" and the "Network" uncovered. Business editor suspended, then reinstated. LAT to be sold to the richest man in L.A.
— Andrea Chang (@byandreachang) February 6, 2018
Sounds like quite the saga.
And it's only Feb. 6.
— Stephen Battaglio (@SteveBattaglio) February 6, 2018
A lot can happen in 30 days, especially when a billionaire businessman is put in charge.
Video of LA Times staff checking their computers every minute of every day recently. pic.twitter.com/6vO3r5F8P3
— Mr. Mark Potts (@mrmarkpotts) February 6, 2018
Basically.
Will the @latimes ever break our own story? ?
— Brittny Mejia (@brittny_mejia) February 6, 2018
What happened to writing the story, not being the story?
https://twitter.com/B_M_Finnigan/status/961010639786328064
Media freakout much?
Ok maybe I was just out of the loop here but "Patrick Soon-Shiong buys LA Times" was not one of the headlines I was expecting this week
— Sy Mukherjee (@the_sy_guy) February 6, 2018
Recommended
So you’re in denial too, huh?
My inbox if full of colleague emailing to tell me my "favourite doctor" is buying the @latimes
Here's a story I did last year on Patrick Soon-Shiong's cancer tests. https://t.co/ZEAg2Mvuct— Caroline Chen (@CarolineYLChen) February 6, 2018
The buzz is going around.
Patrick Soon-Shiong to buy the Los Angeles Times. What could go wrong?
— Jack Shafer (@jackshafer) February 6, 2018
Liberals would lose their influence and then they’d REALLY be freaking out.
Want to know about the new owner of the @latimes, biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong? Worth reading this @statnews piece about him railing against “all this false reporting” while he was under media scrutiny last year: https://t.co/cXz74QDl6D
— Matt Viser (@mviser) February 6, 2018
Hmm.
Some seem quick to tear the man down. Just look at this thread by Rebecca Robbins:
.@DrPatSoonShiong is buying the @latimes and the @sdut, the @washingtonpost reports. here are some fun facts about The World's Richest Doctor https://t.co/CvODtGOqoZ
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
back in the early 1990s he suggested he had cured diabetes. spoiler: he hadn't. https://t.co/VNQJMiY4nG
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
in early 2016, he launched a bold plan to cure cancer, but when i checked in on his progress a year in, i found… very little scientific progress, inflated claims, and lots of marketing of soon-shiong products https://t.co/RopNMUrB2E
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
So he hasn’t cured cancer. What does that have to do with running a newspaper?
a few years ago, he donated $12M to the university of utah. the catch: the contract for his gift was worded in a way that left the university with no other choice but to send $10M of it back to one of his companies https://t.co/UsW7cjRcJL
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
and this past december, @adamfeuerstein's readers voted soon-shiong as the worst CEO in biopharma https://t.co/8mV94voL7g
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
then there's @dariustahir's great reporting on how soon-shiong has been boosting sales of his genetic test with purchases from hospitals and clinics associated with doctors on his payroll https://t.co/O1DwKtJ18l
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
and here's the transcript of the weirdest earnings call i have ever listened to, wherein the new @latimes owner rails against "false reporting" https://t.co/iROUNjsavGhttps://t.co/N4LfcNR92I
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
and i'd be remiss if i didn't mention that soon-shiong and @cher (of all people!) are in a nasty legal feud https://t.co/n1nG7qGXon
— Rebecca Robbins (@RebeccaDRobbins) February 6, 2018
Then there’s this thread…
Before celebrating *too* much about the possible sale of @latimes to billionaire doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong, read this thread https://t.co/lR8ufo3yH2
— Lisa Fung (@lfung) February 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/961001709660262400
https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/961002442711330817
https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/961002745728765954
https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/961003188341047296
https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/961003585025822720
https://twitter.com/JHWeissmann/status/961003953415770115
It will be interesting to see where the chips will fall with this one. On one hand, lefties are freaking out and melting over the thought of potentially having someone even REMOTELY on Trump’s side managing them. Because, you know, Heaven forbid they have to be even semi-neutral in their reporting. On the other hand, this could be a gigantic shift in how the mainstream media reports on conservatives.
What say you?
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