Progressives have a new nightmare

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has long argued that wealthy conservative donors should send their money buying women's magazines rather than futilely buying advertising.  Those women-oriented magazines are uniformly hostile to conservative causes and could easily be turned around.

Media Bias

Thomas Lifson  "Realistic political analysts have always believed that their dominance of mainstream media has always added to the vote totals of Democrats and progressives.  President Trump's excoriation of fake news is an attempt to lessen that advantage by helping credibility erode faster than ever from the major media outlets.

"But now a different kind of threat is emerging, and we can expect screams of outrage if a couple of billionaires "follow through on moves being hinted at.  "Following the example of Jeff Bezos's bargain-basement purchase of the Washington Post, a couple of major media properties may fall into conservative hands and be repurposed as conservative outlets.

"Peter Kafka reports in Recode:

Do the Koch Brothers want their own media empire?

They're putting more than $500 million into a bid for Time Inc. Why?

The fact that Meredith is trying to buy Time Inc. is news, but it's not shocking: The magazine publisher that owns Family Circle and Parents has been trying to combine with the publisher that owns People, Time and Sports Illustrated for years.

The big surprise: Charles and David Koch, the billionaires who are a powerful force in conservative politics, are backing the bid.

The New York Times reports that the Kochs are putting more than $500 million into a deal that hasn't closed but seems pretty far along, and could be finalized in the coming weeks. I'm told the investor group backed by billionaire Len Blavatnik, which floated an offer for Time Inc. last year, doesn't plan to compete for the company now.

We'll learn more about the proposed deal soon, but here's the first, obvious question: Do the Kochs want to be investors in a media business because they like the economics? Or because they want influence? . . .

. . . "The big picture is really scary if you are a prog who depends on media support.  The MSM have been committing suicide by driving away half the public and being so obviously biased that even the remaining audience loses trust.  That opens the door to pick up properties on the cheap.  They are already politicized, so reversing the poles is not a huge obstacle.  There are plenty of unemployed journalists out there, so staffing up shouldn't be a problem.  Moreover, the conservative blogosphere has operated as a sort of farm team system for newly conservative magazines, newspapers, and websites to draw talent from."

This is worrisome aplenty knowing of George Soros' influence on American culture and politics. I fear influence from the right while at the same time see the need for an antibiotic against the disease of leftism. 
But it will take more than conservative media to overcome the leftism in academia and entertainment. TD