here we have the loss of some of the last real investigative newspapers left in the country... including the san jose mercury news, the paper that brought us gary webb's 'dark alliance' which exposed CIA drug running.
from mercury news: McClatchy announced today that the Mercury News and three other Knight Ridder papers will be acquired by Denver-based MediaNews in a complicated $1 billion deal involving several other newspaper companies, including Hearst, the owner of the San Francisco Chronicle...
The deal creates a powerful new media giant in Northern California by combining ownership of MediaNews' eight local daily newspapers with Knight Ridder's Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and Monterey County Herald. MediaNews also is acquiring Knight Ridder's smaller Bay Area publications, such as the Palo Alto Daily News group and the Silicon Valley Community Newspapers.
and where did they get the money to do this?
Gates Foundation among MediaNews lenders
from houston chronicle: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was among a few dozen banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and other entities that loaned $350 million to MediaNews Group Inc. for its purchase of four newspapers from publisher McClatchy Co.
The Seattle-based Gates Foundation, the world's largest philanthropy with an endowment of about $30 billion, contributed an unspecified amount of money toward the transaction, according to an Aug. 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission by MediaNews Group. Others listed as contributors include General Electric Capital Corp. and Blue Shield of California.
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