Ridgewood NJ, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.-09) reacted to reports that MNG Enterprises Inc., an arm of the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, was seeking to purchase the Gannett Company through a hostile takeover of Gannett’s board of directors.
“The last thing we need is the decimation of more quality media outlets. Across America, newspapers have been shuttered or swallowed whole, slowly starving our communities of information about their towns and neighbors. This problem is especially acute in my state New Jersey. I have no doubt that our inability to obtain incisive journalism is a driving cause of our growing national divisions.
Pascrell like many New Jersey Politicos are worried the cozy relationship they have with Jersey one sided media outlets is coming to a close .
“ A healthy democracy rests on a vibrant news media. I stand with the journalists and communities threatened by this and other similar takeover bids.”
Is that why Pascrell and a host of other Jersey politicians attack this blog which is one of the only few dissenting voices in this state?
Gannett Inc. is the parent company of a host of over 100 daily and 1000 weekly newspapers and community and state news outlets including USA Today, the Indianapolis Star, the Louisville Courier-Journal, and eight daily and many weekly papers in New Jersey, including The Record of Bergen County, the Asbury Park Press, the Bridgewater Courier News, and the Cherry Courier-Post, the Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, and the Woodland Park Herald News.
Gannett as a quality media outlet?!? I think not. The argument against the takeover is that MNG will gut the business and fire employees. Isn’t that what Gannett did with the North Jersey Media Group? Quality? Why is Bergen County’s “Local” section highlighting news in south Jersey? Why do I read the same article three times on a week? Very little left that is newsworthy and most times the news is overpowered by opinion… Free press?!? Not in any sense of the word with Gannett.