NY Times reporter suggests 'best way a civic-minded billionaire could help the country' (just guess!)

Doug P. | 3:49 PM on July 23, 2018

About half the staff of the New York Daily News being laid off has caused others in that line of work to sound an industry alarm:

today's layoffs @nydailynews are an awful warning about what happens when news is devalued, depopulated, and defenestrated. Can't speak for everyone canned, but I can personally vouch for @darehgregorian @ZHaberman and @peterbotte – they're fantastic

— Devlin Barrett (@DevlinBarrett) July 23, 2018

It is good that elected officials are weighing in about the negative impact this has in NYC. Would have been more helpful had any of those in power done this when reports of looming mass layoffs emerged last week. https://t.co/65oFWaUibf

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 23, 2018

However, New York Times national political correspondent Jonathan Martin has an idea for how some billionaires could be better spending their money:

The best way a civic-minded billionaire could help the country is not w a vanity campaign or pol spending but by buying Tronc, Gannett, et al and then turning over to journalists to rebuild at any cost https://t.co/LRdgUQf3Xn

— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) July 23, 2018

There were many assuming this was in reference to Tom Steyer, but the Koch brothers are billionaires too.

Hoarding welath is evil but please buy these newspapers and turn them over to journalists. https://t.co/xLHzBd4IRs

— BT (@back_ttys) July 23, 2018

https://twitter.com/colonel_potter/status/1021477597417549825

What could possibly go wrong?

Look! Up in the sky! It's a plane! It's unicorn! It's "civic-minded billionaire" coming to our rescue. In a flying submarine… https://t.co/e67thBfOtb

— Matthew Wills (@backyardbeyond) July 23, 2018