Ex-K.G.B. Agent Buying London Tabloid
January 22nd, 2009HA. Oh well, what’s better? The CIA bribing American “journalists” to constantly look the other way, or a former Soviet spook simply owning the paper?
Via: New York Times:
Yet the fact that Moscow-based Mr. Lebedev is presumably the first former Soviet spy to own a major British daily “adds a different dimension,” said Roy Greenslade, who writes a column on the media in The Standard and a blog about it on the Web site of The Guardian. “What you always have to ask yourself is, ‘Why is this person buying the paper?’ ” Mr. Greenslade said in a telephone interview.
“There are five reasons for owning newspapers, and all begin with a P: profit, propaganda, political influence, prestige and public service. There’s no profit in The Standard, so you’ve got to look at the other things.”
In Moscow, Mr. Lebedev is the major shareholder, along with the former Soviet president Mikhail S. Gorbachev, in Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper that has a reputation for being pro-democracy and independent and whose journalists included Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in Moscow in October 2006. A freelance journalist for the paper, Anastasia Baburova, was killed on Monday in Moscow.
Mr. Lebedev, a political gadfly, has built a reputation for opposing corruption and seeking stronger democratic institutions, even though, like Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, his roots go back to the cold war K.G.B.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr. Lebedev promised to guarantee The Standard’s editorial independence. “We are strong supporters of a free and independent press and we greatly admire The Evening Standard as an iconic publication with its pedigree of fine journalism and commentary,” the statement said.
Mr. Lebedev, 49, is to be the chairman of a new company that will own the paper. His London-based son, Evgeny Lebedev, 28, will be senior executive director.
Couldn’t be any worse than the crooked Mexican oligarch, Carlos Slim, that the New York Times is about to sell itself to. Expect to see articles soon in “the newspaper of record” describing their next owner as a “wildly successful businessman” and not as the master corrupter of Mexican politicians and monopolist that he actually is.