Murdoch rumored to be after the New York Times.

He might settle for the LA Times, though.

(Via Patterico) Not at all likely, but definitely funny:

Murdoch on the prowl for print sales

NEW YORK — Rupert Murdoch’s counterintuitive quest to invest in print media helped drive away longtime lieutenant Peter Chernin.

And now that Chernin can’t intercede, does Murdoch want to follow News Corp.’s $5 billion buyout of Dow Jones by gobbling up the struggling New York Times Co.?

The answer appears to be yes, as impossible as present economic conditions make it for most deals of any kind to get done.

…if only for contemplating the panic that such a move would produce among various and sundry members of the Left. But it is Lent, so I should be nicer about it; besides, it’d never happen anyway. Murdoch already owns enough media outlets in NYC to set off monopoly warning bells in various regulatory agencies; another one would freak them out. For that matter, the family that’s currently running the NYT into the ground would probably call in an airstrike on their own position before they let Murdoch have their newspaper. Besides, what would he do with it, once he had it? Wear it as a hat?

OTOH, Patterico is doing a qualified perk-up at the thought of Murdoch acquiring the LA Times. Given the depressing (albeit self-imposed) job he has right now of calmly reporting the slow-motion destruction of that paper as it implodes, I can’t say that I blame him overmuch.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.