From Reuters yesterday afternoon:
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp [..] will sell eight U.S. television stations to private equity firm Oak Hill Partners for about $1.1 billion.
I couldn't help but wonder who was buying up tv stations in an election year, so a quick check of Oak Hill Partners :
Oak Hill Capital Partners traces its roots to Robert M. Bass, one of the four brothers who founded Bass Brothers Enterprises in Fort Worth, Texas.
From Texas, eh? A little more checking as a Texas based company raised my eyebrows right away:
Robert Muse Bass is a Texas billionaire worth approximately $5.46 billion as of 2006.
Bass was born into an extremely wealthy family with an uncle, Sid Richardson, worth $810 million. He and his three brothers Lee, Ed, and Sid Bass all attended Yale University, where they solidified their moneyed and political connections. Ed Bass was a classmate and personal friend of George W. Bush, and the brothers, especially Lee Bass, helped Bush financially both before and throughout his political career.
As Diane points out on her blog, it would be interesting to monitor these stations to see what kind of coverage they offer during the election and what impact, if any, it might have.
