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May 16, 2013; NetNewsCheck.com

A group named The Other 98% (tagline, “Kicking corporate asses for the working classes”) has announced that it has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo with the goal of $660 million to buy Tribune’s newspaper properties. The intent is to turn it into a nonprofit to ward off corporate interests like Rupert Murdoch and billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

The Tribune group includes Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and TheBaltimore Sun.

John Sellers, Executive Director of The Other 98%, declared “Our plan is to give the Tribune newspapers back to the people and to journalists who care about them—in other words, the exact opposite of a hostile corporate takeover. Think of our bid as a peaceful people’s takeover.”

Nicole Carty says, “This is a way for Americans to say that they’re tired of billionaires fighting over who gets to control our media. We don’t need them. If the public can successfully own a football team, they can do the same with their city’s newspaper. We need to put the ‘free’ back into the free press,” she said.

Check out this video:

By this morning the campaign had raised $51,852 with $659,947,148 left to raise. —Ruth McCambridge