Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez addressed the issue on everyone’s lips last week during the paper’s in-house awards ceremony, Huffington Post blogger Kathleen Miles reports.

“Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by Austin Beutner’s group,” Mr. Lopez asked. No one raised their hands.

Then he asked, “Raise you hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by Rupert Murdoch,” to which a few raised their hands.

Then he addressed the elephant in the room: “Raise your hand if you would quit if the paper was bought by the Koch brothers.”

About half the staff raised their hands, Ms. Miles reports.

A spokesperson for the free-market tycoons, Charles and David Koch, addressed growing speculation in March about a potential bid for Tribune Co., owner of The Times.

“As an entrepreneurial company with 60,000 employees around the world, we are constantly exploring profitable opportunities in many industries and sectors. So, it is natural that our name would come up in connection with this rumor,” Melissa Cohlmia, Koch Industries‘ director of corporate communications, said in an email to The Hollywood Reporter.

Reports show that Koch Industries is the only group prepared to buy the company that is struggling to emerge from a four-year bankruptcy. According to Ms. Miles “the predominantly Democratic city is quivering” at the idea.

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