The Koch brothers, billionaire funders of the Tea Party and libertarian all-stars, are reportedly interested in buying several newspapers across the country, including the The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, and The Orlando Sentinel. They might also be exploring the possibility of buying Hoy, the second-largest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States.

The papers, which are now owned by the Tribune Company, represent some of the largest circulations in the United States, as well as smaller newspapers that operate in key battleground states for presidential elections.

The interest in the newspapers is part of a three-pronged plan to convince Americans that a small government is the best kind. According to the New York Times, the Koch's presented this plan to a group of like-minded billionaires who wanted to influence Americans through grassroots campaigns, political action groups, and now, the media.

Seton Motley, a conservative activist in favor of small government, told the Times, "A running joke among conservatives as we watched the G.O.P. establishment spend $500 million on ineffectual TV ads is ‘Why don't you just buy NBC?' "

The best way to influence the media narrative, as fellow Billionaire Rupert Murdoch knows well, is to be the media. And the Koch brothers, who "see the conservative voice as not being well represented," seem poised to spend as little as $623 million on the papers (their company makes $115 billion in revenue every year), to give their ideas a very, very large soapbox.

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