Part 5 of “The Newsprint Vultures” — The legislative attempts, regulatory gaps, and why every attempt to constrain hedge fund newspaper ownership has failed. The letter that got no response On February 21, 2019, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York sent a letter to Heath Freeman, the president of Alden Global Capital.[1] Schumer was concerned….
Category: Politics & Government
Political analysis, government institutions, policy decisions
The Democracy Toll: What Happens When Local News Disappears
Part 4 of “The Newsprint Vultures” — The measurable costs to communities when newspapers close: higher borrowing costs, lower voter turnout, and diminished accountability. The numbers, updated In 2025, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University released its latest State of Local News report. The numbers had worsened:[1] Metric Value Counties with zero news…
The Profitability Paradox: How Alden Extracted Millions While Crying Poverty
Part 3 of “The Newsprint Vultures” — The leaked financial documents that proved Alden’s newspapers were profitable all along. The spreadsheet that changed everything In May 2018, Ken Doctor published a story in Nieman Lab that upended the narrative about Alden Global Capital. He had obtained a leaked internal financial document — a spreadsheet showing…
The Pension Play: How Alden Siphoned $294 Million from Newspaper Retirement Funds
Part 2 of “The Newsprint Vultures” — The $294 million pension transfer scheme, the whistleblowers who exposed it, and the Department of Labor investigation that followed. The editor who would not stay quiet In May 2018, Chuck Plunkett resigned as editorial page editor of The Denver Post. He hadn’t been fired. He hadn’t been laid…
The Shell Game: How Alden Global Capital Extracts Wealth from America’s Newspapers
A Proposed Framework
A Proposed Framework Part 7 of “The Tree of Liberty’s Roots: Repairing What Is Rotten” Throughout this series, we have examined structural reforms to American democracy. We have ranked them by impact and feasibility. We have identified the central dilemma: the reforms with the highest democratic impact have the highest barriers. The question is not…
The Constitutional Question
The Constitutional Question Part 6 of “The Tree of Liberty’s Roots: Repairing What Is Rotten” The central dilemma appears repeatedly throughout this series: the reforms with the highest democratic impact have the highest barriers. Electoral College abolition would ensure that the president is elected by popular vote, representing every vote equally. Abolition requires a constitutional…
Novel Mechanisms: What Has Been Tried
Novel Mechanisms: What Has Been Tried Part 5 of “The Tree of Liberty’s Roots: Repairing What Is Rotten” Some reforms have strong evidence. Some have constitutional barriers. Some have been tried only in limited contexts, with results that are suggestive but not definitive. This part examines novel mechanisms—democratic innovations that exist in limited experiments, advisory…
What Works: Anti-Capture Mechanisms
What Works: Anti-Capture Mechanisms Part 4 of “The Tree of Liberty’s Roots: Repairing What Is Rotten” The relationship between wealth and political influence is not new. What is new is the scale and the mechanism. The 2014 Princeton study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page examined 1,779 policy outcomes and found that “economic elites and…
What Works: Removing Unfit Leaders
What Works: Removing Unfit Leaders Part 3 of “The Tree of Liberty’s Roots: Repairing What Is Rotten” The American constitutional system has a removal mechanism: impeachment. A president can be removed from office for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”[^1]—criminal misconduct by the official holder of the office. It is an extraordinary mechanism….