Could a Bush-tied defense firm buy Knight Ridder?

[scoopmeister]

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002482.html

It could be the most star-crossed match since the days of Shakespeare.

The bride's friends and family will be seated on the left side of the church, where they can discuss its wild and crazy past, like endorsing John Kerry against George W. Bush even before the 2004 conventions. Maybe some distant cousins from the Knight Ridder Washington bureau, the ones who wrote some of the only articles in 2002 and 2003 that questioned the justification for invading Iraq, will show up, too.

The right side belongs to the groom, hailing from quite a family of luminaries -- folks who got rich by building deadly weapons. The guest list includes former president George H.W. Bush; his secretary of state, James Baker; John Major, the ex-British prime minister, and an array of shadowy global billionaires. Several of the invitees crane their neck to see if anyone from the bin Laden family dares show up.

The Philadelphia Daily News and the Carlyle Group -- perfect together!

OK, odds are it won't happen. But it could. The Wall Street Journal today touted the D.C.-based mega-holding company with a history of ties to the Bush family and the (non-Osama) bin Laden family as a potential suitor for Knight Ridder Corp., the parent company of the Daily News and Inquirer. As you may know, Knight Ridder -- under pressure from its largest investor, a major GOP donor, and from declining newspaper readership -- is considering selling the company. The WSJ said:

Likely to look at Knight Ridder's "book" are Blackstone Group LP and Providence Equity Partners Inc., which took a 40% stake in family-owned newspaper company Freedom Communications Inc. in 2003. Blackstone also was in the running for Pulitzer Inc., which was eventually sold for $1.5 billion to newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises Inc. And the likes of big players such as Carlyle Group and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. are expected to at least take a look at the company.