Union dues?

Shortly after Platinum Equity bought the San Diego Union-Tribune in March, the union representing police officers in Los Angeles wrote a letter to the news owners demanding they make the paper's editorial pages more union friendly, even if it meant firing the editorial page writers.

Here's a part of what Paul Weber, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, wrote to Platinum CEO Tom Gores:

"Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced."

On Wednesday, the new owners took a step in that direction by laying off the editorial and opinion page editors, along with more than 100 other workers. I know of nothing that suggests this is anything more than coincidence, but I agree with Ben at Infinite Monkeys that it deserves closer scrutiny.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, Platinum Equity "relies on a $30-million investment from the pension fund of Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters, along with large sums from other public-employee pension systems around the state, to help fund its acquisitions of companies."