If you can’t beat’em, buy’em out!

I don’t understand why the owner of the paper, often critical of Pat Robertson, would allow this sale to go though. Pure greed? If that’s the case, then it’s damn sad.

Pat Robertson Could Bid for the Virginian-Pilot

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, who has sharply criticized The Virginian-Pilot in the past, is considering making a bid to buy the newspaper, an associate said Thursday.

Landmark Communications Inc., a Norfolk-based media company, announced last week that it was evaluating whether to sell all of its assets, including The Weather Channel and The Pilot.

“Although the price for The Weather Channel is a little rich for my blood, I am considering a potential bid for the Pilot and have asked my attorneys to look into it,” Robertson said in an e-mail forwarded by his personal assistant, G.G. Conklin. “It would be particularly helpful to provide internships for Regent University journalism students.”
[...]

Randall Balmer, a professor of U.S. religious history at Columbia University who studies evangelicals, said an offer from Robertson “strikes me as a Rupert Murdoch kind of move, diversifying into different forms of media, obviously on a much smaller scale than Murdoch.”
[...]

Robertson has objected to articles in The Pilot that he has said unfairly characterized his pursuits. Most recently, an article last month said Regent’s counseling program has experienced an exodus of nearly half of its faculty members. Students, the article said, have been punished for voicing concerns.