As has been reported for several weeks, the ailing Tribune Company may be the buyer for eight daily newspapers around the country. These papers include the Florida based Orlando Sentinel and the South Florida ( Fort Lauderdale ) Sun Sentinel.

The Tribune Company has never been particularly liberal or objective. “Colonel” Robert McCormack the publisher of the Tribune from the 1920s to the 1950s was a reactionary who supported Joseph McCarthy and other right-wing political figures. The Tribune was traditionally a conservative company and when they bought the papers in Florida as the Orlando and Fort Lauderdale areas filled up with midwesterners. But in time the papers began to reflect the viewpoint of its readers, meaning in liberal and retiree soaked Broward County the Sun Sentinel moved to the middle in the 1970s while the Orlando Sentinel moved to the middle in the late 1980s. Both papers have done an excellent job of covering state and local issues through the years.

While the editorial pages of both newspapers backed Mitt Romney in the fall (I cancelled my print subscription to the Sun Sentinel after the paper’s editorial board endorsed Adam Hasner for Congress and used faulty logic while misrepresenting Hasner and Democratic nominee Lois Frankel’s positions on some issues – I still am a digital subscriber though) many of the writers and columnists at both papers have been invaluable watchdogs against government corruption, excess and abuse.

When Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp bought the Times of London he shifted that paper’s bent even in reporting hard right to back the Conservative Party in the UK. The same thing has happened with the Wall Street Journal since Murdoch took over a few years ago. Under the Bancroft family, WSJ had a conservative editorial page, but the news reporting was actually found to be the most liberal in the industry by the Colombia School of Journalism in the mid 2000s. The news gathering and reporting functions at WSJ have shifted since the takeover and now more closely resemble Murdoch’s FOX News experience than the WSJ under the Bancroft family.

Given the Koch Brothers extensive funding of right-wing groups and the experience with Murdoch taking over the WSJ, progressives cannot afford to stand pat while this potential takeover occurs. Florida Watch Action has organized a protest outside the Orlando Sentinel building this Thursday. Progressives should also aggressively take to the airwaves and social media to demonstrate the potential problems with the Koch Brothers managing local papers of record in two major metropolitan cities in the state.

Should the Koch Brothers gain control of the two Florida papers, inevitably not only will the editorial board shift into a hard right stance on most issues but it can be expected that the actual news gathering and digital sides of the paper will also shift rightward. An irrevocable shift from objective, watchdog journalism to political hackery could be the result of the takeover. We cannot afford to let this happen.