Newspaper Endorses the Candidate It's Suing Over Copyright

An anonymous reader writes "Remember Righthaven? The copyright troll owned by the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal? You may remember, then, that Righthaven had sued Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle for posting LVRJ stories on her site. At the same time, LVRJ has been having its execs talk about how copyright infringement is no different than garden variety theft. So ... doesn't it seem a bit odd that the LVRJ is endorsing the very same candidate that it sued for such 'theft'?"

Comments

Re:Corporations

[JWSmythe]

    Nope, I'd bet it was more of a calculated decision. Put yourself in their position.

    You are a local media mogul, and have a political candidate over a barrel. They've committed a violation of law.

    There are two options. Well, two main ones. There are of course others.

    1) They can fight you in court, but they'll get torn up both publicly in the media (which you own) and in court. They won't win their campaign.

    2) You promise to forget about their little transgression, but in exchange you may ask for "favors" in the future. Additionally, you will support them in your media, adding to the stack of redeemable "favors".

    Option 1 costs a lot of money, and no one wins.

    Option 2 doesn't cost a lot, and it's advantageous to both parties involved. It's dirty, but that's the game of both business and politics.

    Any good business person will go for option 2. Any responsible business person will go for option 1. Responsibility goes out the window when you can have a politician in your pocket.