Geffen Is The Best Bet For The Times; Maybe Tribune Can Be Enjoined Prior To Sale

--written from London

David Geffen, because of his lofty ambitions for the L.A. Times, would, in my view be the best possible buyer for the newspaper.

But I do not presume, no should anyone, that the squalid Tribune Co., and its lackey, David Hiller, can be counted on to act in good faith, or even to make a sale if it would be in the best business interests of Tribune. If Hiller, for example, was really looking to enhance the value of the Times in a sale, he would not have fired Dean Baquet. No, this creep may be egomanically trying to actually continue as publisher, realizing he would not last a day under a new owner, Geffen or anyone else.

I wonder in these circumstances, whether some legal action could be taken to enjoin Tribune Co. from further destructive moves pending a sale. Might there be some judge in Los Angeles who would issue an injunction at this point to save the paper in the public interest?

In the meantime, the vise of reality may be closing in on Tribune, FitzSimons, Smith, Hiller and all that motley crew.

They are driving the Times into the ground and everyone knows it.

Of course, I've known honorable lawyers and have friends who are judges, but by and large I learned long ago that anyone who attended Harvard Law School, as Hiller did, must be presumed immoral until he or she proves otherwise.

By firing Baquet, even if it were on orders, Hiller proved himself unfit, and the only real hope now is that negotiations with Geffen or another buyer can proceed with all speed.

In the meantime, we have to take heart. Anyone fired now for resisting these Huns will probably be rehired later.

But perhaps something could be done in the courts to freeze the situation.