If You Can't Beat 'em, Buy 'em

Or "When in doubt, buy it out."

Those are a few of the homilies that grace the Bloomberg breakfast table, and Mayor Mike likes to practice what he preaches, sometimes. That's why he's contemplating the purchase of The New York Times. After all, weren't they the ones who printed the story suggesting Bloomberg didn't fare well with test scores he couldn't manipulate? Aren't they the ones who had the originally had the temerity to print Mike Winerip's column suggesting good teachers plus small schools equals quality education?

Not only that, but there's that awful Sam Freeman who actually writes about the rampant overcrowding in high schools. If enough people find out how much of that is really going on, they may begin to doubt the well-circulated Bloomberg myth about "Children First."

Of course, if Michael Bloomberg buys the paper, the likelihood of finding stories like that will decrease substantially. And with Murdoch owning the Post and trying to buy Newsday, the likelihood of New Yorkers encountering writers like Winerip and Freeman may substantially decrease as well.