Sam's LA Times and Sam's LA Bagels

Marty Kaplan
The Huffington Post

What's the difference between Sam Zell's Los Angeles Times and Sam's Bagels on Los Angeles' Larchmont Boulevard?

None, if you take Mr. Zell's words to heart. He told his Tribune Co. employees in June that "we're in the business of satisfying customers, and we will respond to what they say they want." More poppy seeds and fewer cheese bialys? You got it, dollink. More King Kong remake stories and less King-Drew Hospital horror stories? What you say goes, bub. The customer's always right.

But Sam's Bagels, unlike Sam's Times, is not safeguarded by the First Amendment. In fact, the press is the only business singled out in the Constitution for protection. The reason, of course, is that the founders intended the press to serve as a fourth estate -- a formidable check against the government's abuse of power, an essential outlet for dissent; not a mere privilege of democracy, in Walter Lippman's words, but "an organic necessity in a great society."

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