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New Times Investor Silences Bad Press, Times Says

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 16, 2009 1:20 PM CST

(Newser) – Carlos Slim has a history of intimidating the press, but not the New York Times, which strives manfully to dish the dirt on Mexico’s richest man today, even though he just lent the paper $250 million. Slim loves making such big investments in media companies, but he hates the spotlight and tends to use his financial might to suppress bad press.

One Mexico City journalist, for example, saw a 2006 piece criticizing Slim killed after the billionaire threatened to pull all his advertising from the paper. “That’s how things work here,” he says. But as the recession deepens, Slim’s critics are multiplying, and he may soon be unable to silence them all. President Felipe Calderón recently rebuked Slim’s economic pessimism, and the Federal Competition Commission is exploring antitrust action against him.

In this file photo, Carlos Slim speaks during a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007, in New York.
In this file photo, Carlos Slim speaks during a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007, in New York.   (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
Mexico billionaire Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men,  talks about art and the economy during a visit to the Museo Alameda, in San Antonio, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008.
Mexico billionaire Carlos Slim, one of the world's richest men, talks about art and the economy during a visit to the Museo Alameda, in San Antonio, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008.   (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim speaks during a news conference in Mexico City, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim speaks during a news conference in Mexico City, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008.   (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
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Going down in history as an evil monopolist who fleeced Mexican consumers is not an image of himself that he likes, but it’s a true image. - Denise Dresser, Mexican political scientist

We journalists cover so many bad guys here in Mexico, so many big egos, that Slim, despite all his faults, doesn’t appear all that bad. - Raymundo Riva Palacio, a Mexico City journalist whose column criticizing Slim
was quashed

We are an important advertiser, yes, but that doesn’t give us a right to meddle in the editorial side. - Arturo Elias, Slim's spokesman and son-in-law, rebutting allegations that Slim throws his weight around

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