Even for me, there's new things to learn.
I had run into "Mugger" Russ Smith on Twitter via Ken Silverstein ... did not know until reading this new Atlantic profile that he's the brother of Alden founder Randall Smith. Nor that Randall was a Grinch with his own family at Christmastime. Nor that he had Metroplex connections, per a linked D Mag piece primarily about son Caleb. That Alden was financed in the Trib takeover by the same people that paid for training of the Saudis who killed Jamal Khashoggi.
Wowza.
I did tag Ken in a Tweet and he said he's not disowning Russ because of his brother.
I don't know him online close to as well as Ken, who said they never met in person, so, I can't "disown" him even if I wanted to.
I will give any retweeting Ken does of Mugger more scrutiny. And, more thought on how he may have gotten the nickname. Probably something related to the larger Smith family story.
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That said, as for that story? Since Randall does appear to have been an all-around Ebenezer Scrooge, the Alden treatment of newspapers isn't about newspapers, it's about him.
