The kindness of strangers can be harmful

[Commentary] Carlos Slim, the Mexican multibillionaire who Fortune magazine figures is the richest person on Earth, could become the largest shareholder of the New York Times. True, he wouldn't sit on The Times board and would have no voting power; only members of the Sulzberger family own voting shares. Maybe that's why other media have treated this largely as a footnote to the widening crisis that is swallowing the newspaper industry. It's more than that, it's a profoundly troubling action that raises serious doubt not just about whether the Sulzbergers will keep control of The Times, but whether they should. Should The Times really be deepening its dependency on this man? Not to get too moralistic, but at some level a great newspaper stands for something -- principles of social justice, popular sovereignty, open government, fair competition. Slim is a predatory capitalist who built a $67 billion empire -- worth a stunning 7 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product -- through political cronyism, cunning and the relentless use of monopoly power, which means charging much, delivering less and crippling competitors, real and potential.