This shows just how much the Los Angeles Times is at war with itself. This 3-story-high banner (below) showed up on the side of the LA Times building before it was quickly removed security guards. Here is the explanation for why people risked their careers, and arrest, to put it up. “It’s big. It’s bold. It’s a first step toward prying the LA Times out of the tight, greedy fingers of billionaire Sam Zell,” according to the website TellZell which, along with LAObserved, has been chronicling the newspaper’s demise. (I’ve given up trying to cover every twist and turn. It’s a full-time job. And I already have one covering the business of Hollywood.) It sucks that real estate mogul Sam Zell so far has laid off or fired over 200 reporters, photographers, copy editors and editors. Few of the cuts have affected the TV and movie departments — yet. But I’m sure the time is coming soon when the moguls dictate their own coverage, and the reporters and editors merely act as stenographers. Oh wait: that began happening before Zell took over.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Well maybe when the LA times actually starts covering real news and not crap, they can get their status back.
I mean seriously, a story that made national news wasn’t covered by the LA times. Instead they did a soft fluff piece about illegal aliens. What’s wrong with this picture?
They wonder why they are losing subscriptions?
In Los Angeles we need a paper that can’t be bought buy “special interests”. Since our city leaders are bought and paid for, we need a paper that has the balls to do it’s job…report the news, hold people accountable. In a city this large, this paper is a disgrace.
Having said that…Steve Lopez of the L.A. Times is a shining example of what this paper could be.
re:btl
sounds like batman
Beg to differ, Lopez is a disgrace and as predictable as the calendar.
Liberal politics left LAT readers uninformed of Mayor Tony’s frequent affairs, including one with a Telemundo reporter covering him who also had a sweetheart deal with one of Mayor Tony’s developer backers in her condo lease. Blogger Luke Ford broke that story after the LAT sat on it.
Liberal politics left LAT readers uninformed about John Edwards meeting his alleged mistress right at the Beverly Hilton. It was left to the National Enquirer to break that story, after the LAT suppressed it.
Liberal politics left LAT readers unaware of how rank and file LAPD cops feel about Bratton, the reaction to the May Day and Devon Brown affairs, and the Police Commission. It’s left to blogger Patterico and National Review Online to run articles by “Jack Dunphy” an LA beat cop who used to write for the LAT pseudonymously but because the LAT editors don’t like what he says, is persona non grata.
The LAT’s problems are head in the sand, uber-liberal politics ignoring the real stories (racial conflict, gang warfare in South LA comes to mind) driving down circulation for decades. Sam Zell’s ownership is merely the symptom, not the disease.
LA is supposed to be democratic! well it sure does not seem so, to somebody like me, who hails from Malta, a tiny island in the Meditterean, 17miles by 9miles, and we have 4 dailies, all of which are free speech for anybody who wishes to get their message across, & it’s not controlled by ‘old hat’ thinkers like the ones you have on the LA Times!
I wish all of the residents in LA & subscribers to the LA Times, to wake up, refuse to buy the paper, and maybe, the Editorial team will wake up that they are not really providing what the readers wish to pay for!
good luck
Maggie from Malta!
All the LAT blogs suck, too, so their future in new media doesn’t look too bright. “Keep rockin’,” indeed.
Is the LAT still in business?
Do what we do –
Vote with your wallet.
Don’t buy the paper.
Don’t read it online.
Don’t click any links to it.
You’ll miss nothing.
Hi Whiskey,
Steve Lopez wrote a column about Mayor Tony’s affair called “City Hall saga put telenovelas to shame”, dated 7-6-07. It pretty much shows our mayor for the nacissistic jackass that he is. You should be able to go into the archives and read it. I’ve found that Steve Lopez is the only one at the LA Times to hold any of our city morons accountable.
I agree with you about Chief Bratton, who I respected at first, but has turned into the lap dog of the mayor.
In regards to gangs in this city, I’ve found the best coverage has been by the LA Weekly, especially about the gangs in Highland Park.
The LA Times is a classic example and many others across the country of a Liberal Newspaper that decided long ago to be a newspaper for ONLY Liberal minded people and has refused to change their practices and in effect has gone out of its way to say “screw the rest of the people”. Now the rest of the people have in effect responsed over the years by refusing to buy the LA Times and telling the LATimes “screw you”.
Take back the Times from the businessmen. News used to have a purpose other than turning a big profit. Guys like Zell would be perfectly happy if the Times made 20% profit by selling TMZ-like crap and doing away with expensive journalism.
Bring back journalism.