BREAKING: L.A. Times Fires Its Editor - Subscribers Revolt!

[kpete]

BREAKING: L.A. Times Fires Its Editor - Subscribers Revolt!
by KingOneEye
Tue Nov 07, 2006

The Wall Street Journal (via L.A. Observed) just reported that the Los Angeles Times has fired its editor, Dean Baquet. The Times parent, Tribune Company, has been on a mission to eviscerate what remains of the paper by slashing personnel. A month ago they fired the publisher, Jeff Johnson, for refusing to go along with the cuts. Baquet tenuously agreed to stay on in the hopes that he could forestall any further newsroom terminations.

I know there are a lot of other important things going on today (I heard something about an election?) But we all know that the media is the lynchpin of a functional democracy and our media is not living up to its obligations. We can make a stand here if enough people join in and send this Subscriber Revolt letter.

The new publisher, David Hiller, made the announcement after the news was leaked to the Journal. This smells like an attempt to lose the story in the thick of election night madness. But this story is only going to grow. After the Johnson firing, three top editors (Doug Frantz, Leo Wolinsky, and John Montorio) promised to resign if management pushed Baquet out as well. We'll see if they are true to their words.

Baquet will be replaced by James O'Shea, managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, where Hiller had come from. Obviously they are stuffing the deck with ringers from the home office, probably with the intent to sell the hollowed-out shell of a newspaper to another hack conglomerate. It's unclear what they will have to offer a buyer without an editorial staff.



http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/11/baquet_out_at_times.php
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/11/7/192639/281

[roody]

1. I left the MSM when they pushed this war on us.

Independent media is where it's at.