Thousands Of Los Angeles Times Subscribers Cancel Over Recall Coverage

NBC 4 ^ | October 10, 2003 | The Associated Press

[yonif]

LOS ANGELES -- More than 1,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions to the Los Angles Times after the newspaper published reports of alleged sexual misconduct by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to Times spokeswoman Martha Goldstein, the newspaper also received 1,600 telephone calls, the majority of which were critical.

Despite the cancellations, Goldstein said the newspaper's policy of fair, balanced and independent coverage will boost the paper's image among readers.

Goldstein says a paper's job is to give "very critical scrutiny" to all major candidates in an election, including Schwarzenegger.

The Times carried the accounts of 16 women who claimed Schwarzenegger had groped them or had offended them with crude sexual comments between 1975 and 2000.

[camle]

wonder how many of these 1000 will STAY unsubscribed?

[jmcclain19]

I've heard its been continuing for a while now. Good for people to stand up against bias coverage in their media.

[So Cal Rocket]

Goldstein says a paper's job is to give "very critical scrutiny" to all major candidates in an election, including Schwarzenegger

Really? I guess I missed their 200 column inches over 3 days discussing Bustamante's relationship with MeCHA.

[Izzy Dunne]

How do you get from the article statement:
More than 1,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions

to your headline:
Thousands Of Los Angeles Times Subscribers Cancel Over Recall Coverage

without a wee bit of exaggeration?

[So Cal Rocket]

Don't blame Yonif... it was NBC4's headline.

[Az Joe]

In a similar story, Charles Manson says he will begin murdering people again to improve his public image.

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[Izzy Dunne]

I should have addressed my previous comment to the original author of the article, not you, yonif.

[Lexington Green]

More than 1,000 readers cancelled their subscriptions ...

How many more? 100? 1000? 10,000? More? Hope it becomes 6+ figures.

[Wheee The People]

Despite the cancellations, Goldstein said the newspaper's policy of fair, balanced and independent coverage will boost the paper's image among readers.

Righhhhht. And OJ isn't guilty. And the earth is flat. And the moon is green cheese. And if you sit in the pumpkin patch, the great pumpkin will come. And...

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Despite the cancellations, Goldstein said the newspaper's policy of fair, balanced and independent coverage will boost the paper's image among readers.

Goldstein also said the paper will now begin a new investigative series on Schwarzenegger that shows monkeys fly out of his butt.

[pogo101]

As to the number of cancellers: I suppose that the LA Times has no obligation to give a precise figure. But it's probably several thousand, not just a little over a thousand, and here is one reason why I think so:

In Sunday's Times (i.e., on October 5), in a story that was put to bed on Saturday afternoon or evening, the Times itself admitted that "over 1000" had cancelled, citing reasons of perceived political bias ... mostly occurring, apparently, in the wake of the Times' uncritical reprinting of the Grope allegations on Bloody Thursday. (In political science academia, the Thursday before a Tuesday election day is referred to as "Bloody Thursday," as it the day on which published INITIAL reports of a scandal can most damage a candidate, due to the reverberations of coverage over the weekend.)

It's been six days since the Saturday evening when that story got finalized, with its "over 1000" figure. In that time, many more surely have cancelled their Times subs, some no doubt inspired to do so by the many stories in other media, including Talk Radio, trumpeting this phenomenon.

I would just LOVE to find out what the Times's cancellations were in the following two time frames, to compare them:

October 1-15, 2002 (i.e., a year ago); and
October 1-15, 2003.

I bet it's a dozen times or more higher this year.

[MissAmericanPie]

That is very satisfying, I highly recommend boycots, they do actually work. Now if everyone would stop watching the alphabet soup network programming.

[zacharycole]

The Times will probably also experience additional backlash as subscriber's come up for renewal. For the lazy and/or non-confrontational among us, ignoring a subscription renewal notice is a nice passive-aggressive way of making a statement.

[RoseofTexas]

WOW, HOLY RAG!! Thousandssssssssssssss not thousand, but THOUSANDSSSSSSSSSSSS!! YIPPPPPEEEEE!

[mikemurphy111]

Millions will make me happier - what a bunch of scum bags at the LA Times. They hired lots of people from the New York Times over the past 3 years I've heard and it's very apparent. Both papers need to be read with the reader knowing that they lie, steal and cheat and do anything and say anything to further the Lunatic Left's many causes.

[Calvin Locke]

Goldstein also said the paper will now begin a new investigative series on Schwarzenegger that shows monkeys fly out of his butt.

Should that be "Goldstein also said the paper will now begin a new investigative series of LAT editors that shows monkeys fly out of their butts."?

[AmusedBystander]

That is very satisfying, I highly recommend boycots, they do actually work. Now if everyone would stop watching the alphabet soup network programming.

Your wish may be coming true as...

The first fall Nielsen numbers are in for the six major broadcast networks - and they show a surprising 12 percent drop in viewership in the critical 18-to-34 age group. The drop in young viewers is so pronounced that some network executives say they don’t believe it, and blame Nielsen, which made some changes to its measuring methods before the start of this new fall season (WSJ, p.W9).

[SwinneySwitch]

How is the San Fransicko Chroniclier doing?