Free Republic

The Titanic has hit an iceberg and is sinking. Not to worry, just paint the lifeboats with a new color scheme and things will improve. As ridiculous as that sounds, it is not much different than the proposal of the Tribune Company Chief Innovation Officer, Lee Abrams, who proposed changing the color of Los Angeles Times vans: Being too close to it. LAT has about 20 vans...but they're all Black? Hmmm. Maybe they should be painted in LAT colors. There ARE more than a few commuters driving around down there. Apparently Abrams thinks basic black is not exciting enough but...

John McCain knows a lot less about foreign policy than he'd have us believe.This, anyway, is the impression that's been growing in recent weeks, not least because of much-discussed New York Times story published recently that painted a growing divide in his campaign between "pragmatists" and "neoconservatives." The candidate reportedly lacks firm ideological convictions, so battle for "McCain's soul" may be in the offing. And it's true: Despite his decades of supposed national security experience, it's difficult to stick an "-ism" on the tail of McCain's approach to world affairs. He's been one of the president's most fervent backers on...

Hiller to LAT: Recession, baby Kevin Roderick • Bio • Email In one of his occasional long messages to the staff, Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller says "we are smack in the middle of a recession on top of the dramatic changes the newspaper business is going through." For the whole first quarter, advertising revenue was down double-digits from last year, and our cash flow is down even more. The results for March alone were even more severe, with revenue and cash flow declines dropping to levels not seen for decades." Emphasis mine. So the Times continues to do...

A Los Angeles Times story about a brutal 1994 attack on rap superstar Tupac Shakur was partially based on documents that appear to have been fabricated, the reporter and editor responsible for the story said Wednesday. snip Reporter Chuck Philips and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, issued statements of apology Wednesday afternoon. The statements came after The Times took withering criticism for the Shakur article, which appeared on latimes.com last week and two days later in the paper's Calendar section. The criticism came first from The Smoking Gun website, which said the newspaper had been the victim of...

Looks like all those superior layers and layers and layers of fact-checkers at the LA Times were sleep-deprived or something. Geez, Louise (hat tip: Patterico, who writes “This is very, very big. We’ll be hearing much more about this, you can count on that.”):

The L.A. Times saves space on its Sunday front page for a hit piece on John McCain. The main thrust of the piece is to say, in essence, “Nyaah, nyaah, John McCain said that Iraq would be a cakewalk, but it wasn’t.” A little context would be nice. Plenty of liberals were surprised at how easily we overran Baghdad and kicked Saddam out of power. Indeed, plenty of liberals — including Bill Richardson, a strong contender for the second spot on Obama’s ticket — were surprised at how quickly we overran Kabul. So yeah, like most of the rest of...

The Los Angeles Times has a front-page story that suggests the federal government is really cracking down on people who illegally re-enter the country. However, the paper doesn’t tell you that the big “crackdown” is actually a joke. Here is the story’s lede: Federal authorities are cracking down on immigrants who were previously deported and then reentered the country illegally — a crime that now makes up more than one-third of all prosecutions in Los Angeles and surrounding counties, a Times review of U.S. attorney’s statistics shows. The surge in prosecutions reflects the federal government’s push in recent years to...

Members of the radical group Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) are busy preparing to host a new “war crimes” conference next month in Washington. The event, billed as Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan, takes its title from the IVAW’s namesake and mentor, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). However, information has now come to light that profoundly undermines the VVAW’s original atrocity claims.

Roderick reports: The Los Angeles Times has lost more subscribers in the past four years than any U.S. newspaper and it isn’t even close. Editor & Publisher compared 2007 circulation to 2003 and found the LAT had shed 201,000 readers. Only one other paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, was in six figures with 147,000 lost buyers. Meanwhile, you know they’re busy mocking Sam Zell for saying they have to find a way to sell papers.P.S. I forgot to mention: Henry Weinstein took the buyout. (H/t Scott Kaufer.) So long!

The Los Angeles Times has conducted a national poll for the presidency, and the results show John McCain leading both Democratic presidential contenders despite all of the attention on their primaries. Experience and wartime judgment carry McCain to leads over both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, although within the margin of error for the latter: As he emerges from a sometimes- bitter primary campaign, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain poses a stiff challenge to either of his potential Democratic opponents in the general election, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found. The findings underscore the difficulties ahead for...

If the election were today, who would you vote for?

Earlier today, I linked to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and its editor's essay about the journalistic defects in the New York Times hit piece on John McCain. David McCumber chose not to run the Times' article in the Seattle P-I despite having the rights to it on syndication. Andrew Malcom at the Los Angeles Times reports that another paper also killed the story -- despite being owned by the New York Times: But one interesting aspect of this combined political and professional controversy went widely unnoticed. The Boston Globe, which is wholly owned by the New York Times, chose not to...

Do the editors of the L.A. Times realize that illegal immigration is, you know, illegal? I wonder when I read editorials like this: It’s getting ugly out there for illegal immigrants. States and cities are cracking down with harsh new ordinances, and the courts are upholding them. Not only are deportations at record highs, but immigrants are being detained at places previously understood to be off-limits, such as schools. The debate about illegal immigration, labor, social justice and international trade has devolved into open season on illegal immigrants.Arizona penalizes employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, suspending their business license for...

It's getting ugly out there for illegal immigrants. States and cities are cracking down with harsh new ordinances, and the courts are upholding them. Not only are deportations at record highs, but immigrants are being detained at places previously understood to be off-limits, such as schools. The debate about illegal immigration, labor, social justice and international trade has devolved into open season on illegal immigrants. Arizona penalizes employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, suspending their business license for 10 days for the first offense, revoking it permanently for the second. Valley Park in Missouri fines businesses that hire illegal immigrants....

The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,000 terrazzo-and-brass stars embedded in the sidewalk, bearing names from eminent to obscure (Strongheart the dog, anyone?). The walk attracts tourists, but most locals step over — make that drive past — without noticing. When The Los Angeles Times received a star last year, it was met at the paper with shrugs, eye rolls and grumbling about money ill-spent (the local chamber of commerce charges $25,000 for the honor). But it meant something to the new publisher, David D. Hiller, who enthusiastically attended the installation and told editors that the newspaper...

The Los Angeles Times puts itself in the unusual position of scolding John McCain over his opposition to torture, claiming that he betrayed his principles in voting against the legislation sponsored by Dianne Feinstein in the Senate last week. The editorial says McCain should be ashamed for his vote and accuses him of abetting torture, when McCain has good reason to believe that the Feinstein bill does more damage than benefit: One of John McCain's most admirable traits has been his eloquent opposition to the use of torture against suspected terrorists. During a Republican presidential debate last year in which...

Russ Stanton, a 10-year veteran of the Los Angeles Times who has been in charge of invigorating its website, on Thursday became the newspaper's 14th editor. Stanton will lead a staff chafing from the recent exit of its third editor in less than three years and worried about job cuts. Former Editor James O'Shea and Publisher David D. Hiller parted ways Jan. 21 after a disagreement over whether the editorial budget should shrink. The 49-year-old Stanton referred to "the high turnover rate in this job" in remarks he delivered in the paper's third-floor newsroom in downtown Los Angeles. "Like most...

Tribune Co. plans to cut 400 to 500 jobs companywide, including about 100 each at the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, the company announced Wednesday. The cuts, which amount to about 2 percent of the Chicago-based media company's workforce, are a necessary response to a weak economy and "significant declines in advertising volume at our newspapers," Tribune Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Zell said in a memo to employees. "Unfortunately, I can't turn this ship from its course of the past 10 years within just a few months," said Zell, who took the company private in an...

Tribune Co., struggling with declining revenue, today said it would cut staff by 400 to 500 people companywide, or around 2% of the Chicago-based media company's workforce. At the Los Angeles Times, 100 to 150 jobs will be eliminated, 40 to 50 in the newsroom, through a combination of attrition, voluntary buyouts and, if necessary, layoffs, Publisher David D. Hiller said in an interview this morning. Tribune Chief Executive Sam Zell announced the news this morning in one of his frequent "Talk to Sam" e-mails to all employees. The job cuts are focused on the corporate staff and the company's...

Shuster shunned when actively politicking Chelsea Clinton is object of ridicule, but no one notices when Sartwell ridicules Romney.

The comment about some of his best friends going to gentlemen’s clubs was separate from the above line. That came earlier in the talk, when saying that when he learned of the ban on running ads from the clubs, he was stunned because “some of my best friends go to gentlemen’s clubs.” The un-American comment came later, in reference to advertising guns, to which he said hunting is American … and somehow made the leap to the above comment. He believes that the Times needs to go after advertising from gun manufacturers and the Indian casinos. . . . At...

The LA Times has endorsed John McCain in the GOP primary, and at least two of its reasons for doing so should give conservatives pause: the liberal paper likes McCain because he's weak on border fences and strong on global warming. Excerpts [emphasis added]: As the Republican field indulged this campaign season in an orgy of ignorance on immigration, McCain stood his ground, sponsoring legislation that would provide a route to citizenship for the 11 million to 12 million immigrants here illegally. His rivals have argued for mass deportations and strong border fences.

The Los Angeles Times endorsed the presidential bids of Barack Obama and John McCain on Friday. The newspaper said either of the candidates remaining in the Democratic field _ Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton _ would be a formidable nominee in the November election. But it "strongly" endorsed Obama after praising him as an inspiring leader "most focused on steering the nation toward constructive change." "Just because the ballot features two strong candidates does not mean that it is difficult to choose between them," the Times said

Departing L.A. Times editor Jim O'Shea addressed the newsroom this morning and reiterated that he was pushed out and did not quit. He also criticized Tribune's priorities, and said that — like every suit Tribune sent here before him except Publisher David Hiller, incidentally — he came to the conclusion while in L.A. that the best future strategy is to grow the Times not shrink it. From: OShea, James Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 10:53 AM To: yyeditall Subject: I made these farewell remarks in the newsroom today and I wanted to share them with everyone in case they took...

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Times fired its top editor after he rejected a management order to cut $4 million from the newsroom budget, 14 months after his predecessor was also ousted over a budget dispute, the newspaper said Sunday. James O'Shea was fired following a confrontation with Publisher David D. Hiller, the Times reported on its Web site. The story didn't say when the confrontation took place. Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said the newspaper would have no comment. O'Shea's departure comes just a month after the Times' parent, Chicago-based Tribune Co., was taken private in an $8.2 billion...

Los Angeles Times editor James O'Shea was fired just 14 months after he assumed the post, over a budgetary disagreement with publisher David Hiller, according to a person familiar with the situation. Mr. O'Shea's exit comes little more than a month after the Times' parent company Tribune Co. was taken private in a $8.2 billion buyout. Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell won effective control in the buyout and became chairman and CEO of Tribune. The Chicago-based company owns several newspapers, including the LA Times, the Chicago Tribune and Newsday, as well as a chain of TV stations. A Tribune...

The editor of Los Angeles Times, James O'Shea, has been fired only 14 months after he took over the post, the Wall Street Journal said on its Web site on Sunday. O'Shea was let go over a budgetary disagreement with publisher David Hiller, the Journal reported, citing an unnamed source.

Earlier today, DRJ noted that Hillary screwed up some comments about Pakistan, revealing a frightening ignorance about the current state of affairs there. As Pakistan analyst Thomas Houlihan put it: And then it hit me:Sen. Clinton really didn’t know that the upcoming elections were for individual seats in Pakistan’s parliament. She actually believed that Bhutto, Nawaz and Musharraf would be facing off as individual candidates for leadership of the country in the upcoming elections.Sen. Clinton didn’t know that Nawaz Sharif isn’t allowed to run for office in Pakistan because of a felony conviction. She didn’t know that President Musharraf won’t...

Roger Clemens, one of the all-time finest pitchers in baseball, received an apology from a leading U.S. newspaper on Friday for linking him to an court affidavit in a federal doping investigation.

Stephen Braun at the L.A. Times writes: The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth raised more than $25 million for media buys. Some of the money was donated in multimillion-dollar installments from reliable Republican fundraisers, including Texas businessmen T. Boone Pickens Jr. and Bob J. Perry. But last December, the group was fined almost $300,000 by the Federal Election Commission for exceeding spending limits and acting in concert with GOP campaign efforts. Wrong.Here is the December 13, 2006 Conciliation Agreement that sets forth the FEC’s findings (.pdf). In it, the FEC explicitly found that the Swift Vets did not act in...

A terrorist conspiracy to attack military sites and synagogues developed among prison Muslims for years, and yet hardly any mention of the conspiracy made the news. The Los Angeles Times picks up the story no one else seems interested in reporting, noting that two of the accused have pled guilty to the conspiracy: Two members of a prison-based Islamic terrorist cell that authorities say was poised to attack military sites, synagogues and other targets across Southern California pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to conspiring to wage war against the United States. The plot, which police stumbled upon during a...

Iran still dangerous, Bush says Los Angeles Times But the president may find it hard to prod other nations to keep pressuring Tehran given the finding it halted its nuclear arms program. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bush5dec05,0,7020701.story?coll=la-home-world

The protests against the forthcoming anti-religious film, "The Golden Compass," are "fundamentally ridiculous" and are perpetuated by "America's religious fear-mongers." That's according to Laura Miller in an opinion article in the Los Angeles Times (Sun., 12/2/07). But that's not all. Writing about the various e-mails that Christian groups have sent to warn the public about the disturbing themes in "Compass," Miller spews: [Y]ou have to wonder how much actual reading goes on in the sort of household that welcomes e-mails like the ones denouncing 'The Golden Compass' ... Good ... grief. Just when you thought the level of condescension could...

A while back, the L.A. Times tried to make Fred Thompson's record as a Prosecutor in Tennessee look bad. They wanted the public to get the impression that he was incompetent or that he had a bad record. Since that time, I was doubtful, but since I could not prove things one way or the other, I had to live with my doubts. Well, someone finally took the time and looked into Fred's record to see how his record really stacked up and determined that he was actually quite successful as a prosecutor. My suspicions on the accuracy of the...

A major sex scandal story involving one of the leading presidential candidates is believed to be soon published by the LA Times, Big Head DC has learned. Details are slowly trickling in through people who’ve heard about the story, and with Larry Flynt saying he’s set to reveal a “huge” sex scandal story involving a sitting senator in the coming days, the rumors seem to be gathering traction. “So I was down in DC this past weekend and happened to run into a well-connected media person, who told me flatly, unequivocally that ‘everyone knows’ the LA Times was sitting on...

So I was down in DC this past weekend and happened to run into a well-connected media person, who told me flatly, unequivocally that “everyone knows” The LA Times was sitting on a story, all wrapped up and ready to go about what is a potentially devastating sexual scandal involving a leading Presidential candidate. “Everyone knows” meaning everyone in the DC mainstream media political reporting world. “Sitting on it” because the paper couldn’t decide the complex ethics of whether and when to run it. The way I heard it they’d had it for a while but don’t know what to...

Some Christian conservatives are so disenchanted by the 2008 Republican field for president that they are mulling whether to desert the GOP and form a third party. We're tempted to say "go ahead." But if religious conservatives don't want to marginalize themselves, they will instead take former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's advice and resist subjecting candidates to a litmus test on abortion or any other single issue. Giuliani and his fellow Republican candidates spoke over the weekend to more than 2,000 "values voters" assembled in Washington by the Family Research Council and other conservative groups. They were literally...

Axis Of Evil: Those who counsel us not to provoke Iran forget the lessons of history. Churchill didn't cause World War II; the appeasers of Nazi Germany did. And peace is an event, not a "process." It's sad when a major newspaper suggests we should fear Vice President Dick Cheney more than Iran's loony leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But that's what the Los Angeles Times did in a weekend editorial. It opined that Cheney's "desire to bomb Iranian nuclear sites and Revolutionary Guard targets" was "backfiring, causing it to escalate its anti-American activities instead of backing off." Besides, we are told,...

Sean Hannity Raising Money For Schwarzenegger Conservative Fox News commentator Sean Hannity will be the "special guest" Oct. 26 at a fund-raiser for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Don't tell Democrats who have embraced Schwarzenegger this year after he raised the minimum wage, signed legislation curbing global warming, and actively courted the Democratic Legislature. The event at the Sheraton Grand in Sacramento costs $1,000 per person, but "platinum" sponsors can pay $100,000. Platinum sponsors listed on the invitation (at left and below) are Chevron executive Jack Coffey; developer Gerry Kamilos and his wife, Karen; and McDonald's franchise owner C.C. Yin and his...

With politicians and newspapers like they have in California, it's no wonder the state has become a magnet for millions of illegal immigrants. The latest lunacy? The legislature has enacted a bill giving illegals scholarships to state universities. And the Los Angeles Times predictably wants Gov. Schwarzenegger to sign it into law. The so-called "California Dream Act" was cooked up by state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles). In its editorial of today, "Make the Dream Reality," The Times plays lip service to the problem the law would create: "We understand the objections that arise when a society extends benefits to...

Even in humdrum nonpolitical decisions, liberals and conservatives literally think differently, researchers show. By Denise Gellene, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 10, 2007 Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work. In a simple experiment reported todayin the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.

Anthony Day, an architect of The Times' independent editorial page during the era of publishers Otis Chandler and Tom Johnson, died Sunday at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 74. Day was admitted to the hospital Aug. 22 with respiratory problems related to emphysema and died of complications of the disease, his wife, Lynn, said. Though Day was most recently associated with the paper as an erudite reviewer of books, his firm legacy was the 18 years he spent as editor of The Times' editorial pages. During that period, he collaborated closely with Chandler and...

Did L.A. Times Trigger Erroneous Media Crime Wave of Gang Killings in Pasadena? The Pasadena Pundit - August 24, 2007 Misinformation: There is No Crime Wave of Gang Killings in Pasadena The Pasadena Weekly is out with an article "Slain teen was one of many youngsters drawn to troubled club" which contains this sentence: There have been 11 gang-related homicides in Pasadena this year according to the Pasadena Police Department, not 19, as reported recently in the Los Angeles Times. According to Police Chief Bernard Melekian in the Star News of August 11, since 1996 when he was elected chief:...

Honest and independent district line-drawing would divest both Democrats and Republicans of sure-thing districts in which elections are virtually over in the primary. More districts would be up for grabs, meaning that any Democrat hoping to win the election would have to have a message, and a track record, that Republican residents could accept. Any Republican would need Democratic voters to have a realistic shot. Lawmakers would stop playing to their extremist bases and appeal to more moderate voters in both parties.

LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Tribune Co. (TRB : Tribune Company News , chart , profile , more Last: 24.57-1.20-4.66% 1:13pm 08/14/2007 Delayed quote data Add to portfolio Analyst Create alert Insider Discuss Financials Sponsored by: TRB24.57, -1.20, -4.7% ) dropped another 3.5% in midday trading Tuesday as concerns mounted that a dismal ad revenue situation might thwart the deal to take the newspaper giant private. Shares fell 90 cents to $24.87 in recent action, now putting the company's shares at nearly $10 a share below the planned sale price of Tribune. Real estate mogul Sam Zell is supposed...

The L.A. Times has morphed Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's over-the-top campaign rhetoric that he would attack Pakistan into "suggestions by U.S. politicians that American forces unilaterally strike" that country. But, no where did the story mention Obama, nor that no Administration officials are advocating such a move. How is it that Obama's absurd gaffe has suddenly become a U.S. political policy that the Pakistanis fear is impossible to know, but the way the L.A.Times wrote the story, one would cast blame on the Bush Administration instead of Obama for this slight to Musharraf and the Pakistani government. The story...

Well, the L.A.Times certainly followed the Democratic National Committee's stylebook for reporting the news with this one, it is obvious. In a story about the new "sweeping ethics bill" making its way through Congress this week, they mention all the Republican corruption they can dredge up, but somehow miss every single Democrat example of the same. They also misreport a Nancy Pelosi rules change that makes it seem as if she is a corruption fighter when the truth is that she backed off from the very rule the Times cites as an example of how "ethical" the House is! This...

LAT Misstates Bush Speech, Hides Critic's Democratic Affiliation By Dave Pierre | July 30, 2007 - 15:29 ET On July 25, 2007, the Los Angeles Times published a front-page article with the blaring headline, "Bush ties Al Qaeda in Iraq to Sept. 11." The article centered on this important speech last week (July 24) by President Bush.One alert reader noticed a big problem with the piece: The President did not do what the headline said he did. Here's a letter to the editor from the July 29 Times: Nowhere in your article headlined "Bush ties Al Qaeda in Iraq to...

The concept of mercy spans testaments and faiths, and any system of justice requires the embrace of mercy for leavening and legitimacy. In this case, justice has been served by Lindh's time in prison. Now Bush is uniquely positioned to grant mercy, for while many will long argue over the effectiveness of his war on terror, none question his commitment to it. By giving Lindh a commutation, Bush could prove that his war is, as he often and properly asserts, not against Islam but against those who seek to harm America. Lindh never sought to harm his country; he has...

Winning the backing of religious conservatives in the United States has sparked a battle between Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is credited with firing the opening salvo when he questioned the pro-life credentials of former Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Thompson, who is expected to enter the GOP race, first denied and later confirmed that he had lobbied for the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association in the early 1990s. He would be the only Southerner in the race, if he enters, and...