LA Times Discontinues Reporter's Column [Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael Hiltzik..]

Yahoo ^

[Sub-Driver]

LA Times Discontinues Reporter's Column

40 minutes ago

The Los Angeles Times said Sunday it is discontinuing the column and Internet blog of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter because he posted items online using assumed names.

The decision, reported in an editor's note on the Times' Web site, came a week after the paper suspended Michael Hiltzik's Golden State blog.

It said Hiltzik would be reassigned after serving a suspension.

"Hiltzik did not commit any ethical violations in his newspaper column, and an internal inquiry found no inaccurate reporting in his postings in his blog or on the Web," the editor's note said. "But employing pseudonyms constitutes deception and violates a central tenet of The Times' ethics guidelines: Staff members must not misrepresent themselves and must not conceal their affiliation with The Times."

Hiltzik did not immediately return phone or e-mail messages seeking comment Sunday morning.

The Times said Hiltzik "has acknowledged using pseudonyms to post a single comment on his blog on latimes.com and multiple comments elsewhere on the Web that dealt with his column and other issues involving the newspaper."

Hiltzik has been in a blog feud with Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Frey, who writes the conservative blog Patterico's Pontifications. That column recently contended that Hiltzik had been posting messages to his blog and other Web sites under assumed names such as Mikekoshi and Nofanofcablecos.

Frey said he did not object to anonymity on the Web but rather to the use of "pseudonyms to pretend to be something or somebody they aren't."

[Sub-Driver]

good...

[FreedomPoster]

Old Media circling the drain. Good on the LATimes for doing the right thing.

Wonder when the WaPost will have the guts to man-up and suspend Dana Priest? I'm not holding my breath.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

discontinuing the column and Internet blog of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter because he posted items online using assumed names.

It's great to see that the MSM is picking people of such high caliber for their awards.

[Diver Dave]

"Hiltzik did not commit any ethical violations in his newspaper column, and an internal inquiry found no inaccurate reporting in his postings in his blog or on the Web," the editor's note said. "But employing pseudonyms constitutes deception and violates a central tenet of The Times' ethics guidelines: Staff members must not misrepresent themselves and must not conceal their affiliation with The Times."

Kinda difficult to violate ethics if there are no ethics in the first place.

[Brilliant]

"because he posted items online using assumed names."




Sounds like a rationalization to me.

[BenLurkin]

ping for Mr. h -

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

The LA Times couldn't bring themselves to admit that Mikey "lied, cheated, and attempted to misprepresent public opinion".

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

"Hiltzik did not commit any ethical violations in his newspaper column, and an internal inquiry found no inaccurate reporting in his postings in his blog or on the Web," the editor's note said. "But....

Yeah, "but". Big "but", even bigger than Ted Kennedy's.

Hiltzik did not immediately return phone or e-mail messages

He's "spending more time with his family".

[proxy_user]

I have often wondered about this.

If a columnist or blogger creates an online article, and then posts it to Free Republic as if he were a third party recommending this great piece, is that to be considered allowable or not? What if he just doesn't say he's the author?

I won't even go into the case where a lib slams his own article under a conservative pseudonym....

[xarmydog]

A Pulitzer prize has turned into journalism's version of the Edsel.A great idea which ended up in need of many repairs.You could fix an Edsel though.

[TatieBug]

Thanks to Hugh Hewitt exposing this guy...one down and lots to go.

[Signalman]

"Fake, but accurate".

[holden]

where a lib slams his own article

...making the "conservative" look like a frothing-at-the-mouth, insensitive moron, just so they can shoot down that straw man next time in their column? Yeah, I think we've sensed that a number of libs skulk around FR doing things like that.

HF

[proxy_user]

Well, that may explain some of the things that go on here.

Or maybe not....hard to say. We could have more stringent registration requirements, but that would spoil the fun.

[bvw]

Why a duck? The Pulitzer walks and talks like ...

South Florida is a pirate's refuge, a seething dung heap of con artists and a beloved wellspring of sham. Thousands of Americans are enticed by cartoon characters to live in Orlando; Cuban émigrés keep the decrepit forge of the cold war burning bright; the Pulitzer family name is remembered, in Palm Beach anyway, for some really odd bedroom yoga performed with a trumpet by a woman named Roxanne. Why a trumpet? you ask. The South Florida answer is, Why not? Even the gas stations along I-95 try to outdo one another with piles of citrus, seashells strip-mined from other waters and the length of their obligatory stuffed gators. Florida: She walks, she talks, she crawls on her belly like a reptile. Step right up!

-- New York Times book critic Guy Martin about The Swamp by Michael Grunwald, according to Stacy J. Willis at Las Vegas Weekly. (Found via Goggle.)

---

Viaducts and viaducts. More on the Pultizer Prize Scandal --

Roxanne was no stranger to high society indiscretions. Not long after her marriage to Herbert [Pulitzer], they had attended a birthday party where the liveried waiters passed trays of cocaine on silver platters. Though a neophyte to this drug, she quickly learned that it was de rigueur at all Palm Beach Society gatherings. Indeed, without this, no one would have stayed awake past midnight. However, with both Jacquie's and Herbert's encouragement, she began to use it more frequently. Partly, this was due to the addictive nature of the drug, but also because it was such a status symbol in their social setting. Roxanne was thrilled to see how fast her weight dropped, something that had concerned her since the birth of the twins a year or so before. It also helped to distract her from Herbert's growing detachment since the birth.

Though it remained unspoken, things weren't going well in the Pulitzer marriage. Herbert was not happy to be a father again, and share his wife's attentions with two crying babies. He became even more demanding. Doubtlessly the cocaine didn't help his mood. After a trip to Amsterdam, he began to fantasize openly about a ménage à trois. Though caught off guard by her husband's new ideas, she tried her best to be a supportive wife. On a trip to Paris, Herbert called a masseuse to their suite at the Ritz Hotel, and his fantasy at last was realized. Roxanne had crossed another threshold in an effort to save her marriage.

The parties and high life continued, with dancing until dawn, fishbowls of cocaine, and orgies in New York penthouses. The Reagans were in the White House, the rich were getting richer, and the Pulitzers would allow themselves to feel no pain. However, with the drugs and alcohol flowing so freely, it was inevitable that the marriage would degenerate.

Herbert wanted to continue his sexual experiments. He was constantly discussing his fantasies with Roxanne, and pressing her to find them a new companion. Not knowing where else to turn, she confided in Jacquie, who was appropriately sympathetic and agreed to a tryst at the Holiday Inn in Miami. Herbert watched as an anxious Roxanne and Jacquie made love, their nerves settled somewhat by the cocaine they had ingested.

This strained state of affairs eventually began to take its toll. Roxanne's weight plummeted to 109 lbs, and she and Herbert fought constantly. The drugs had begun to erode both of their personalities, and they each became suspicious. Roxanne began to notice an unnatural closeness between Herbert and his eldest daughter, Liza. She would frequently spot Liza on Herbert's lap, sipping a drink and looking at him provocatively. At other times she would find them lying on the bed together, comfortable as man and wife.

-- '"Harlequin". "Strumpet". "Homewrecker". These were some of the words people used to describe Roxanne Pulitzer at the time of her 1983 Palm Beach divorce trial.', Divas. (Found via Goggle.)

---

The Pulitzer Award itself is named for a man wealthy from a scandal mongering sheet, one New York World. So it's no mistake that it is always, at heart, an award for scandal.

You can take that on my word. And I am a genuine Hogan. See the most excellent web site The Yellow Kid on the Paper Stage.

[mhx]

Uh oh. Well at least this is something that would never happen to me, or my name isn't Mr. Mhx.

[ahayes]

Sock puppets!

[Maceman]

What am I missing?

If he visits message boards and posts anonymously, or even if he starts a website under a pseudonym, why is that a problem?

Is it a specific breach of his contract with the LA Times?