Patterico's Pontifications

7/20/2005

New Editor at L.A. Times

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 5:48 pm



The L.A. Times has a new editor: Dean Baquet.

What does this mean for The Times? I have no idea. I do know that, under John Carroll, my opinion of the paper as a generally leftist rag didn’t change much. Carroll was the prime architect of the Arnold hit piece — good story, awful (and avoidable) timing. He was essentially blind to the latter problem, and blind to most (but not all) of the paper’s leftist bias.

On the other hand, the paper has had some good moments (such as the series on King/Drew). Also, it has moved towards more interactivity with readers through the Internet, and has opened itself up to criticism in the Outside the Tent column. Granted, many of these positive changes appear to have been driven by Michael Kinsley — but Carroll supported Kinsley 100%, by all reports. Does Baquet? Again, I don’t know.

I’m not expecting much of a change, no matter who is in charge. The paper has been partisan since I started reading it 13 years ago. I don’t know why that would change now.

7 Responses to “New Editor at L.A. Times

  1. This paper was on jihad againstIsrael 40 years ago. Nothing new here.

    Henry (d383a5)

  2. i’ve been around here for 25 years and used to be friends with some people on the times during the Chandler era. The Times, even in its so called good old daze, has been insulated. The people there don’t talk to anyone anywhere and have been out of touch with reality for forty years or so. The paper is agenda driven, not news driven. This could be a function of advertiser preference for hitting only the middle and upper middle class, those with enough money to afford $50 for a family to go to a movie, $200 plus for dinner for two at the latest Westside eatery, and shopping sprees in Beverly Hills. This elite class is liberal to their core, and here in SoCal show biz rules as anyone who has ever cold called from the yellow pages will tell you.

    It’s hard to see how this new guy, a NYT retread, can possilby right a ship that needs local local local reporting from people who actually live in places like Reseda, Downey, Carson, and other blue collar areas.

    The LA Times is a paper that has lost its soul and now seeks the greatest ad revenue.

    Howard Veit (baba22)

  3. Dead tree journalism is yesterday’s news. The newspaper is obsolete, we can get information without the paper now. Remaking the LAT into a “product people want to buy” may slow the inevitable, and anger the lefties, but in the long run, it’s only a matter of time. Let’s celebrate Saving the Trees while bringing Progress to the Progressives.

    Black Jack (ee9fe2)

  4. […] Patterico — don’t expect any changes at the LA Times. The hack partisan approach of the news pages will likely remain that way. […]

    PrestoPundit » Blog Archive » New editor at the LA Times (d881ce)

  5. Wall Street Journal now makes more money from its webpage subscriptions than its hardcopy edition. As much as I like the free news at latimes.com, I think LA Times should eventually do that to. WSJ & LAT both cover everything, but LAT focuses on LA/California the way WSJ has a focus on business. There is so much more to California than this goofy compassionate vegans driving hybrids crap. Dean Baquet really needs to use the WSJ style of reporting, where they mostly report facts, and do good editing to keep the most relevant stories up front.

    As it is now, LAT leans towards being opinion reporting on news reported by other organizations. That’s what blogs are for. If I wanted to read half-baked opinions like mine, which I base on news I sort of remember from other news organizations or on rumors of what the 3-strikes law is, I would read the comment section in blogs like this one.

    Shredstar (91b3b2)

  6. John Carroll’s anti-Fox, anti-blogger, pseudo-journalist screed clearly showed it was past time for him to be retired.

    It’s rather poignant that a guy reaches the summit of his profession and doesn’t recognize the fundamental restructuring taking place from below.

    TakeFive (2bf7bd)

  7. The LAT made an abrupt and fanatical change when the Big O took over from his dad. He made no bones about his intention of making the LAT as anti-American as the NYT. That was almost 46 years ago. The LAT has been single-minded in its America is the cause of all the World’s problems ever since; as they are still.

    Rod Stanton (7b6143)


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