Patterico's Pontifications

11/9/2005

Robert Scheer: Out

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 7:25 am



I initially wanted to wait until it was official, but this is close enough: Robert Scheer will not be a columnist for the L.A. Times beginning in January.

Maybe things really are turning around there.

27 Responses to “Robert Scheer: Out”

  1. Maybe their demographics are changing, with the drift of some folks to internet news? Their circulation is down, but whom exactly are they losing, and who is their “base”? It may be that dead-tree subscriptions are a conservative act.

    Kevin Murphy (6a7945)

  2. Or maybe they just finally woke up to how lame Scheer’s column really is. His hyper-paranoia and leftover 60s radicalsim has really worn thin, and how many times can you recast “Bush is a moron who is destroying civil liberties and making the US into a pariah around the world” and still keep it interesting? A paper like the Times can use a thoughtful liberal columnist: Sheer is not the one.

    JVW (54c318)

  3. Having an extreme leftist on the op-ed page is of no concern. What they need to do is to purge their news columns of leftwing bias.

    Stu707 (7c4f65)

  4. To reprise what I wrote as a guest blogger here, “In a just world Lileks would already be grinning at you from your Sunday LA Dog Trainer’s editorial page, while bloggers would instead be heaping scorn on an obscure and penurious Robert Scheer who self-published on a vanity site, writing about his new towels and pestering George Soros for money.”

    Halfway there.

    See Dubya (c01825)

  5. If I were a liberal and running the LAT, I’d have fired Scheer. He’s a caricature who is only persuasive when he’s presenting falsified facts. In short, he is ineffective at doing his job. (Probably the only more outlandish lefty on a major paper beat is James Carroll of the Boston Globe, who makes Krugman sound like Joe Lieberman by comparison). If they want to win arguments they should hire Kevin Drum.

    Crank (5f5694)

  6. I wonder if he can get back his old gig as Ted Kaczynski’s ghost writer.

    Lawrence (2bf7bd)

  7. Crank–

    I’m not familiar with Carroll, but I’ll bet blind that you aren’t familiar with Mark Morford of the SF Chronicle. He makes Scheer look like William Rusher. If you knew Morford, you’d have named him as most outlandish lefty.

    See Dubya (c01825)

  8. The LAT’s new boss seems to be on the right track. Back when he first took over blabbermouths here were offered an opportunity to give him suggestions for improving the paper. Mine was to fire Robert Scheer. In the last several days we’ve seen Max Boot’s excellent op/ed, Savage and Weinstein’s complimentary article on Sam Alito, and now Scheer has been shown the door. All good news. Perhaps there’s hope for the LAT after all. LA could use a good newspaper. So far, so good.

    Black Jack (ee9fe2)

  9. THANK GOODNESS!!! I am a native, and never thought I’d see this day. Every Tuesday, I glance at Scheer’s op-ed headline, and I immediately know its theme. I then glance at the opening paragraph to confirm my suspicions, then move on to a more credible article. And I think I have given him more credence than other readers have, who just breeze past his missives.

    This is a fantastic move that’ll keep me as a subscriber at least till the end of the year. There’s hope! I am in agreement with Crank, give us someone who is persuasive intead of Scheer, who can only preach to the converted.

    Does this mean that he will soon lose his spot on KCRW’s “Left, Right, and Center”? Keeping my fingers crossed.

    Brian (b0d240)

  10. propositions lost, and it’s raining. but it’s a wonderful day. not quite enough to get me to re-up my subscription, but definitely encouraging. he grates. i don’t know morford in SF, but i can guess he’s hard to read, but he simply cannot be much worse than scheer.

    jonkendall (ebe212)

  11. On the gun lawsuit bill, he wrote that the gun industry had received “blanket immunity from lawsuits”. I wrote the reader’s rep and made them print a correction to factual error. Maybe this is the straw that broke the camels back, and I deserve full credit.

    TomHynes (672604)

  12. I was going to suggest that the LA Times bring back Alexander Cockburn as its Trotskyite leftist, but then read his latest column concerning the Catholics taking over the Supreme Court and changed my mind. Not to start oxymoron battles but are there thinking leftst columnists that conservatives can read and not dismiss as cranks, yet still disagree.

    Pat Patterson (5b3946)

  13. I didn’t know he had a sense of humor. — “I don’t know what’s driving them because they won’t tell me.” — That’s a hoot!

    Frank Laughter (fec178)

  14. I don’t always agree with Marc Cooper, but he’s VERY informed, particularly on local stuff, and writes beautifully. Unlike Scheer, Marc lived in Chile and witnessed Pinochet’s stuff first hand (and the loss in his referendum that led to his ouster).

    LAT should hire Marc NOW.

    Jim Rockford (e09923)

  15. Yeah, I’ve read Morford. He’s pretty much a blue-state caricature too, and he and Carroll are neck-and-neck. But really, you need to read Carroll. He’s the Full Chomsky. I believe his father was a defense contractor or something during Vietnam, and he is in his fourth decade of adolescent rebellion against Daddy and the Big Bad Eeeeevil U.S. of A.

    Crank (5f5694)

  16. Hmmm…Crank, if you’re free this weekend we could run a contest between Morford and Carroll as to who is the bigger whacko. we could call it a Whacko-off. Or something like that.

    You post three excerpts from Carroll, I’ll post three from Morford (I guest-blog now and then at mypetjawa.mu.nu) and either the readers vote or Patterico can judge…

    Or something like that, the rules are negotiable. That would be a good way to get familiar with Carroll without having to immerse myself. Hit me at seedub at hotmail if you’re interested.

    See Dubya (c01825)

  17. Scheer’s ouster marks the real final
    collapse of the Soviet Union.

    Justice Frankfurter (2dcd84)

  18. Gee, I’m going to miss my morning jolt of adrenaline that I get from reading the first paragraph of his column (that’s as far as I can get). I guess it’s back to coffee for me…

    Curt (80633c)

  19. When I met Jeff Johnson, I told him I couldn’t stand Scheer. That Scheer was a in effect a one note lying propagandist whose space was wasted and should be given over to at least a more thoughtful center left type. Glad to see the stalinst hack get fired. Now if only he’d move to North Korea where he belongs. This is a smart move by LAT. You known Scheer must have been sneering at them for paying him to undermine the system. Whats that old saw about capitalists will sell the commies the rope the reds will hang the capitalists with. Not any more Scheer. Bwahahaha.

    Neocon Don (b33ebc)

  20. One of my all-time favorite blog postings has to be Stefan Sharkansky’s May 2003 “Robert Scheer’s Canard-o-Matic”. An entire genre of writing is explained in exquisite detail.

    Bill Lever (890e39)

  21. Yeah, I’ve been meaning to write Stefan about Scheer’s ouster.

    Patterico (4e4b70)

  22. […] A commenter at Patterico: Scheer’s ouster marks the real final collapse of the Soviet Union. […]

    PrestoPundit » Blog Archive » N. Korea’s Robert Scheer Out at LA Times (d881ce)

  23. I bought a copy of the LA Times for the first time in months the day after I heard Scheer Lunacy was out at the Times. And what was in my face at the top of the op-ed page — SCHEER. I would have liked to scream.

    But he is out. I maybe in January I can begin subscribing to the Times again. Do I dare? I can’t remember how many times I’ve cancelled this dog trainer of a paper. The LA Times is Lucy, and I’m Charley Brown.

    prestopundit (c8886f)

  24. Yet another example of good journalism in today’s LAT. See John Ziegler’s commentary: How the liars won.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ziegler10nov10,0,1109840.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions

    Black Jack (ee9fe2)

  25. This is even better than canning Scheer.

    Crank (5f5694)

  26. […] If you listen carefully, you can hear the world’s smallest violin. Hat tip to Patterico, who seems all broken up over it too. As the eternal optimist, I like to think that the dog is half-trained. […]

    damnum absque injuria » Scheer’s Out For Winter, Scheer’s Out Forever (38c04c)

  27. Bob Scheer was one of the few who got Bush’s war lies right.

    joseph (1ec4f2)


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