Baquet Leaves L.A. for New York Times
The New York Times reports:
Dean Baquet, the editor of The Los Angeles Times who was fired in November for refusing to cut jobs from his newsroom, is returning to The New York Times as chief of its Washington bureau and an assistant managing editor, effective March 5.
The L.A. Times begs to differ, claiming that Baquet wasn’t fired — he quit! The story is titled Editor who quit over staffing cuts hired by N.Y. Times.
I think the New York Times‘s version is a little closer to the truth.
I wish Mr. Baquet well. I think his paper demonstrated clear leftist bias during his tenure, but he wasn’t the first editor to preside over a leftist Los Angeles Times and he won’t be the last. It’s true that I cancelled the paper over a decision he made to reveal classified counterterror secrets — a decision that was also made, ironically enough, by Bill Keller at the New York Times — Baquet’s new boss. But while I think that was a terrible decision, I have nothing personal against Baquet, and hope that he has the best of luck at his new job.
Thanks to readers Stacy M., Marty M., and numerous commenters.
While we all may wish Dean Baquet well in his new position, I don’t think it is unfair to warn him that unless he comes to grip with the pervasive liberal bias he brings to his job, he will probably be as much of a failure at his new job as he was at his last.
JVW (255a81) — 1/30/2007 @ 6:57 pmLet’s see, this genius leaves the LA Times having achieved the biggest circulation drop in the history of the paper and moves to the New York Times which just reported a $648 mil loss. Losers hire losers, it’s the same tired old story. But to be fair, the LA Times is making money, a lot of it. But in a metro area of at least 13 million their circulation has dropped below 800,000.
Duke (4ba8d4) — 1/31/2007 @ 8:44 amA good move. This will make it very easy for the angry stockholders (or the FBI) to find the miscreants once they destroy the paper… or the country. Whichever comes first — I’m hoping “paper.”
Patricia (824fa1) — 1/31/2007 @ 7:49 pmFrom one birdcage linner to another
krazy kagu (557722) — 2/9/2007 @ 6:58 pm