Comments on: Reason #741 That I’m Having a Tough Time Caring About the Gradual Death of the L.A. Times

By: vince52

vince52 — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 07:06:58 +0000

The original point of the post is well taken. What floors me about the story is the 10 year sentences for people who were probably thinking that they were committing a misdemeanor. Would a sentence of, say, four years have given potential wiretappers the feeling that wiretapping is a risk worth taking? I’m in federal court occasionally for sentencings, and it blows me away how judges just wipe out people’s lives for crimes that, while definitely worth punishing, ain’t worth a decade.

By: slp

slp — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:14:55 +0000

“Prosecutors say” is simply poor writing by an incompetent reporter.

There is no excuse.

Drop those two words and you have an accurate lede. There is not even a reason to substitute “who were found guilty by a jury of playing roles.”

“Three co-defendants who played roles in an elaborate wiretapping scheme by Hollywood private detective Anthony Pellicano were sentenced to federal prison today.”

The Times laid off all the good reporters and only the idiots are left.

By: Patricia

Patricia — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 06:03:40 +0000

I feel we are in a kind of Zen period, waiting for the LAT to die. Or would that be a meta period. Anyway, I think perhaps a haiku contest would be in order, to illuminate this interregnum before the final cataclysmic event, as the Times’ squishy center begins not to hold. (Your opera/music post I suppose has inspired this.)

By: Typical White Person

Typical White Person — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:31:50 +0000

Experts Say!
According to sources close to Obama

using that nonsense lets one say anything

and

you can protect your “sources”

By: The Raving Theist

The Raving Theist — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:53:55 +0000

What does LAT say when a Republican politician is sentenced?That might shed some light on this practice.

By: AD - RtR/OS

AD - RtR/OS — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:45:00 +0000

Good, daley; very good!

By: daleyrocks

daleyrocks — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:41:31 +0000

Eliot Spitzer used to SAY all sorts of nasty things about people in the press as Attorney General in New York. It turns out that he didn’t like to go to court or follow through on a lot of the things he said, however, if you look at his record. Hax, as usual, is all wet on his word parsing here. Hax, call home, your village is missing its idiot.

By: Mike K

Mike K — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:24:54 +0000

In another example of journalistic excellence, the Chicago Tribune mentioned the "tea party" movement last month, but failed to note that one occurred this week outside their front door. Now that it happened, and wasn't covered by them, they are mentioning a wild conspiracy theory that originated with Playboy ! Great journalism strikes again.

By: Vivian Louise

Vivian Louise — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 17:11:16 +0000

The criminal-as-victim is embedded deeply in to most liberal’s brains. You can’t get around it or retrain it. I’ve tried.

By: AMac

AMac — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:52:13 +0000

Also:

> One by one, each of Pellicano’s convicted-by-a-jury co-defendants stood in front of U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer…

The bolded part didn’t get through the multiple layers of editors and fact-checkers.