Former L.A. Times Editor John Carroll Dies
I was, obviously, not happy with the Los Angeles Times under John Carroll’s leadership. I thought their hit piece on Arnold Schwarzenegger was atrociously timed (though a pretty good piece), and believed that Carroll was blind to the concerns over the timing. He was also the man who made the famous claim that outlets like Fox News were engaged in “pseudo-journalism” — a term that I had some fun mocking over the years.
But the paper established the “Outside the Tent” series under Carroll, which provided a forum for critics of the paper (including myself) to criticize the paper in its pages. And although this was hardly Carroll’s idea (it was Michael Kinsley’s), his support for Kinsley made this possible.
And I know a few people I respect who respected Carroll. (Of course, some others didn’t.)
73 is too young.
Ding.
Patterico (3cc0c1) — 6/14/2015 @ 3:00 pmHere’s an interesting tidbit from an AP article about his death on the NBC News site (the added emphasis is mine):
Uh, perhaps the AP’s writer could have done a little bit more to place that standing ovation in context. One is left wondering if the standing ovation was in recognition of a job well done or just relief that the old man was at last leaving. But then again, sloppy writing in the fishwraps was elevated to an art form during Carroll’s years in the business. R.I.P.
JVW (8278a3) — 6/14/2015 @ 3:25 pmSome weird brain disease as I understand. Cannot have been pleasant.
Gazzer (be559b) — 6/14/2015 @ 3:50 pmSince I’ll be 72 in six months, I agree that 73 is too young.
But whether under John Carroll or a few of his predecessors–and under every successor, the Los Angeles Times long ago ceased to be a serious “news” paper. They haven’t delivered straight news in years. All of their “reporters’ swing from the left side of the plate when they write–or they don’t get published.
The paper and its staffing get skinnier every year.
Comanche Voter (1d5c8b) — 6/14/2015 @ 5:01 pmSome weird brain disease as I understand. Cannot have been pleasant.
Gazzer (be559b) — 6/14/2015 @ 3:50 pm
a terminal case of Contemporary Liberalism.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/14/2015 @ 5:26 pmMy uncle died at 74. He wanted to go. He had lost his wife to cancer, his mom had died the day after her 100th birthday, he had no children. I was probably the closest to him, as I had shared a duck blind with him since I was 11. I remember the last time. I could smell the whiskey in his coffee from six feet away. He was on oxygen from emphysema but he still smoked.
He had a massive heart attack waiting for friends to pick him up to take him to a casino.
Let no one think less of him for what I’ve said. He was a good man. He was a Battalion Chief in the Oakland Fire Department. He crawled around the wreckage of the Bay Bridge when it collapsed following the ’89 earthquake, pulling bodies out.
He wanted to go. But I miss him.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 5:41 pmActually 11 is when I passed the Hunter Safety course and had my own shotgun. Or, borrowed.
My early memories are of my uncle carrying me on his back to the duck blind, so I wouldn’t get wet. I wish he had stuck around so I could return the favor. He would have been 85 this year. I
I guess he didn’t want that.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 5:51 pmCondolences, Steve. I had an uncle who passed away from emphysema at the same age and that is not an easy way to go.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/14/2015 @ 5:59 pmHe didn’t live long enough, coronello, to die of emphysema.
He gave the big F- U- to life and died of a heart attack.
His choice, I suppose. I knew it was coming. I wish I had confronted him. I wouldn’t have stopped him from destroying himself. Just to let him know I could see what he was doing, and I didn’t like it. But, dammit man, there was somebody here on this Earth for him.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 6:15 pmUnderstood, Steve. Dying slowly by suffocation is tough, all’s I’m saying.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 6/14/2015 @ 6:59 pmL’chaim, coronello.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 7:02 pmThe paper and its staffing get skinnier every year.
But somehow such publications, in spite of their leftist anorexia, manage to survive year after year. It’s probably analogous to the way that certain families in America pass down monies made by previous generations and therefore allow a succeeding generation to tap into and live off that original pool of funds. Hence the phenomenon of so-called trust-fund babies (hello, all you folks in Manhattan and SF, etc!), who can therefore afford to be mindlessly idealistic and foolishly liberal.
His choice, I suppose. I knew it was coming.
In general, and beyond such a sad story, this period of time — at least to me — is taking on an increasingly strange, unsettling quality. Odd glints of life and death here and there, stories along the lines of Ferguson, etc, Greece, etc, and, well, the former Bruce Jenner.
Of course, human history is full of ups and downs, but there’s something more disquieting about this particular moment compared with moments over the past 50-plus years. I’m not sure how much of that is due to the pathetic socio-political-economic trends lying below the surface of this and other nations. For instance, it wasn’t all that long ago that I believed Americans had enough good sense to never allow someone like Obama into the White House. Wrong!
Even that notwithstanding, there does seem something strangely “end times-ish” about this segment of the early 21st century.
Mark (a11af2) — 6/14/2015 @ 7:14 pmI disagree with every word you say but will defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire. How many have you banned or censored?
banned and censored (0b39a1) — 6/14/2015 @ 7:24 pmPeople have gotten tired of living for centuries, Mark. Ain’t nothing new or Ends Time-ish about it.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 7:29 pm“Condolences, Steve. I had an uncle who passed away from emphysema at the same age and that is not an easy way to go.”
My father died of emphysema at 66. It feels odd to be 11 years older than he was.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 6/14/2015 @ 7:47 pm“Who gives a crap what some long-dead French pervert said?” — Barack Obama
If anybody has a problem with this comment, please see Perry about it. But let me warn you, he’ll fight to the death for my right to post it.
nk (dbc370) — 6/14/2015 @ 8:11 pmPerry wears his idiot privilege like a badge of honor.
JD (3b5483) — 6/14/2015 @ 8:18 pmBack to front?
Gazzer (be559b) — 6/14/2015 @ 8:23 pmWell, anyway, 73 is too young.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 8:28 pmIf you’re so inclined, hoist one and give a toast to life.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 8:30 pmI do Steve57. Every day!
Gazzer (be559b) — 6/14/2015 @ 8:55 pmAin’t nothing new or Ends Time-ish about it.
FWIW, Steve57, I was alluding to the strangely downbeat tone of the times in general — beyond each and every human’s own personal tragedies — best symbolized by opinion polls that show many Americans continue to say the country is headed in the wrong direction.
As for various people becoming tired of living, how come that dynamic doesn’t seem quite so common in the dystopias of America? For instance, the suicide rate is known to be lower in places like the swamp known as the city of Detroit, etc. Why?
Mark (a11af2) — 6/14/2015 @ 10:19 pmTomorrow is just one carjacking away?
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 10:30 pmYou ever hear of the Wiemar Republic, Mark? That was like 90 years ago.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 10:32 pmCoincidentally and ironically — and running counter to my generalization above — this report came out recently.
^ I’d question Moutier’s assertion that a strong family setting throughout the black populace of the US not only exists but that it’s the reason for the different statistics. For instance, and by contrast, Japan, suffering from less of a breakdown of the family unit, nonetheless is known to have a high suicide rate.
Mark (a11af2) — 6/14/2015 @ 10:48 pmFrom what I can glean from the commentings, Mark, I’d rather hang out with Gazzer than you. You, are kind of depressing.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 10:59 pmIf anybody had a reason to be downbeat, to worry about the next day, it was these guys.
http://northstargallery.com/Aircraft/noseart/index.htm
I hope none of the ladies are offended. But these 20 somethings expressed themselves as 20 somethings are wont to do, and decorated their aircraft in the hope of better days, or to ward off death with visions of life. I won’t apologize for them, as there’s nothing to apologize fore.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 11:10 pmfore = for.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/14/2015 @ 11:10 pmMark, you are welcome to question Moutier’s assertion and you should. But I think the assertion is not that “a strong family setting throughout the black populace of the US” exists, but rather one did exist but has deteriorated. And that, my friend, is observable if you’re my age. When I was a kid in Philly every back kid I knew had a mother and father at home and they both worked. Can you say that today? And we weren’t from the Main Line, we were working South Philly. Any kid without a father at home almost always meant he died in Korea. Now they die on the streers or in prison. I’d call that in itself proof of a deteriorating family setting.
Furthermore, the above adds nothing to the discussion. The Japanese (for instance and by contrast) are one race. There are no black-Japanese, Irish-Japanese, Hispanic-Japanese etc., etc. IOW they are indigenous and all one people as contrasted by our society. There can really be no honest comparison of people all with the identical DNA, social norms and constructs, heritage, social experience and history to the hodge-podge we call America.
Peace!
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 6/15/2015 @ 3:40 amPerhaps because the murder rate more than makes up for it?
Solidarity!
Rev. Barack Hussein Hoagie (f4eb27) — 6/15/2015 @ 3:44 amJapan, suffering from less of a breakdown of the family unit, nonetheless is known to have a high suicide rate.
Japan has a strong cultural tradition of suicide so I think your analysis is off. Black suicide may well be related to the loss of religious values or it may be related to the hellish atmosphere in black majority schools as teachers back off all discipline.
Mike K (90dfdc) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:15 amYou, are kind of depressing.
Hey, Steve57, you are the one who, after all, did bring up the issue of having an uncle who was tired of life and apparently did things quite consciously to (or did nothing to not) shorten it.
but rather one did exist but has deteriorated
Hoagie, I totally agree that the culture of not just black America but this nation in general has deteriorated over the past 60 years. That’s why if such negative trends referred to by Moutier were of the recent past instead of long ago (ie, if the higher suicide rates for young black children were starting to show up back in the 1970s or even 1960s) I’d think her conclusion was correct.
Moreover, her theorizing a more stable culture will discourage such statistics runs counter to what occurs in — and is why I pointed it out — a society like Japan or, for that matter, certain northern European nations (ie, at least the latter being less bogged down by excessive dysfunction). BTW, higher suicide rates exist among the white populace of South Africa compared with the people trapped in the hardscrabble townships of that same nation.
Mark (a11af2) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:18 amwell Charles Murray, chronicled this in the lower middle class, in his previous book, Falling Apart,
narciso (ee1f88) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:20 amPerhaps because the murder rate more than makes up for it?
I agree, but not perhaps for your implied reason.
I would suggest that violent nihilistic aggression is directed outward, leading to killing others instead of self or killing of self by others.
kishnevi (9c4b9c) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:21 amkudos to nk for teaching his daughter about the spey blade.
I would add the sheepsfoot blade is a useful tool. And easy to sharpen.
It’s probably the blade I use most on my Case Stockman.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/cdn.mosquitocreekoutdoors.com/images/uploads/CK00079_600.jpg
So is the wharncliffe blade. But that’s more a fighting knife.
http://www.crkt.com/Crawford-Kasper-Dragon-Fixed-Blade-Fighter
Unlike a sheepsfoot blade, it’s got a point.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:28 amThere I was talking up the benefits to the straight edge of the sheepsfoot or the wharncliffe blade and I realized I was missing my sharpener.
http://www.atlantacutlery.com/p-957-accusharp-worlds-fastest-sharpener.aspx
I have two. Somewhere.
But for cutting boxes or line nothing beats a sheepsfoot. And when it comes to keeping an edge nothing is easier. A couple of strokes. If you can keep track of your sharpener.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:38 amMark, I recovered.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:40 amThat’s what we got, Steve. Medium stockman with white bone scales marked Winchester. But my father spayed our hogs with a razor. (The males did not need to be sewed back up, the females did.) And my EDC is a 30-year old Gerber Bolt Action drop point.
nk (dbc370) — 6/15/2015 @ 7:45 amGreat minds and all. My white bone handled stockman has the 3 and a quarter inch spear point blade. Laws vary. In Tejas your less likely to run afoul of the law with a fixec blade knife. I’m reluctant to say what my EDC is but the K-Bar Becker Necker is never a bad choice. Or Columbia River Knife and Tool. Or, a Skean Dhu if you’re a traditionalist.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/15/2015 @ 8:16 amhttp://www.amazon.com/Ka-Bar-BK11-Becker-Necker-Knife/dp/B001N1CBB6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434381537&sr=8-1&keywords=ka-bar+becker+necker
Good enough for the Marines, good enough for me. I do a paracord wrap around the handle.
Steve57 (48418e) — 6/15/2015 @ 8:21 am