Patterico's Pontifications

5/1/2006

Bob Sipchen: An Honest, Funny, and Gutsy L.A. Times Editor

Filed under: Dog Trainer,Immigration — Patterico @ 7:06 am



This Bob Sipchen piece on the immigration protests is a perfect example of why I admire the guy. He has a great sense of humor and the guts to say uncomfortable things. For example:

My wife, Pam, bravely stuck her hand into our 16-year-old son’s backpack and pulled out something even more peculiar than usual.

Signed by the L.A. Unified School District’s executive officer for educational services and printed on Board of Education stationery in English and Spanish, the March 27 letter to parents began:

“We certainly understand the sentiments and motivation behind the protests that have been occurring in the community and at many of our schools in the past several days. And, we respect the right of free speech.

“However, we would much prefer that students would limit voicing their protests to the school campus rather than leaving the campus, possibly endangering their safety and missing classroom time.”

The letter concluded with this inelegant waffle: “We will do everything we can to ensure that those students who do leave the campus are supervised as they leave the campus.”

. . . .

I can’t be the only parent to wonder what young people, struggling with boundaries, discipline and accountability, are supposed to think when an official voice of educational authority speaks with such pandering equivocation.

and this is great:

A couple of weeks ago I attended an immigration rally, heavily hyped as student-led. This one was on a Saturday. Kids didn’t have to skip algebra to protest. At least 39,500 of the students who had walked out in March must have been in the library studying, because the few dozen who showed up to wallop drums and blow plastic horns on the City Hall lawn were outnumbered by those ubiquitous Revolutionary Communist Party folks and white guys with graying ponytails peddling anti-Bush bumper stickers.

As for guts:

The current wave of student demonstrations has been inspired at least in part by the release of an HBO movie about the 1968 Chicano student protests in Los Angeles: “Walkout.”

The point of those mass demonstrations nearly four decades back was to protest the crummy education the school district was palming off on Chicanos. Students were angry that so many Latinos were dropping out of school and so few were being admitted to college. Their gutsy strikes against these and other grievances caught a clueless school board’s attention — in part because each absence cost the district state money.

Thirty-eight years later, the 40,000 Southern California students who abandoned their classes on that March Monday did so over immigration policy.

Whatever you think about that complex and sensitive issue, you have to acknowledge, I think, that Los Angeles’ schools would be closer today to the excellence those Chicanos began fighting for in 1968 if tens of thousands of immigrants hadn’t crossed the border illegally and then added their ill-prepared children to the foundering system.

Bob! Just because something’s true doesn’t mean you can say it!

In the ultra-PC world of the L.A. Times, Bob can get away with such statements because everyone recognizes what a decent guy he is.

I interviewed Sipchen in February 2005. You can read that interview here.

11 Responses to “Bob Sipchen: An Honest, Funny, and Gutsy L.A. Times Editor”

  1. No, no, no, no, no. He completely ignored the LA Times Policies regarding columnists. He wrote a piece on immigration policy and failed to:

    1. Blast House Republicans for the Sensenbrenner Bill.
    2. Laud the McCain-Kennedy Bill as the most sensible path of immigration reform.
    3. Accuse the Bush Administration of not being involved enough in seeking a compromise.
    4. Mouth platitudes about tightening the border, but ridicule the idea of a fence.
    5. Use the phrase “jobs that Americans won’t do.”

    Sensible, fair, and willing to buck the paper’s political slant? I give the column about two months. Wait until all the whiny letters start running on Wednesday.

    JVW (d667c9)

  2. […] The blogosphere is starting to hum. My pal Patterico demonstrates the strangeness of the day by linking favorably to an anti-illegal piece … in the L.A. Times. Confederate Yankee doesn’t mince words: “This May Day protest is a celebration of the illegal importation of poverty, and an attempt to legitimize the violation of this nation’s sovereignty.” Over at Fidel Castro’s least-favorite blog, Cuban-American George Moneo isn’t mincing his words, either. And Tammy Bruce — who’ll be interviewing Hot Air’s own video wizard, Bryan Preston, at 12:30 EST on her radio show — notes that she’ll be joining KABC radio’s live coverage of the L.A. protests when her show ends at 3 p.m. Listen live over the web here. […]

    Hot Air » Blog Archive » May Day: El Gran Boicot (3ca10e)

  3. Well,
    What an unusually refreshing breeze that piece was! Or is that the start of a new ‘front’? One could hope!!!

    paul from fl (001f65)

  4. […] Bob Sipchen: An Honest, Funny, and Gutsy L.A. Times Editor […]

    Traction Control » Blog Archive » Headline Summaries: Border Security (acd9fb)

  5. Bob Sipchen: Superjournalist

    Patterico just directed me to a thought-provoking column by Los Angeles Times editor Bob Sipchen. Well, not “me” in particular; he didn’t send me e-mail (he doesn’t link, he doesn’t write….) He had this post here, which directed me (I’m…

    Big Lizards (fe7c9d)

  6. Good post.

    JJ (e77a84)

  7. JW, you forgot one. He didn’t call anyone wanting to stop illegal immigration racist. I have to say this has become my favorite site because (a) virtually all of the posters give thoughtful posts without name-calling, regardless of whether I agree with them or not and (b) Patterico doesn’t pull a post just because he disagrees with the sentiment.

    sharon (fecb65)

  8. If mean people come around and try to use inappropriate language, we just do a google search and post heartless reviews of all their movies.

    Vermont Neighbor (a9ae2c)

  9. Sharon #8,

    If you’d like to read another Open Borders column that is all about cheap name-calling and straw men, you’ll enjoy Leonard Pitts’ op-ed.

    AMac (0097e1)

  10. AMac,

    Thanks for the link. It’s the Pitts. If one goes in for cheap-shot journalism, Leonard’s your man. This column alone should get him a nomination for a Hiltzik in the character assassination division. But that’s a tough category.

    BTW, once upon a time, about a year ago, I thought Leonard’s sock puppet might be commenting here and at a related site. I had no tracking evidence, of course, but I thought there were distinctive similarities in the use of language and technique. But, who knows, I sure don’t.

    Black Jack (d8da01)


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