Patterico's Pontifications

3/26/2008

The Difference Between the Daily News and the Los Angeles Times

Filed under: Dog Trainer,General — Patterico @ 6:04 am



Daily News crime reporter quits to become an LAPD cop.

Los Angeles Times crime reporter quits to become an investigator for the federal public defender.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just saying, if it had been the other way around, you could have picked my jaw up off the floor. But this? Sounds about right.

29 Responses to “The Difference Between the Daily News and the Los Angeles Times”

  1. far from obscuring it, your “not that there’s anything wrong with that” actually highlights the judgmental relativism in your post. america has many former prosecutors who fancied themselves jedi knights of justice in their old jobs, but were subsequently forced to become sith lords, in many instances because of financial obligations to their families. the second-best thing about the sith (after the much higher earning capacity) is that no matter how much you pummel it in your blog, it will welcome you with open arms when you, too, are forced to cross over to the dark side.

    assistant devil's advocate (b0a9c2)

  2. The scary part of cynically agreeing with most of that (not all Jedi cross over to the Dark Side… of course almost all of those get killed, so…) is having to admit I understood it. πŸ˜‰

    Stashiu3 (460dc1)

  3. I know more than a couple of lawyers who began as police and/or investigators for the State Attorney’s office (what we call the prosecutor here), decided to become lawyers, and ended up first as public defenders and then as criminal defense lawyers in private practice.

    kishnevi (e4fabe)

  4. NEWS FLASH: A blogger links to anecdotal evidence supporting his pre-conceived notions, and chuckles knowingly that the anecdotal evidence does not surprise him.

    In other surprising news, George Bush is again announcing we are winning the war in Iraq.

    Phil (6d9f2f)

  5. The Los Angeles Times appears to have fallen for a hoax crime report says The Smoking Gun.

    MARCH 26–Last week’s bombshell Los Angeles Times report claiming that the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur in the lobby of a Manhattan recording studio was carried out by associates of Sean “Diddy” Combs and that the rap impresario knew of the plot beforehand was based largely on fabricated FBI reports, The Smoking Gun has learned.

    The Times appears to have been hoaxed by an imprisoned con man and accomplished document forger, an audacious swindler who has created a fantasy world in which he managed hip-hop luminaries, conducted business with Combs, Shakur, Busta Rhymes, and The Notorious B.I.G., and even served as Combs’s trusted emissary to Death Row Records boss Marion “Suge” Knight during the outset of hostilities in the bloody East Coast-West Coast rap feud. . .

    (H/t to Romenesko).

    Bradley J. Fikes (5a563c)

  6. That’s interesting, Bradley. That story was reprinted nationwide.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  7. Phil,

    Anecdotal evidence isn’t conclusive proof but it is evidence. A little evidence here, a little there, and pretty soon you reach the tipping point.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  8. DRJ,
    The LAT is now conducting an internal investigation of the “documents”.

    I expect being debunked by The Smoking Gun had a lot to do with it. Not surprisingly, the story was based on anonymous sources and inadequate independent verification of the “documents”.

    Let’s hope Russ Stanton uses this debacle to ban all anonymous sources.

    Bradley J. Fikes (5a563c)

  9. DRJ,

    Also, note who wrote the LAT story — Chuck Philip — whose failings have previously been noted on this blog.

    Bradley J. Fikes (5a563c)

  10. “If those documents are found to be forgeries, I want to be the one to break that story” – Chuck “Courage” Philips

    rhodeymark (6797b5)

  11. DRJ, #7…
    In Phil’s case, would that “tipping point” be where he tips his tin-foil hat?

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  12. The law is the law. We are not opponents, just different cogs in the machine. I was an intern at the State’s Attorney’s Office, associate/investigator for the Chicago Crime Commission, police academy dropout, big law firm civil defense, criminal defense appeals, criminal and civil defense private practice.

    I am also a qualified janitor, finish carpenter, and non-pipe fitter plumber (although I cheat and go into the wall anyway.)

    nk (34c5da)

  13. I am also a qualified janitor, finish carpenter, and non-pipe fitter plumber (although I cheat and go into the wall anyway.)

    Add minor electrical work, and you’re what’s commonly called a “homeowner” πŸ™‚

    Steverino (e00589)

  14. No, I was serious. My parents invested in apartment buildings for my education and I helped them care for them. My father could do anything. For example, he build the molds, set the rebar, mixed and poured the concrete, for verandas all around our farm-house which still stand after forty-five years. He tried to teach me all he could. His philosophy was that we should never depend on anyone for anything because that’s when your servant becomes your master.

    nk (34c5da)

  15. A Good Man that!

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  16. NK,

    I have one of those fathers, too.

    DRJ (8b9d41)

  17. There was one exception. Although he, himself, was a soldier, hunter and shooter who always had a gun handy, he did all he could to keep me and my brothers away from guns. To have others carry our guns for us.

    nk (34c5da)

  18. nk, I hope you corrected that short-coming?

    All Free Men should be versed in the use of arms (some nut around 1776 said that, I believe). It is how you remain Free.

    Another Drew (f9dd2c)

  19. Next to my daughter, I could talk about my parents forever, Another Drew. I think I have taken up enough of Patterico’s bandwidth offtopic.

    nk (34c5da)

  20. NK–I’d rather hear about your daughter than the LA Times or Tupac any day of the year.

    kishnevi (db1823)

  21. Thank you, kishnevi, but if I could blog like Patterico I would not be blogging like nk. He lets us all go off-topic and I greatly appreciate it.

    nk (34c5da)

  22. NK,

    That is a difference. My father bought lifetime memberships in the NRA for our sons when they were born. He wanted to buy them guns but we thought that was a little young.

    And I agree with Kishnevi regarding stories about your daughter. They are much sweeter than our family’s boy stories.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  23. Thank you too, DRJ. But back on topic, now that my daughter is in school fulltime I will be volunteering to second-chair cases for the Federal Defender pro bono. And if I ever start thinking of myself as either a Jedi or a Sith Lord I will know that I should turn in my law license and retire to a log cabin in a remote place with a good supply of whiskey.

    nk (34c5da)

  24. I think you have the wrong attitude, NK. If my “punishment” was a remote log cabin and a good supply of whiskey, I’d be motivated to retire.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  25. No, I guess the point I was trying to make is that I disagree with both our host and ada. We’re none of us crusaders nor even ministers of justice. We’re just … I dunno … like street maintenance workers? Plumbers? There’s an adversarial system that needs both “sides” to function properly. It’s a practical thing. Nothing romantic, philosophical or ideological to it. Maybe, lawyers being people too with feelings and sensitivities, a question of personal sensibility determining which “side” you choose to be on?

    nk (34c5da)

  26. NK,

    Okay, I see your point and I agree with that. I was responding generally to your comments and not as they related to the point of the post. Up to now, I’ve been a drive-by commenter on this thread.

    However, since I’ve now actually read and thought about the post and the comments, I thought Patterico’s point was that people have certain sympathies and those sympathies are often revealed in their public comments or writings. Thus, just as someone from the Daily News is probably more conservative than someone from the LA Times, someone that comments at Patterico’s is probably more conservative than someone at Daily Kos. In addition, these attitudes are more likely to be associated with certain professions.

    You, of course, are the exception that proves the rule.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  27. You, of course, are the exception that proves the rule.

    I demur. I am a typical white person. Unsure, whimsical and self-contradictory from moment to moment. Or are you simply flatering the fool?

    nk (34c5da)

  28. “I have one of those fathers, too.”

    He made another one with me. Hotels are heaven on earth to learn all about too many things!

    Maybe they changed for something unique like, “for the money”? πŸ™‚

    Or

    After looking a bit closer to the legal profession/process he understands that there can NEVER be too many eyes examining the goings on and informing the citizens.

    or

    Maybe just another budding Libertarian? πŸ™‚

    The other guy is probably losing his hair and desired an excuse to shave it off completely! Is all of 5’6″, suffers from SMS and is by gawd gonna git even wit sumbody dat embarrassed his younger ass! The reason he has a GED instead of a diploma. πŸ™‚

    TC (1cf350)


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