Year in Review: In Progress
Any time I spend at the computer nowadays, which is not much, is devoted to doing the Year in Review. Here is a snippet from the opening of the current draft:
It happens every year. I read every post I’ve written over the past 365 days about this newspaper’s bias, omissions, and distortions — and I think to myself: this is just unbelievable. Even if you’ve seen all of the posts before, there’s something about seeing them all in the same place that makes you realize what an appalling newspaper the L.A. Times can be.
This year, we had the presidential election, in which the paper slammed Sarah Palin, John McCain, and Joe the Plumber — and protected Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, and Rashid Khalidi. There were culture war issues, such as the “narrow margin” of 19 points against gay marriage, the P.C. attitudes on race, and the usual liberal claptrap on abortion, the judiciary, and crime. There was the paper’s overreaching on the story about Judge Alex Kozinski’s porn collection that wasn’t. There was Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Chuck Philips, who retracted a story in one of the most embarrassing incidents in the paper’s history. There were the paper’s distortions on DNA evidence. This year saw the bankruptcy of Tribune Company, and a collection of errors like none we’ve ever seen before.
I think it will be a good one.
It might all come down to the idealistic shift in journalism schools around the country, from telling the story to “guiding” the narrative.
Or maybe they’re just ‘forgetting’ to teach students that it is THEIR JOB to to dispassionately report the facts.
Icy Texan (b7d162) — 12/28/2008 @ 11:59 amDon’t forget the ongoing peddling of the climate change agenda.
Icy Texan (b7d162) — 12/28/2008 @ 12:14 pmI’m looking forward to it, Patrick, it should be an astonishing compilation.
SPQR (26be8b) — 12/28/2008 @ 12:17 pmI delivered newspapers from my bicycle when I was eleven, had my own news-stand in the subway when I was in college, and sold newspapers from a bookstore during my first year of law school. I met a former printer from the Tribune who was retraining in the Chicago Police Academy at age 35. I am best friends with a production side employee of the Tribune. It’s sad.
nk (2f022a) — 12/28/2008 @ 12:48 pmI’m looking forward to your post.
Should we have a pool on the date that the LAT asks for a bailout?
Patricia (89cb84) — 12/28/2008 @ 2:18 pmComment by Patricia — 12/28/2008 @ 2:18 pm
Bailout, Hell!
Another Drew (wwbkaADitcy) (d8d174) — 12/28/2008 @ 2:24 pmThe real question is whether or not Tribune Cos. actually will be able to get out of BK?
Any bailout of a media company would be tied up in the courts on 1st-Amendment grounds for years, long after the last roll of newsprint is loaded onto the presses.
Kudos for turning their faults–no shortage of material there–into very entertaining reading.
m (284171) — 12/28/2008 @ 6:18 pmOne of these days, the LA Dog Trainer will finally go under. When it does, this blog is going to be a lot more work for you.
I’m not saying it won’t be worth it, but you will have to look harder to find topics worthy of the blog.
JayC (a4286b) — 12/28/2008 @ 6:43 pm