Failing L.A. Times: We Support George Gascon
Ignoring all evidence of incompetence, illegality, and retaliatory actions against whistleblowers, the Los Angeles Times has endorsed George Gascon for District Attorney.
Also, the Los Angeles Times has announced a massive round of layoffs, prompting staffers at the paper to engage in a walkout this past Friday. The paper is reportedly losing $50 million a year, causing many to wonder about its future.
What does one say when a newspaper, which knows nothing about your institution and yet endorses someone who is ruining it, appears headed for ruin itself?
The editorial is not going over well in their comments.
Patterico (5741d8) — 1/21/2024 @ 4:20 pmAnother way to know they’ve lost their relevancy is you haven’t done one of your complete and thorough takedowns in quite a while. Just not worth the time and effort.
Paul Montagu (d52d7d) — 1/21/2024 @ 4:24 pmAll newspapers are in difficulties not just liberal newspapers. George gascon is one of us and conservatives are not. LA is now liberal democrat even orange co is turning blue. Sports illustrated just went down.
asset (eb3e4b) — 1/21/2024 @ 6:01 pmMaybe they’ll let Charles Koch buy it this time.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/21/2024 @ 6:25 pmGeorge gascon is one of us
The difference between you and me is that I would never say that about Donald Trump. I actually care who I’m in bed with.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/21/2024 @ 6:28 pmJohn Kobylt at LA
LA’s KFI 640 AM radio had a good takedown.
The LA Times is hemorrhaging cash in a way that even their billionaire owner cannot support. He’s estimated to have lost at least $500,000,000, and he’s only a single digit billionaire. His woke daughter treats the paper like her shiniest toy. The young activist/journalists probably want raises for driving the paper into the ground “for all the right reasons”.
Of course they endorse Gascon. It will make national headlines because nearly every major city newspaper is staffed by the like minded.
Gascon is the definition of an unmitigated disaster and faces eleven challengers in the March 5 Primary, five of whom are members of his own office and additionally there are two LA County Superior Court judges.
I do wonder if this primary won’t be like Trump 2016, where the size of the field made it easier on Trump. I’d like to see Gascon be eliminated in the primary, I’d like to see the field coalesce a bit more around a common purpose but as the incumbent he will survive unless something drastic happens in February. He’ll get the hardcore Teachers Union members to roll out, the hardcore public service workers, the SEIU etc and the split field almost assures Gascon will move on from the primary
steveg (ff5c07) — 1/21/2024 @ 6:46 pmGascon is what you get when leftist politicians gain power.
NJRob (eb56c3) — 1/21/2024 @ 6:50 pmWhat does one say when a newspaper, which knows nothing about your institution and yet endorses someone who is ruining it, appears headed for ruin itself?
One says that, in addition to knowing nothing about your institution, the newspaper knows nothing about the institution of newspapers.
norcal (251b50) — 1/21/2024 @ 9:44 pmIt’s a bit sad seeing the decline (and fall?) of the LA Times, even while recognizing that the paper has brought so much of this on itself. Decades ago it did a good job of covering the SoCal region and I could easily overlook its increasingly strident politics. But the offputting tone of the editorial pages — always smugly certain of the correctness of its views and condescending toward everyone who disagreed — eventually seemed to infect virtually all aspects of the paper. And despite near-total control of the LA market, the Times was not immune to the trends hurting newspapers everywhere and the content and even physical size of the paper shrunk and shrunk. Now, despite some good features, like the “101 Best Restaurants” or some quality sports and local coverage, the Times seems both offensive and irrelevant. Paul Montagu (#2) nailed it.
After years of wondering why I still subscribed, I cancelled my subscription in the summer of 2020 when, after a fire nearly destroyed the ancient (by SoCal standards) San Gabriel Mission, the Times report on the blaze focused on the alleged historical crimes of the missions against the indigenous population, as if to say the church had it coming. That was the last straw for me. The paper tried to walk it back — some responsible adult at the Times realized that it had gone too far, resulting in a long story the day after by Gustavo Arellano about the cultural significance of the mission and how it had welcomed many immigrants from Latin America — but it was too late for me. The Times has not gotten another penny from me since and never will, no matter how many times they offer a 6 months for $1 subscription.
RL formerly in Glendale (7a2d64) — 1/22/2024 @ 10:55 amFailing LA Times
lloyd (510ccb) — 1/22/2024 @ 8:33 pmFailing LA County
The Time’s makes entertaining reading when they discuss the states problems (housing costs, homelessness, water shortages, traffic, etc) while never discussing the actual causes that the progressives have exacerbated.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/22/2024 @ 10:34 pmAlthough I suspect that they will be laying off the crime issues until after the election.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/22/2024 @ 10:35 pmThe LAT’s endorsement of Gascon hardly ripples in the community it purports to serve (Los Angeles, not El Segundo). No one cares anymore what LAT does. I can’t belive that anyone still subscribes. Its viewpoints are as tediously predictable as the spittle-flecked street canards of a shabbily dressed english socialist, with bad breath, worse teeth, and a worn “Down With Capitalism” sign from 20 years ago. Its legacy subscribers dropped away like party guests declining to endure one more strident tirade from a host who’s invitations you kept meaning to cancel.
But its all over now. No one cares. Hiltzik could proclaim himself Oz, the Wizard Deluxe on the front page and no one would care. The new generation – -which LAT might have captured if it had a reputation for quality, is lost to them. (Many of them subscribe to the NYT or WSJ).
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 1/23/2024 @ 11:43 amHarry,
I actually subscribe to the LA Times. $1/week, paid annually. For 65 years I was a Californian, now I’m an ex-patriot. Unlike Philip Nolan, though, I still wish to hear of the old country.
I pay a similar amount for the NY Times, the WaPo and the WSJ. Everything else I want I can get for free. It’s not a lot to pay to keep tabs on “Them.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 1:55 pm* expatriate. Gah!
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 1:56 pmThis is a thorough look at why the LAT is bleeding readers and money.
Dana (8e902f) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:02 pmIt’s funny, but I look at the masthead and no “Publisher” is listed.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:27 pmDo you miss SoCal at all, Kevin?
In a similar vein, is there a place you wish you had gone rather than New Mexico?
norcal (333e6b) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:29 pmThe Times Sports section no longer publishes box scores or daily game stories, focusing on less time-sensitive “magazine” type articles.
The Times presses have been sold off for their buildings’ real estate value, and the paper is now printed in Riverside at a contract house.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:34 pmDo you miss SoCal at all, Kevin?
I miss a lot of things. I miss the food. I miss the weather every July and February. I miss the mixture of people — it turns out I’m a xenophile. I don’t miss other things, like the politics, the traffic and the smog.
In a similar vein, is there a place you wish you had gone rather than New Mexico?
Everything else being equal, Hawaii would have been nice. But New Mexico still seems like the happy medium. I have some hope that, after Trump, the politics here will become less polarized. ABQ is pretty moderate actually, but those people in Santa Fe are just nuts.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:39 pmWhat I really don’t miss (or rather am happy to have missed) was my former city councilman who had opened all his district’s parks to the homeless, and allowed many major streets to become decrepit RV parking lots, with marginal refuse removal.
He declined to run again and his chosen successor lost. But while it lasted, the neighborhood (of multi-million dollar houses) was a pig sty.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:43 pmI wait for the day when my homeland is again free.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:43 pmEverything else being equal, Hawaii would have been nice.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/23/2024 @ 10:39 pm
I want to move to either Hawaii or Arizona. The winters in Reno, while mild compared to Minnesota, are too cold for my tastes. I bask in hot weather, but feel like a prisoner in cold climates.
norcal (333e6b) — 1/23/2024 @ 11:08 pm@23 try yuma living is cheap and it is mostly hot.
asset (8eedb4) — 1/24/2024 @ 12:46 amWhen a young Josef Stalin was an editor at Pravda, then a regional Georgian paper, he robbed banks to support it. At the same time, William Randolph Hearst inflamed the Spanish-American War to increase circulation for his papers and become richer.
As I understand, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, the publisher of the LA Times, made his money by performing organ transplants and discovering a treatment for cancer among other things. He also has a daughter who makes George Gascon look like the reincarnation of Barry Goldwater, and she seems to have a lot of influence at LAT (down to banning the word “looting” in stories reporting the George Floyd riots).
It depends on what you want a newspaper for. I would say that from among
nk (3ba5b1) — 1/24/2024 @ 6:00 am1) becoming Czar,
2) becoming richer,
3) making your little girl happy is probably the best reason.
try yuma living is cheap and it is mostly hot.
“mostly hot” is uninteresting. NM is a lot cooler than AZ. 20 degrees on average in the summer, about the same in winter. Being at 5000 feet helps.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/24/2024 @ 7:23 amThe Spanish-American War was anti-colonial, so to the Woke it would have been good.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/24/2024 @ 7:26 amAnd now what our esteemed host used to call the Los Angeles Dog Trainer is laying off at least 115 newsroom personnel.
Dana (bacf72) — 1/24/2024 @ 7:35 amI love newspapers, having delivered them as a teenager, and, with my now seriously-degraded hearing, I find it much easier to read the news than listen to it on television or radio. And yes, I am
wastingspending too much money with subscriptions to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Lexington Herald-Leader, and I find it sad that newspapers are generally going under. Jeff Bezos rescued The Washington Post, but now he’s making demands on it to at least break even, and that’s going to send it downhill as well.It’s great when multi-billionaires buy a newspaper, as long as they don’t turn it into their personal toys, and are willing to accept the inevitable, that it’s going to keep losing money. Perhaps Patrick Soon-Shiong can’t afford the losses, but Mr Bezos certainly can. Then again, maybe his girlfriend wants another yacht.
If I had Mr Bezos’ money, I’d buy The Philadelphia Inquirer, and rescue it, make some changes to make it more even handed, but otherwise leave it alone, and accept the inevitable losses.
Dana (bacf72) — 1/24/2024 @ 7:57 amI’d note that, as a subscriber to The Philadelphia Inquirer, I frequently receive begging e-mails from the newspaper’s parent company, the
Dana (bacf72) — 1/24/2024 @ 8:27 amLeftistLenfest Institute for Journalism.From Dana’s link at 18:
You may pick up your jaws from your keyboards now.
nk (a1c7f8) — 1/24/2024 @ 8:29 amOur Windy City barrister wrote:
The LAT wasn’t the only news organization to do that. The Inquirer’s Executive Editor and Senior Vice President, Stan Wischnowshi,
Dana (bacf72) — 1/24/2024 @ 8:34 amwas firedresigned after a backlash from woke staffers after writing the headline, “Buildings Matter, Too” during the riots following the unfortunate death while being arrested of the methamphetamine-and-fentanyl-addled, previously conducted felon George Floyd.Our esteemed host wrote:
Perhaps, just perhaps, organizing a walkout is one of the best ways to put yourself on the layoff list: the chairman of the Times guild unit, Brian Contreras, was one of those who’ve joined the ranks of the unemployed.
Dana (bacf72) — 1/24/2024 @ 11:31 am14. Kevin: Same with WSJ and others, but have to pass on the LAT. Its “website” is festooned with mindless “filler” pieces like “LA Affairs,” left up for days- days. The actual paper reads as if it was prepared by a group of education majors from a faculty lounge in a middling college. I mean ‘Crime Is Down, so why do the [unenlightened] people feel otherwise?’ Endorsements of the Bullet Train, Gascon, new taxes. . . .Having only so much tooth enamel left, I pass on the LAT in all forms. Your bravery, endurance and blood pressure are admirable.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 1/24/2024 @ 12:57 pmHarcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 1/24/2024 @ 12:57 pm
A.
1> As with inflation, the reference period is more than the last year.
2> Crime may not actually be down when you consider the less serious crimes
3> The population may be dropping and there may be fewer victims and even criminals.
4> Crime may be expanding geographically, and the population in the high crime areas dropping, so in any particular neighborhood it may be drifting upward but the number of crimes in the entire city staaying the same or dropping.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/24/2024 @ 1:21 pmThis is one reason people like to see things in print. And it’s different from stock market tables showing prices where people may be used to doing things online now.
Sammy Finkelman (1d215a) — 1/24/2024 @ 1:24 pm@23
I’d advocate Arizona.
Hawaii is a lovely place and would love to visit again, but man, Hawaii is expensive. Absolutely nothing is cheap there, except for the farm markets.
whembly (5f7596) — 1/24/2024 @ 1:54 pmABQ is warmer than Reno in winter, judging by the almost total lack of snow a day after it falls. Nights get to be under 20 degrees maybe 15 times a year, but under 10 is really rare. You never need snow tires or chains, but a couple days every third year you might be glad to have 4WD.
The northern part of the state is a few thousand feet higher and snow is more of an issue. But AB Q is not Taos.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/24/2024 @ 3:03 pmQuestion: is an average summer day of 120 degrees livable to you? If so, the Valley on, um, of the Sun is great. I start to get uncomfortable at 100, so AZ is right out.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/24/2024 @ 3:05 pm‘Crime Is Down, so why do the [unenlightened] people feel otherwise?’
No, REPORTED crime is down. When they stop prosecuting a crime, cops stop arresting and people stop reporting. The crimes still happen but the government points to their statistics and says “Look! Crime is down”
Juking the stats by indifference.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/24/2024 @ 3:08 pm@34: My favorite is a new series about how it’s not so bad all those rich people are moving to Texas, because we are getting so many fine new residents, also from Texas.
Similarly, the rash of reports about how bad it is to be an employee in those robber-baron states.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/24/2024 @ 3:10 pmThe distinguished Mr Finkelman wrote:
In foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia, the homicide total dropped from 562 in 2021 and 514 in 2022, to just 410 in 2023. Sounds great, doesn’t it? But the total homicide numbers were in the mid 200 range in 2013, 2014, and 2015, so 410, while much better than the over 500 numbers, looks pretty bad compared to what the City of Brotherly Love suffered when Michael Nutter was Mayor and Charles Ramsey was Police Commissioner. New York City, had 386 homicides in 2023, with 5¼ times Philly’s population.
Dana (bacf72) — 1/24/2024 @ 3:16 pmMr M wrote:
There are two different types of crime, crimes of reporting, and crimes of evidence. Yes, when you have George Soros-sponsored, police-hating and criminal coddling prosecutors, crimes of reporting are going to drop, because people won’t waste their time reporting crimes that won’t be prosecuted.
But murder is a crime of evidence, because unless it is well planned by a killer who has prepared how he is going to get rid of the body, murder leaves 100 to 300 pounds of dead, rotting meat somewhere it is going to be found. The Philadelphia Police have a separate category of ‘suspicious’ deaths, separate from homicides, which hides some of the carnage, but dead bodies littering the streets aren’t things which can be hidden.
Dana (bacf72) — 1/25/2024 @ 6:43 amFor a time, maybe they still do, the NYPD had this neat trick where a person who had not been pronounced dead when they were filling out the incident report but was declared dead later at the hospital was not reported as a homicide to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program.
But it does not end there. In Chicago, let’s say, a shoplifter will be misdemeanor theft or attempted misdemeanor theft. In Oak Brook (that’s DuPage County), a shoplifter will be a burglary under the “enter without authority to commit therein a felony or theft” definition of the Illinois burglary statute. It depends on what orders come down from the police chief to the precinct commanders to “improve their statistics”.
It’s a two-fer. The mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers of the thugs will still vote for the mayor and the prosecutor, and the citizenry will be lulled by the numbers.
nk (44a15f) — 1/25/2024 @ 7:01 amI ran across two articles on the problems at the LA Times, one on-line, and one in the business section of the NYT.
Nieman Lab
NYT
What struck me about both articles is what was left out (though one can make inferences from the Nieman piece). The newspaper, judging from what our gracious host says, is not providing the news many readers want. (Or advertisers want to be associated with.)
Instead it is providing pieces that support various leftist agendas. The pieces may be mostly accurate, but often leave out essential facts. And they avoid stories that do not support those agendas.
Which is bad for our nation, and the free world, since voters are too often uninformed and misinformed, and so prey to demogogues of both left and right.
Jim Miller (498f78) — 1/25/2024 @ 7:27 amI have a practical suggestion for our “mainstream” newspapers: Some years ago, I argued that news organizations should treat journalism degrees as defects in job candidates. I now think they should treet those degrees, if recent, as fatal defects.
Jim Miller (498f78) — 1/25/2024 @ 8:07 amHe invented Abraxane along with Neil Desai and after working through all the FDA trials proved efficacy and sold it to Celgene for $3B. If I get pancreatic cancer I will probably get dosed with Abraxane, so thank you for that.
As for the LA Times- no thank you.
steveg (1d7228) — 1/25/2024 @ 8:53 amForgot to say proved efficacy and safety. Much higher bar than it sounds. He deserves the money
steveg (1d7228) — 1/25/2024 @ 8:54 amI’m a firm believer that he can do whatever he wants with his money, but I wish he’d see the damage being done and fund a different hobby.
steveg (1d7228) — 1/25/2024 @ 8:57 amI wish he’d see the damage being done and fund a different hobby.
Maybe she could go to Namibia and teach them about recycling.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/25/2024 @ 10:02 amThe Times names new Editor:
Los Angeles Times owner appoints Terry Tang as interim editor
Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/25/2024 @ 10:21 amThere are plenty of leftists in Los Angeles County who could buy the paper; the problem is that there’s less and less reason to buy it!
Newspapers everywhere are following the same business script: cut and cut and cut. But newspapers are like any other product: if you cut both quality and quantity, the product becomes less valuable, and fewer people are willing to pay actual money to buy the product. What incentive is there to subscribe to the Los Angeles Times if the same [insert slang term for feces here] is available for free elsewhere? The Times needs to increase their quality and quantity to attract new subscribers, but Dr Soon-Shiong can’t seem to see that.
But, in the end, newspapers are 18th century technology.
Dana (bacf72) — 1/25/2024 @ 10:37 amThis is a real problem: there is no actual source for *news reporting* on most subjects right now. If I want to find out what went on at the city council meeting last week, unless I went, there’s basically no way to tell. Same thing if I want to find out what the state legislature is doing.
There’s a lot of *noise* on the internet, because noise pays. But actual *information* is getting harder and harder to find.
aphrael (4c4719) — 1/25/2024 @ 10:57 amBut, in the end, newspapers are 18th century technology.
In print, yes. No one will subscribe to a newspaper who does not already. But ONLINE there is plenty of room for growth. Too many papers are worried about low online subscriptions cannibalizing the dead tree version but they should be worried about losing home-delivery subscribers to *nothing*. So they try to sell online subscriptions for as much money (or more) than the paper subscription and there is a terrible resistance to paying $15/month for something where the competition is free.
I don’t mind paying $1/month on a long-term deal. Even the LA Times offers enough value for that. If it were a compelling news source it would be worth even more, but it isn’t at the moment. That I can get the much better WSJ for the same amount puts a limit on what they can charge.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/25/2024 @ 11:04 amThe distinguished Mr M wrote:
Sadly, my digital subscription to The Philadelphia Inquirer is costing me $285.40 a year. 🙁
I am paying for the Inky because it’s Philly specific — even though I no longer live in the Keystone State — but the national news I can access for free on CNN or Fox or dozens of other free to see websites.
I recall a story from years and years ago which stated that it would be cheaper for The New York Times to provide each subscriber with a Kindle — make that an iPad today! — than to print and deliver the dead trees edition. But if you’re going to read the newspaper on a device, a lot of subscribers will say, “I might as well just watch CNN.”
Dana (bacf72) — 1/25/2024 @ 1:27 pm52: But people do still get hard copies of the NYT and WSJ. And the online stats for both of those are way higher than the LAT, which simply has miserable copy–often on line for days–limp and predictable opinions, and pathetic analysis or “reporting” on issues of high importance in its own backyard. The reason: both provode some real news, albeit with a slant.
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (0c349e) — 1/25/2024 @ 5:48 pmSadly, my digital subscription to The Philadelphia Inquirer is costing me $285.40 a year.
Try harder. Call and cancel. See what they do. The LA Times wants $4/week. I’m paying $52/year — not on special. I had to beat them down to that. It’s possible I could do even better if I tried, at one point they gave me a year for $5, but they wouldn’t renew.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/25/2024 @ 10:08 pm@56: Yup. I just want local LA news available, and not in some east coast paper.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/25/2024 @ 10:09 pmBut if you’re going to read the newspaper on a device, a lot of subscribers will say, “I might as well just watch CNN.”
A lot of advertisers would say “I might as well advertise on CNN.”
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/25/2024 @ 10:11 pmQuestion: is an average summer day of 120 degrees livable to you? If so, the Valley on, um, of the Sun is great. I start to get uncomfortable at 100, so AZ is right out.
Kevin M (ed969f) — 1/24/2024 @ 3:05 pm
Kevin, methinks thou dost exaggerate.
https://weatherspark.com/s/2460/1/Average-Summer-Weather-in-Phoenix-Arizona-United-States
Daily high temperatures are around 103°F, rarely falling below 92°F or exceeding 112°F. The highest daily average high temperature is 107°F on July 4.
I’ve been in 110 degree heat. It wasn’t a problem.
I would only live in the southern part of New Mexico. I remember going through Las Cruces and seeing palm trees. That would suit me.
norcal (019edd) — 1/25/2024 @ 11:31 pmNy the time I get to Phoenix, she’ll be a raisin …
Erle Stanley Gardner, best known for the Perry Mason stories, had a theory (or literary device) that desert dwellers have to develop a special metabolism that allows them to live on less water intake than normal for humans. There’s probably some connection to the Paul Gosar and Kari Lake phenomena, too.
nk (105d74) — 1/26/2024 @ 3:53 amThe marvelous Mr M wrote:
From the New York Post:
Dana (bacf72) — 1/26/2024 @ 7:16 amFor those complaining about summertime temps in Phoenix, my older daughter has had the pleasure of spending two summers, in separate deployments, in Kuwait. Kuwait makes Phoenix look almost temperate.
Dana (bacf72) — 1/26/2024 @ 7:18 amOne thing to remember: The data rate for TV news is far slower than the data rate for a reasonably fast reader, whether they are reading in print or on line. (This bothers me enough so that nowadays I often read the “crawl” on local news programs in hopes of escaping that painfully slow data rate.)
There are exceptions, of course, where the TV pictures actually convey large amounts of information, but they are rare.
(Full disclosure: I haven’t watched national news programs, or anything on cable, for decades, except for an occasional special.)
Jim Miller (9db05a) — 1/26/2024 @ 7:50 amNy the time I get to Phoenix, she’ll be a raisin …
nk (105d74) — 1/26/2024 @ 3:53 am
Ahaha!
You are a treasure, nk.
norcal (7f77ce) — 1/26/2024 @ 1:45 pm