L.A. Times -- End of the Series
Here's my fourth and my fifth and final debate round with Patterico on the future [sic] of the The Los Angeles Times -- or what's left of it.
Seems like this week The Terror has truly been unleashed. Robespierre would be impressed with the pace and severity of the head-choppings. The blood splatter is reaching out here to Woodland Hill, 25 miles from Sam Zell's guillotine. Nice work, bud.
I enjoyed mixing it up with Patrick "Patterico" Frey. He's a nice and thoughtful guy, if politically errant. Anyway, Patrick's a lot more civil and level-headed than his many of his commenters who, unwittingly, reveal the depth of the current conservative crisis.
These folks actually believe that a billion-dollar capitalist enterprise like the Times/Tribune is either run by a bunch of soft-headed, anti-American socialists or by guys so dumb that they didn't notice their editorial employees are dominated by Sandinistas. What else do they know? That America, in the throes of an economic melt-down are a nation of whiners? That victory is around the corner in Iraq? That health care is not a right, but should be left in the hands of the same sort of private sector executives that run, say, the L.A. Times? That flouride is a plot by the Mexican government to take back Aztlan? Whew! Those are some bitter, angry and delusional folks!
As my readers know, I've earned my stripes being exposed to and living among many loonies of the Left whose politics are informed by an end-times paranoia (Just look at the donkeys currently dominating KPFK who now make the near totality of their fund-raising nut by pushing the most insulting and disgusting conspiracy theory premiums). But, turns out, that much of the Right is affected with the very same disease. same sh**, different name.
Put simply, it's the syndrome of having your head so far up the rear end of your pre-determined ideology that you can''t even catch a fuzzy outline of reality. Pinning the downfall of The Times on a supposed and determined liberal cabal is about as credible as arguing that Building 7 was blown up by the Mossad. Hey, but I guess that sort of comforting fairy tale is cheaper than Xanax.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Signs limit access to island bridge
By Mark A. York , Enterprise Staff Writer
Access to Ninth and Siebeck islands remains limited to residents and property owners Tuesday as a law enforcement checkpoint has been removed, replaced by signs spelling out the conditions for using the temporary Bailey bridge.
The Ninth Street Island bridge was overlaid with the Bailey bridge after it began sagging June 19 under assault from the flooding Yellowstone River.
Friday, the Bailey bridge was completed, and law enforcement officers limited access to the islands.
“The (security) detail was shared by the Livingston Police Department and the Park County Sheriff’s Office … during construction,†said Livingston City Manager Ed Meece.
“I was just out there this morning, and they’ve erected a four-way stop sign at the intersection,†Meece said. “The idea is to be able to pull some deputies off the project for other duty during the transition to control under the county road department.â€
Oasis Environmental, an Anchorage, Alaska-based ecological restoration group whose Livingston office is located on Ninth Street Island, had to leave its operation behind for a week during the construction of the temporary, one-lane bridge.
“We worked out of our home-based computers during that time,†said Kristen Wester, spokeswoman for the company.
With both ends of the temporary bridge built up several feet, it is difficult for vehicles approaching the bridge to see if cars are already on the structure. Since Friday, traffic had been controlled by law enforcement officers, but that was mostly discontinued by Tuesday noon.
“We’re back on the island now, but it’s kind of scary with the county in charge,†Wester said. “There was no one out there to tell us if the bridge is clear of oncoming traffic. We had to back off to let another car pass.
“We just cross our fingers and go.â€
The Park County Sheriff’s Office did not return phone calls Tuesday morning.
Published 7.1.2008
July 11th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
property owners need to cut grass
By Mark A. York, Enterprise Staff Writer
Several former homesites on Livingston’s north side owned by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway have fallen into neglect.
The homes were situated on top of a plume of diesel fuel and cancer-causing solvents dumped by the railway and its predecessor during the past 120 years.
The lots, along East Gallatin Street and off L and M streets, have grown tall with grass.
High grass presents a fire hazard, said Livingston Code Enforcement Officer Brad Haefs.
According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site, more than 100 years of railroad waste treatment, storage and disposal practices have contaminated soils and part of the Livingston aquifer.
Cleanup of the 90-acre site is being conducted by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad and the State of Montana Department of Environmental Quality, in an agreement with the EPA.
Mowing of public easements and lots is required under Livingston city codes, according to Haefs.
“If determined to be under BNSF ownership and responsibility, we will maintain,†said Gus Melonas, public affairs spokesman for BNSF, in an e-mail. “We are looking into it further.â€
“They’ve been contacted and are in the process of coming into compliance,†Haefs said. “We just heard from them. They’re arranging for a contractor to take the job.â€
Melonas said in a follow up e-mail, “BNSF is researching the status of the property.â€
“By law, I have to give property owners a week to comply,†Haefs said. “But I allow two weeks for out-of-state owners. It’s a misdemeanor offense for non-compliance, so if there is no response, we use city crews or contract out the mowing to local private companies.â€
Haefs said he’s sent out 100 notices this year, including one for a large lot at South Fifth and West Callender streets, at the site of the old middle school, owned by Corestar Properties. He expects to send out 50 for property in the Ridgeway subdivision.
“It’s a fire hazard, and there are 100 different noxious weeds, such as knapweed, we keep track of,†Haefs said. “The bill is added to their property taxes. We issue very few tickets.â€
Published 6.30.2008
July 11th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Somebody please tell me I’m dreaming that Mark York is back.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
No i dont think he back. But i see he landed a good gig and is getting some notice. I did not always agree with him but i give him credit for landing such an impressive gig:
My Reporting Gig
Well, I’m a full time reporter for the Livingston Enterprise, in Livingston, Montana, a long time dream of mine. I interviewed a U.S. Senator and the governor in the first week. What a country
July 11th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
The poor lil ole delusional fellow is not only baaaaack, he is actually a “working journalist.” Question is, who did he bribe to get the job, or why did he take a job at no pay?
July 11th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
“Somebody please tell me I’m dreaming that Mark York is back.”
Sorry, it’s true…his gig as hip Detroit rapper Marky Yorkie fell through…
July 11th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I have no idea why the LA Times is failing. That doesn’t make me any less happy about it.
July 11th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
“The problem with The Times is hardly that it isn’t sufficiently fair to Republicans in an overwhelmingly and increasingly blue city and state.”
I think your above comment, Marc, mis-characterizes Frey’s point.
His point is that the Times is hypocritically Left-Liberal in its bias. His point is not that the Times should be Right-Conservative in its bias. His point is that the Times should not be biased, while claiming to be objective.
Have it either way. Say that organs of news should not have political bias, or defend the bias and ideology you prefer.
People are smart and hungry for news. They are capable of considering the source.
Numerous people have zero invested in your Left-Right ideological prejudice, and many who do are capable of respecting news and opinion from people who don’t. The consistent Left-wing
delusion is that it is one, the other, or nothing.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Let’s see — every day of the week, the L.A. City Council acts on items that involve advantages or disadvantages to wealthy developers, airport concessionaires, and municipal employees. Every day of the week, the council quietly grants favors worth huge amounts of money to those groups. Meanwhile, the Times has one guy who hangs around the chamber and writes little if anything about what is going on — he’s only downstairs playing the piano. Imagine if the Times sent one more reporter over to City Hall (it’s walking distance) and had him pick one agenda item, and had him look up the amount of money the proponents donated to the council members and the mayor, and printed it on the front page as evidence of the ongoing scandal that is municipal government. Moreover, they should make this story available only in print, rather than giving it away, so if you want today’s news today, you pay for it.
It used to be called muckraking, and I believe that it also used to sell newspapers. It’s the journalistic version of “if it bleeds it leads” in television news. It would not only be juicy, it would be a public service.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:48 am
I mean no disrespect, but can you really believe the LATimes and yourself are not biased to the uber left? Your credentials say otherwise as does your postings. And, your comments regarding bloggers is an embarrassment on you. It has been my life’s experience that just because you have initials after your name and/or work for institutions that appear to be “fair”, does not make anyone or the institutions honest or intelligent. What you and your kind have riddled America with in the past two generations is coming home to roost and I sincerely hope what is coming down the pike if fairer to you then you and yours have been.
July 12th, 2008 at 10:34 am
[...] parts here, here, here, here and here.) Then Friday afternoon he did a philosophical wrap up at his own blog. It all makes for excellent reading about a very, very sad subject. Bookmark [...]
July 12th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Here’s the people who want to preserve a liberal L.A. Times along with their reactions to Tony Snow’s death.
L.A. Times Comments:
I hope the rest of these criminals die too. Good riddance to a person who contributed to making this world a worse place. Posted by: Max | July 12, 2008 at 05:58 AM
Its unfortunate he won’t be able to see the damage he helped inflict on this country and the world. I wonder how he likes hell. Posted by: tedson | July 12, 2008 at 06:27 AM
Good riddance, we still have a white house full of liars and American soldiers being slaughtered. if Cheney strokes then change will begin, as for Bush he is just to stupid to die and when he dies bury him at home in IRAQ. Posted by: slimjim66 | July 12, 2008 at 07:30 AM
There is special place in hell for Mr. Snow. As a co-conspirator of the Bush administration, I have no special sympathy for him. I only wish his suffering were more prolonged. Posted by: Efrain Rojas | July 12, 2008 at 09:05 AM
I guess now we know that lying causes cancer. Posted by: Star Mingus | July 12, 2008 at 09:35 AM
The question begs to be asked, is it possible to die when you don’t have a soul. Posted by: Chad | July 12, 2008 at 09:38 AM
I hope he suffered at the end. Just a terrible person. Posted by: Melainie Samson | July 12, 2008 at 10:20 AM
and, finally, a summary…
Now you know why people don’t like liberals… just full of hate. Posted by: Jack | July 12, 2008 at 10:30 AM
More on Tony Snow:
Marc Cooper Posts
HuffPost Closes Comments On Snow’s Death Announcement
July 12th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
More on why liberal papers lost credibility and subscribers…the Associated Press joins in to scavenge the dead.
Classless AP Takes Cheap Shots at Just-Passed Snow
I bet that the L.A. Times would never call out the AP on smearing dead conservatives.
July 12th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Oh please - “liberal bias” indeed! What the wingies here really ,mean is simple - if it ain’t FOX it ain’t “Fair and Balanced” - so let me suggest they get their news from NEWSMAX and other “unbiased” sources. I hear the Moonies are losing a ton in DC so why not support your local South Korean paper!
Woody, I regret Tony Snow’s death. Just as I regretted Lee Atwater’s death. But I don’t recall any of you wingers sending regrets when Ron Brown (who attended Atwater’s funeral BTW) died in a plane crash. Instead we got more “Vince Fosterizing” on the evil Clinton’s whacking their supposed enemies.
And check out the FREEPERS if you want to be nauseated and see the cooments on Ted Kennedy’s brain tumor. Dish it out but can’t take it, eh?
July 12th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Back to the TIMES. Its interesting that the Zelliacs are carving out all those sections. A few years ago, in a blatant steal from a NYT TV Commercial, the Grey Lady extolled the Sunday edition and all those groovy inserts that made it something you could read all week,
Guess that’s inoperative now. But I wonder if the giant brains at TIMES-MIRROR Square have any idea why people still buy their rag.
Look for the New York People to make real inroads here with their national edition.
July 12th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
rlc: “I regret Tony Snow’s death. Just as I regretted Lee Atwater’s death.”
So, not at all. But, that was a polite way to put it.
rlc, I was sorry about Ron Brown’s death, especially after Bill Clinton was caught on video laughing on the way into the funeral service until he spotted a camera and instantly, and I do mean instantly, switched to a phony remorseful face. In addition, I don’t remember the news media making improper and tasteless remarks about the deaths of liberals as they have made and have allowed with Tony Snow’s.
I had never heard the term “freeper” and had to look it up, which shows how much I read your hated conservative sources. But, I know this: conservatives don’t hold grudges and express venomous, foul, shrieking assaults like your average lefty, who still fights the 2000 election and continues to despise Reagan.
rlc: “Look for the New York People to make real inroads here with their national edition.”
What a laugh. If you think that people who are fed up with liberals at the LAT are going to snatch up the leftist NYT, then you aren’t living in reality.
July 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
“I don’t remember the news media making improper and tasteless remarks about the deaths….”
If I am not mistaken, and correct me if I’m wrong Woody, but I distinctly remember you making a crass comment when it was announced Ted Kennedy had brain cancer.
I hate to say it Woody, because I think you are basically a decent and conservative guy, but because of your far right idealogy, you behave a lot like the far left characters you like to quote.
Neither extreme do anything to help their side in the open and civil debate necessary to arrive at the best compromise for our country. And debate and compromise ‘is’ what keeps a country from lurching too far toward the divisional extremes.
July 12th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Rare useful information from the LAT….Regulators to Schumer on IndyMac: Please shut up
July 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Oh, and I ain’t no Snow White either.
July 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Some would even say a Dwarf.
July 12th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Nuts, Jim R., my response to you is awaiting moderation. Just to make it short, I didn’t say anything about Kennedy’s cancer.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Then I apologize to you Woody.
It was some other over-the-top comment I remember you made about the misfortune of one of your political rivals, and I remember commenting on your comment. Maybe it was the ’stumpy” reference to one of our Vietnam Vets.
July 13th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Bob G writes …..
“Let’s see — every day of the week, the L.A. City Council acts on items that involve advantages or disadvantages to wealthy developers, airport concessionaires, and municipal employees. Every day of the week, the council quietly grants favors worth huge amounts of money to those groups. Meanwhile, the Times has one guy who hangs around the chamber and writes little if anything about what is going on — he’s only downstairs playing the piano.”
***************************
Bob, very well stated, the L.A. Times should die, I learn more about L.A. politics from one lone activist named Zuma Dogg, who writes a daily blog about L.A. politics. Even this liberal is getting tired of the liberal bias of the L.A. Times and the non-exist coverage of Los Angeles politics. I say f**k the Times and it’s useless local news coverage, the waste of paper should stop, I will find something else for my bird to poop on.
July 13th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Jim R., there is no need to apologize. I don’t take offense like most people who demand apologies over every perceived slight.
July 13th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Speaking of the press. Some thoughts on Tony Snow’s death:
http://michael-balter.blogspot.com/2008/07/tony-snow.html
July 13th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I still have to wonder why all these folks who are sure the L.A. Times is a liberal rag can’t find the time to ask themselves why there is no conservative rag to take its place.
Any publisher can tell you newspapers thrive by providing a package of information and politics is a very small slice of that. They don’t print the funnies, the TV schedule, sports and apple pie recipes because they think the fate of the republic depends on it. They include that stuff to hold readers and advertisers.
To assert that ideological incorrectness is killing the Times is absurd.
I remember the day the Herald Examiner threw in the towel. It’s demise was blamed on the journalists union, as I recall. The L.A. Times broke the union back in the day and that move, it was said, marked the point at which it started gaining against the Herald.
What a steaming pile of dog shit it is to now blame the Times demise on its status as a “liberal” paper.
Newspapers have been dying for decades. Every time there’s a recession, the morbidity accelerates a bit and during recovery, it recedes.
The problems are clearly structural and demographic.
Classifieds have gone to the Internet and aren’t coming back.
Internet use is getting faster and easier, while the quantity of news available on the Internet without paid subscription has exploded.
A generation of parents who shifted from subscribing to one or more newspapers have, over the past couple of decades, shifted to TV news and reading the paper only on Sundays or now and then. They’re passing on those habits to their children.
At the moment, real estate advertising has dwindled amid the mortgage crisis. Department stores are cutting back while shoppers focus on ways to save their house rather than on ways to look better at the club.
I’m amazed that people like this Patterico guy can make themselves believe that political bias is killing the Times.
Here’s an easy prediction: Whatever may happen to the L.A. Times, right-wing Americans will never let go of the idea tha the media have a “liberal” bias. It’s an essential part of their worldview, as it gives them the only rationale as to why their ideas are so unpopular. Whatever and whoever takes the Times place, and however many blow jobs they give John McCain, you can be sure the phoney “liberal media conspiracy” will march on unabated through the minds of right-wing bloggers. Remember, these are people who say wikipedia has a “liberal” bias.
I think what they’re really saying is that reality has a “liberal” bias.
July 13th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Let’s see. Today the LAT devotes its yop right story on page one to the news that Obama and McCain are “Converging” on the issues. And you still wonder why they’re losing readers?
And the WaPo? I can hardly wait to dig into their TWELVE part series on Chandra Levy! Now there’s a blast from the past!
Meanwhile MoDo informs us that Barack don’t like ice cream!
Yep, your “Librul Media” at work undermining America!
(Please ignore Jane Mayer’s new book on torture or the fact that the International Red Cross is calling for US officials to be held accountable for War Crimes. But no impeachment here! We’re Broderist Dems one and all!)
July 13th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Axiom 1: The media is disproportionately liberal.
Axiom 2: In a free market superior products will outcompete inferior ones.
Axiom 3: Conservatives make up the majority of Americans.
The LA Times is a liberal rag (1). Since it is the second largest metropolitan paper in the country it must be one of the best (2).
The LA Times is a liberal rag (1). As it is the second largest metropolitan paper in the country it must be conservative (3).
The LA Times is one of the best papers in the country (2). As such, the media is disproportionately conservative (3).
July 13th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Nos. 2 & 3 are false premisses, plus there are other unmentioned factors about the causes of liberal media, such as the left-wingers who teach college journalism and the idealist, liberal students who flock to that field “to make a difference” on money that successful people wouldn’t accept. If anything, media investors are taking advantage of stupid journalists who will work for next to nothing, and those stupid journalists are liberals.
July 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
How the Times is saying Mac and O are the same!
July 13th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Woody: “Nos. 2 & 3 are false premisses”
I’m glad to hear you believe that, particularly with regard to No. 2, as I’m tired of market fundamentalists proposing we fix everything through the application market forces.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:29 am
We don’t have completely free markets or a pure capitalist economy in our nation, and I never said that I was in favor of such. Many government regulations and anti-trust laws serve some useful purpose, even though they get perverted and bogged down in bureaucracy as time goes along. All-in-all, though, market forces work better to determine supply and demand and prices than does artificial government control.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:48 am
Related: The New Hampshire Union-Leader has a novel approach to solving the energy crisis: send Democrats to economics classes.
July 14th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Oh now there’s a reliable source!