NYT: Upheaval on Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages

[DeepModem Mom]

Upheaval on Los Angeles Times Editorial Pages
By ALICIA C. SHEPARD
Published: June 13, 2005


Michael Kinsley shook up the editorial staff of The Los Angeles Times recently, transferring four of his eleven writers, letting one go, and outsourcing some editorials to freelancers....."Michael does like to ask questions, such as, 'In today's world, what is the continuing relevance of a newspaper editorial board?' "

Mr. Kinsley, who earned a reputation as an iconoclastic editor at Harpers, The New Republic and Slate, seems determined to answer that question by upending the established notion of the newspaper editorial....

***

While some editorial pages have been nudged into new directions, Mr. Kinsley, the editorial and opinion page editor, is making the boldest attempt to make them more dynamic, argumentative and interactive with several innovations aimed squarely at online readers, while being less like an unseen voice of authority.

The changes, announced in yesterday's edition, include allowing editorial writers a once-a-year chance to write a signed piece dissenting from the editorial position of the newspaper. "Writer Judy Dugan has already used up her 2005 allotment with a strong rebuttal to our editorial endorsing the Republican Senate leadership's efforts to kill the filibuster," Mr. Martinez wrote in yesterday's paper.

This week, the newspaper, will introduce an online feature called "wikitorials," as a way for readers to engage in an online dialogue with the paper. The model is based on "Wikipedia," the Web's free-content encyclopedia that is edited by online contributors....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/business/media/13lat.html?

[barbaraann]

1. Wikitorials--sound like DU General Discussion forum!

I think it's a great idea.

[bemildred]

2. Desperate re-shuffling of the deck chairs on the titanic.

The LAT cannot go away soon enough.

[msmcghee]

3. And Michael Kinsley with it. n/t

[bemildred]

4. Riding it all the way in, one would hope.

:thumbsup:

[DeepModem Mom]

5. OTOH, leaving aside some awful political coverage, we'd miss...

some landmark Pulitzer-winning exposes in the finest tradition of journalism, the stories from women hit on by Arnold (resulting in the cancellation of a bunch of subscriptions) and serious stories such as these I've posted recently in LBN: Nuclear Waste Outpaces Solutions; Costco to Market Health Plans; Blair Gains Little in US Visit; Iraqis Look at Cut in Government Jobs:Could Swell Insurgency; Watergate Weighs on Today's White House (has restored executive power); DOJ Ruling Limits Prosecution of Violation of Medical Redords Privacy Law; Trade Tension May Be Rising:Could Threaten Global Liberalization; Justice is Swift and Deadly in Baghdad; Car Safety Group Having Big Impact; Latin Nations Resist US Plan for Democracy; AIDS Experts Awaken to False Alarm; Forest Service May Sell Some Staff Facilities (raping federal land).

For all the faults of the print press, and not ignoring the value of the net, I think we'd be far worse off if the only stories seen by a large number of Americans were those that originated on TV news, and none that saw the light of day in the pages of the NYT, WP and LAT.

[bemildred]

7. A suitable replacement will have to be found, to be sure. nt

[bin.dare]

6. Daily Howler thrashes Kinsley today --- another millionaire fop...

Kinsley’s piece is insulting and mad, from its start right on to its finish. But then, this is the man who had never heard of PNAC (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 5/9/05), and this is the man who gets his economic information from “Meathead,” at Hollywood parties (same link). Given Kinsley’s serial cluelessness, are you really surprised that he had to be bullied by 200 strangers before he would even read this memo? That he offers open resentment against those who asked him to read it? That he calls them “extremists” for being disturbed by the memo, or that he offers this bizarro account of what Dearlove was saying to Blair? And do you start to see that we were right when we told you that Kinsley has crashed and burned—that he is now just another Millionaire Fop, just one more in the bizarre gang of hacks who run America’s “press corps?”

(more)
http://www.dailyhowler.com/

[otohara]

8. Kinsley Was on Franken Show Recently - Sounds Awfully Corporate Now

lot's of um's...non answers...no longer stands up to power or anything. Kind of a wuss now...Looking out for the almighty dollar is his job now.

[lateo]

9. Kinsley is a milk sop.

[confludemocrat]

10. Now who's going to shake up the NYT edit page by dumping the liar Safire?

Who makes shit up and is treated as sacrosanct. Latest reference to this: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/

[Barrett808]

11. This, after Kinsley said the DSM doesn't prove anything n/t

[goclark]

12. Cancelled my subscription

They are now trying to give away that rag.

$1 a week is the going price and all my friends have cancelled.