Romney Shunned by Los Angeles Times
Politics garnered most of the front page of last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times as might be expected in this Presidential Primary season. The major story was titled
“McCain gains edge with win; Clinton prevails in Nevada.”
A small subtitle notes
“She outpolls Obama among women, the less affluent and Latinos. Romney trounces his Republican rivals.”
While he appears in this line little detail is provided of Romney’s victory in Nevada’s Republican race amongst nearly three full pages of election coverage.
The Times, along with a host of other National dailies, espouse political views that are most often liberal. But the Times has experienced ownership changes that were followed up with efforts to alter it’s editorial leadership that it was hoped would make it a more honest broker of local, national, and world events. Some time after Chicago’s Tribune Company purchased The Time-Mirror Company, owner of the Times, in 2000 they fired Robert Scheer whose liberal tyraids were apparently intolerable. This event angered liberals, most notably Barbara Streisand who published the following letter canceling her subscription:
Dear Mr. Martinez,
This letter is to inform you that I am canceling my subscription to the LA Times, and here is the reason why:
The greater Southern California community is one that not only proudly embraces its diversity but demands it. Your publisher’s decision to fire Robert Scheer is a great disservice to the spirit of our community.
I’m almost embarrassed for you in seeing the LA Times being referred to as the “Chicago LA Times” on the myriad of internet sites I’ve visited in the last few days. It seems, however, an aptly designated epithet, representing the feeling among many of your readers that your new leadership, especially that of Jeff Johnson, is entirely out of touch with them and their desire to be exposed to views that stretch them beyond their own paradigms. So although the number of contributors to your op-ed pages may have increased, in firing Robert Sheer and putting Jonah Goldberg in his place, the gamut of voices has undeniably been diluted, and I suspect this may ultimately decrease the number of readers of those same pages.
In light of the obvious step away from the principals of journalistic integrity, which would dictate that journalists be journalists, editors be editors and accountants be accountants, I am now forced to carefully reconsider which sources can be trusted to provide me with accurate, unbiased news and forthright opinions. Your new columnist, Jonah Goldberg, will not be one of those sources.
Robert Scheer’s column, with its often singular voice of dissent and groundbreaking expositional content, has been among the most notable features that have sustained my interest in subscribing to the LA Times for many years now. Apparently, previous leadership at the LA Times had no trouble recognizing Mr. Scheer’s journalistic prowess in that they nominated him for the Pulitzer Prize.
My greatest fear is that the underlying reason for Mr. Scheer’s termination is part of a larger trend toward the corporatization of our media, a trend that we, as American citizens, must fervently battle for the sake of our swiftly diminishing free press.
Sincerely,
Barbra Streisand
Outrage by this and other liberal celebrities over what appears in the editorials hardly compares to the disgust of Times readers who were appalled by contrived polls published as news. During the recall election of Governor Grey Davis, the Times published a poll depicting Arnold Schwarzenegger hopelessly behind in the California Governorship race representing the sampling as statewide. Shortly thereafter it was leaked that the sampling was actually done in south central Los Angeles; hardly representative of the state electorate. In a conversation with the circulation department of the Daily Bulletin of California’s Inland Empire I was told upwards of ten thousand subscribers subsequently abandoned the Times as word spread.
The Republican candidate with the current lead in delegates received the following in the Times article on the Nevada caucus:
“Among Republicans, former Massachusetts Gov. Romney was the only top-tier contender to spend serious time in the state. He recycled the message that brought him Tuesday’s victory in Michigan, promising change and portraying himself as an economic Mr. Fix-It at a time of increased voter anxiety.
‘With a career spent turning around businesses, creating jobs and imposing fiscal discipline, I am ready to get my hands on Washington and turn it inside out,’ Romney said in a victory statement issued as he flew from Las Vegas to Florida, which hosts the next GOP contest, Jan 29.
Romney finished with 51% of the Republican vote followed by Rep. Ron Paul of Texas with 14% and Sen. John McCain of Arizona with 13%
But the GOP contest was overshadowed by the party’s South Carolina primary the same day …”
Of course, The Times considered John McCain’s victory in South Carolina important enough to grant him much of a full page including a nearly quarter page picture of the Senator and his wife.
On the same note, these publications ignored Romney’s victory in Wyoming. While one might think this insignificant, consider that there are 12 electoral votes for that January 5th Republican contest which is equal to those of the widely covered New Hampshire Primary. The press will continue to downplay the only candidate to implement a statewide health care plan when he was Massachusetts Governor. Moreover, they will ignore his extraordinary academic and business achievements.
Another suitor, Samuel Zell, now commands The Times by virtue of his acquisition of the Tribune Company. Already his ouster of staff has lead to the displaced voicing their displeasure in Monday’s New York Times in an article titled Ousted Los Angeles Editor Assails Tribune Co. This should be fun to follow as the former editor tries to spin the firing as cutting the budget when it probably includes cutting the bull.
February 13th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
[...] Blumenthal writes the press has been quick to echo Romney’s critics. They have failed to echo his success. Now the religious right is left left with a pair of candidates that are failing to bring [...]