LA Times Editor Fired in Budget Dispute -- Anyone watching "The Wire?"

[dorkulon]

An eerily familiar storyline here:

The Los Angeles Times fired its top editor after he rejected a management order to cut $4 million from the newsroom budget, 14 months after his predecessor was also ousted in a budget dispute, the newspaper said Sunday.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080120/la_times_editor_fired.html

Departing L.A. Times editor Jim O'Shea addressed the newsroom this morning and reiterated that he was pushed out and did not quit:

One thing I want put on the record, though, is that I disagree completely with the way that this company allocates resources to its newsrooms, not just here but at Tribune newspapers all around the country. That system is at the core of my disagreements with David. I think the current system relies too heavily on voodoo economics and not enough on the creativity and resourcefulness of journalists....

This company, indeed, this industry, must invest more in solid, relevant journalism. We must integrate the speed and agility of the Internet with the news judgment and editorial values of the newsroom, values that are more important than ever as the hunger for news continues to surge and gossip pollutes the information atmosphere.

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2008/01/osheas_remarks_to_newsroo.php

The paper undergoing similar layoffs and foreign bureau closings on HBO's "The Wire" is the Baltimore Sun, also gripped in the talon of the Tribune company. Corporate consolidation is destroying the press. Some argue these budget cuts are necessary due to financial considerations, but all of these papers are still profitable. The cuts are the result of a top-down, shareholder-first, profit-maximizing capitalism of scale.

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Smirk." - republicon corporate-media propaganda Borg

[lurky]

2. David Simon, creator of "The Wire", was a reporter for the Sun.

He knows of what he speaks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Simon_%28writer%29

[dorkulon]

3. I'm a big fan of Simon.

Loved "Homicide" too.

[lurky]

4. It's great stuff.

No sugar coating, lots of moral ambiguity, just like life.