L.A. doesn't care why we're in Iraq, says stakeholder in L.A .Times; give 'em a cheaper paper

[DeepModem Mom]

Latest in the battle between the L.A. Times and its owner, The Tribune Company --

LAT: Tim Rutten
Regarding Media
About 'Frontline': The world of The Times
March 3, 2007

THE Public Broadcasting Service's long-running documentary series "Frontline" currently is airing a multi-part exploration of the financial, technological and conceptual turmoil through which the American news media is passing.

It's called "News War," and a substantial part of this week's installment was devoted to the situation here at the Los Angeles Times. As anybody who cares to know already knows, this newspaper has been gripped by uncertainty and unrest for much of the time since its purchase by the Chicago-based Tribune Co. The paper's editorial and business staffs have been substantially reduced, as has the amount of space allocated to journalism. Two publishers (John Puerner and Jeffrey M. Johnson) and two editors (John Carroll and Dean Baquet) have come and gone over the last five years because they felt the demands for cuts had gone too far. Johnson and Baquet, in fact, lost their jobs after going public with their objections.

Johnson, Carroll and Baquet were all prominent voices in the "Frontline" piece, sympathetically interviewed by veteran investigative journalist Lowell Bergman. All three men came across on camera pretty much as those of us who worked with them believe they are: accomplished, highly intelligent, thoughtful professional journalists, passionately committed to the principle that newspapers have an irreducible obligation to serve the public interest.

The documentary also introduced its viewers to a guy who pretty much personifies the forces that are undermining American newspapers owned by publicly traded corporations. In this case, the voice belonged to Charles K. Bobrinskoy, vice chairman and director of research for Ariel Capital Management, a Chicago-based money management firm whose 6% stake in Tribune makes it the company's fourth-largest stockholder.

According to the transcript of Bobrinskoy's interview, which is posted on "Frontline's" website, he believes the "problem" with the Los Angeles Times is that its editors and writers only care about being read by their "peers across the country, by politicians in New York and Washington, by people who give away Pulitzer Prizes." The Times' editors, he told Bergman, have "decided that they have to be a national newspaper with international coverage. They've got over 20 foreign bureaus, including bureaus in Istanbul and Cairo. Nobody is reading the L.A. Times wanting to find out what's happening in Istanbul….

Worst of all, according to Bobrinskoy, the Los Angeles Times has been wasting its time trying to explain to you "why Bush went to war in Iraq," when all you wanted to know was what to wear to the next premiere and how many points Kobe scored last night....

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-rutten3mar03,1,2248108.column?coll=la-news-columns&ctrack=1&cset=true