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GUEST OP|ED - The Los Angeles Times has hit an iceberg and is taking on water. The lifeboats have been deployed, but there aren't enough of them. Hubris sank the Titanic with its full steam ahead through icy waters attitude that spelled its doom. Like the Titanic, the LA Times is a victim of its owner's hubris.
The LA Times was owned locally for 136 years. The Otis & Chandler families ran the paper from 1882 until 2000. The Chandlers were highly influential local figures. The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center is just one example of their legacy. The paper was renowned for extolling the virtues of Los Angeles. Papering over LA's abuses notwithstanding, the Los Angeles Times was a badge of honor as the newspaper of record West of the Mississippi.
The Times Mirror Corporation was a highly profitable behemoth. Otis Chandler served as publisher from 1960 to1980. He sought to remake the paper in the image of The New York Times and the Washington Post based upon building a robust newsroom. He toned down the paper's conservative bent, and the pages were flush with advertising. In later years, a multitude of heirs decided to cash out. That's when the bottom dropped out. Not only was the paper stressed by the rise of social media and online news outlets, but a revolving door of new corporate owners and editors with little interest in or knowledge of Los Angeles sent the paper downhill fast.
The Tribune Company bought the Times in 2000. Then in 2007, Sam Zell, a billionaire real estate magnate, bought them out. In 2008, the Tribune Company went bankrupt. In 2018, Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire, bought the paper, and it has been bleeding ever since. The coup de gras was abandoning its iconic headquarters in the heart of LA for a faceless office building overlooking the freeway next to the airport.
A newspaper must represent the community it serves. It must add value to civic life. Notwithstanding the editorial pages which are the place for opinion, the news must tell both sides of any story without taking sides to be a credible source of information that is free of prejudice. The Los Angeles Times fails on all counts.
The Times is a hobby horse for the publisher's family who routinely interfere in the newsroom. What is covered is what the family wants to see. Their focus is on cancelling their "enemies" that disagree with them and venerating their "heroes." It is common practice for Times writers to complete an article and then ask for comment from the target so they can check a box. A common practice is to omit good things about the people it doesn't like or very bad things about the ones it does like. That is the definition of slanted journalism.
The "when it bleeds it leads" approach puts Los Angeles in the worst possible light. Our daily newspaper should encourage us to be engaged with our community and not just reinforce our cynicism. The top-down approach which excludes the voices of everyone except the publisher is a further prescription for decline.
Every seller must find a willing buyer. Every newspaper must fill a need. In Los Angeles, there aren't enough willing readers or advertisers. You can blame it on social media, or you can do something about it like the New York Times and the Washington Post have done. The only thing that the LA Times is doing is cutting staff, the sports pages, international news, and on and on. You can't shrink your way to greatness. It is crystal clear that the LA Times is dying under the current leadership.
It is time to reimagine modern journalism as a public service and not a toy in the hands of billionaires. If we firmly believe that a free press is vital to our democracy, then it is best run as a non-profit governed by an independent board of directors who do not to profit from its operation nor seek to dominate its journalism.
(Michael Weinstein is the president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS medical-care nonprofit.)
