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Simers could be out at LAT

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by MTM, Jul 27, 2013.

  1. MTM

    MTM Well-Known Member

    http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/july/tj-simers-future-with-la-times-likely-to-be-decided-this-week.html

    Our friend Larry Brown reported on Simers' conspicuous absence on Friday, noting it's been six weeks since the paper's most well-known writer has appeared in the Times. LBS also notes that the paid suspension "vacation" came in the wake of a viral video featuring Simers, Dwight Howard, and Simers' daughter. That video was produced by Mandalay Sports Entertainment, who would subsequently announce their plans to base a sitcom around Simers, his job, and his daughter a week after the video was released
     
  2. Joe Williams

    Joe Williams Well-Known Member

    T.J. Simers sh*** bigger than Eddy Hartenstein.
    So a newspaper publisher issues a newsroom-wide edict that all references to his pal, the Dodgers owner, be cleared by upper management?
    That's chicken bleep to the max.
    Suits come and go, and not without some shame and failure from those L.A. Times/Tribune Co. jobs.
    Simers has served that paper well for a long, long time. He should have left a while ago.
     
  3. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    If I'm Aaron Kushner right about now...
     
  4. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Heard some rumblings about this a few weeks ago, but not that it was centered on the Howard thing.
     
  5. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Ah, 'word on the street.' Where is that street, exactly? Everyone gets so much great information on that street. I should get a map.

    I know zero about this story, but the fact that a columnist has been away for 6 weeks sometimes just means the columnist has been away for 6 weeks. Not unheard of. Also, what is a 'paid suspension "vacation"'? It's one or the other. If you don't know, just say so.

    If Simers is in fact out or suspended, someone out there knows. Be a grownup and go find out.
     
  6. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    He wrote a column June 2, then another on June 13 titled "Dodgers' bumbling, brawling enough to spoil a columnist's vacation." No column since, though he shared a byline in early July on the main Lakers story when Dwight Howard left the Lakers.
     
  7. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    That isn't an unusual amount of time for a writer to be off during the summer.

    However ...

    Simers' self-centered and at times abrasive writing style has troubled Davan Maharaj, the newpaper's editor. Simers' style has also not gone over well with publisher Eddy Hartenstein, a friend of former Dodger owner Frank McCourt.

    Obviously the Times, like all other Tribune products and most other newspapers anywhere, is now made up of craven bastards in the executive ranks. And they probably don't like Simers being so mean to the titans of industry.
     
  8. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    If Simers is ousted, I hope he writes long and hard about it.
     
  9. jackfinarelli

    jackfinarelli Well-Known Member

    The LA Times has four writers in its sports section that are "destinations". I want to know what those folks have to say about a sports issue that happens to be centered in LA.


    The top tier of those four writers consists of TJ Simers and Chris Dufresne. They are like the old "EF Hutton ads"; when they talk, people listen.

    In the second tier is Sam Farmer.

    In the third tier - and important because he writes so well - is Bill Plaschke.


    If the Times decides "to whack" Simers, that will be an act of self-immolation as far as I am concerned.
     
  10. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Figure Simers could land quite well at Fox Sports One playing the Skip Bayless role.
     
  11. Colton

    Colton Active Member

    Always enjoy Simers' stuff when it moves on the wire.
     
  12. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    Maybe he took the last 6 weeks off because he knows the next 6 weeks are what really count.
     
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