LA Times gets its turn in the rack

I admire the LA Times, from a distance as I'm not a regular reader or subscriber but I still think it is a quality paper doing extremely good work in trying times.

Now there's this piece from Vice and it sounds like the newsroom there, famously spunky, is still extremely spunky. I think there's very few reporters at any shop who feel their top editor is worth a shit and, speaking only from personal experience, I don't think there's a single editor I've worked for full-time who I would work for again. I'm also certain there's a few/most/all, who think I'm not worth a shit either.

Having been an editor, I think that at least some/most/all reporters who worked for me would feel the same way about me not being worth a shit. Someone, maybe here, once described managing a newsroom as "herding cats" and, again, speaking from personal experience, that's extremely true.

All that being said, this Vice story is weird and long look behind the curtains that seems tailor-made for a small, but vocal, audience.

VICE - What Went Wrong at the Los Angeles Times

 

That was an incredibly interesting article, particularly for journalists. We all should read it.

Having done so, I had a couple thoughts:

First, many of its "culture" issues could be applied, even more strongly, to virtually any newspaper.

It was odd to me, reading so extensively about perceived racial issues pertaining to a newspaper that actually has always, despite its shortcomings because everywhere and everyone could do better, been among the most diverse in the country. I imagine that is because it's in Los Angeles, and the desire is to have the paper reflect, even more so, the diversity of a very diverse area. But make no mistake, there is diversity and different racial/ethnic representation within the Times news room -- much more than at many newspapers.

I also thought it strange that the article went into such depth about shortcomings and slights with regard to race/ethnic issues but gave only a passing, half-sentence mention of a department (indeed the Sports department) in which there had apparently been some recent success in building diversity. I would've been very interested to read about that -- the hows and wherefores, the results and reactions -- along with explanations of why other departments have apparently not been able to follow that lead/example.

Similar unbalance and warped reporting occurred -- despite the depth and apparent attempt at thoroughness otherwise -- in the use of the one example of a supposedly failed METPRO internship, which would not even have had an opportunity to occur in most news rooms, because there are very few internship opportunities like the METPRO program anywhere. The one example cited read more like just the typical struggles of any young person at that time in their lives, and I wonder how much of it really had to do with the intern's race. And, I'm sorry, but you ought to be able to do something about basic-sounding car repairs on a $44,000 METPRO salary (which is more than I've ever made). That's not to say that anyone, necessarily, shouldn't earn more and shouldn't be considered for promotions and ensuing raises. But it also doesn't necessarily mean that everyone should, or, perhaps, that someone should not be.

Also, a large portion of the story --the part concerning Colin Crawford -- read to me like a sidebar and felt like it should have been separate, and not included among the rest of it.

I have to take this story as the Times just being held to a higher standard, because otherwise, the rest of the journalism industry would, and does, really come off abysmally.

 

Well, I'm glad the article explained the capitalization of the word black in reference to people of color that occurred throughout. It was one thing that jumped out at me immediately -- like, why is Black capitalized, especially as white is not?

I get its being symbolic, and now, I guess, it can be put down to the newspaper's new "style." But it's still incorrect.

 

AP changes writing style to capitalize ''b'' in Black

AP Definitive Source | The decision to capitalize Black

 

No more MLB box scores.