LAPD gets one of its biggest critics fired from LA Times

This is a crazy story and I'm kind of surprised it hasn't gotten much traction yet.

Editorial cartoonist and blogger Ted Rall put up a blog in May recounting a jaywalking ticket he got in 2001. He claimed the LAPD pushed him against a wall, handcuffed him, wrote him a ticket while onlookers questioned the officer and threw his license in the gutter. Sometime between May and the end of July, the LAPD provided the LA Times with a mostly inaudible audio recording of the encounter, and claimed that Rall exaggerated most of the details. The LA Times slapped an editorial note on the blog post saying that the audio raises questions about Rall's work, buying the LAPD's contention that there were no onlookers and he wasn't cuffed.

Rall - trying to hang onto his integrity, and career - gave the audio to a friend who had it digitally enhanced to remove much of the white noise, and what appears in the background? Several women asking the officer why he handcuffed Rall and why he doesn't have better things to do than write jaywalking tickets.

Now the LA Times is refusing to answer questions about the situation.

Here's the original blog and editor's note: LAPD's crosswalk crackdown: Don't police have something better to do? - LA Times

Here's Rall's rebuttal with the enhanced audio: Ted Rall LAPD Scandal: New Enhanced Tape Reveals All [exclusive]

I'm not sure who is in the right here, to be honest. To me it looks like Rall did exaggerate some of the details, but the key ones that the Times cites are supported by the enhanced audio. And worse, the Times looks like it's bending over for the LAPD.

 

Management at the LA Times has had a cozy relationship with those in power for more than a century. Probably one of the worst examples of how ties to power can dilute news coverage.

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