Going to need a glossary to understand this one. So here
goes:
1.
The Los Angeles Times, once a great newspaper,
was founded 136 years ago. It was locally owned most recently by the
Chandler family which didn’t know what to do with it until Otis Chandler
started running it. That’s when it stopped being an antique version of
Blightbart. And before it started becoming Daily Variety.
2.
It later
bought Newsday and other papers. The company formerly known as the Chicago
Tribune -- now “tronc” -- bought it and continued to drive it into the ground,
something that began with Chandler’s death.
3.
Patrick Soon-Shiong supposedly is the “world’s
richest doctor.” But he didn’t get to be that by administering flu shots at a
clinic. He founded several companies, invested in others and declared war on
cancer, which he says he intends to conquer in the next few years. He was born
in South Africa where his parents fled during Japan’s ruination of their native
China.
Other pertinent facts:
1.
Dr. Pat as he likes to be called is paying
$500-million for the paper.
2.
That is twice what Amazon’s Bezos paid for the
Washington Post and seven times what John Henry paid to buy the Boston Globe.
Okay, now what? Another ailing newspaper is sold to another
billionaire. But the LA Times is different because
1.
Los Angeles is a company town and the company is
a conglomerate called the Movie Biz.
2.
It is impossible to report on the Movie Biz
without one’s journalistic nose in the company’s butt at least occasionally
because No Sources, No News.
3.
Chandler turned the Times into a major paper
with bureaus all over the place and brought it to national prominence.
4.
The Times has been in constant personnel turmoil
for the past 15 years or so.
So now there’s a doctor in the house. And if any ailing body
needed a doctor, it’s the LA Times.
Triage:
1.
Tronc has saved Dr. Pat from the necessity of
canning publisher Ross Levinsohn, recently suspended without pay caught in a
#metoo event.
2.
Tronc also has absorbed Levinsohn back into its
ailing body as yours would reabsorb a cyst and put him in charge of a division
no one pays any attention to which may be more than he deserves. Or less.
3.
The Times has gone through more editors than the
cartoon Charmin bears go through toilet paper... with equally smelly results.
Put someone in charge, Pat.
Long Term:
1.
Dr. Pat will lose megabucks in trying to put
Humpty Dumpty back together again.
2.
He can afford it.
3.
The readers and advertisers of the LA Times deserve
it.
4.
Brilliant editors restored the Post and the
Globe to their former glories almost overnight. In fact… it was the same guy at
both papers. Find someone like that. And not Dean Baquet ex LA Times and
now in over his head at the NY Times as were the three immediate predecessors
all lined up at the NYT turnstyle to Oblivion.
Caution:
Billionaires don’t get to be billionaires by giving flu shots at
the free clinic. Let’s have a look at Dr. Pat and let’s do it in One Big
Hurry. If he turns out to be another Sheldon Addlebrain, forget all of the
above.
SHRAPNEL:
--Beside being expensive and time and energy consuming, trump’s
proposed military parade in Washington is a sign of weakness, not strength… but
may foretell the future. Only third world dictatorships stage those kinds of
parades. They don’t show gratitude to service men and women, they show
threats to a potentially disobedient civilian population.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to
them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
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© WJR 2018
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