Just who are the principals of journalistic integrity?
Posted on 11/30/2005 4:01:55 PM PST by presidio9
This is the original letter I wrote to the LA Times regarding their firing of Robert Scheer:
November 18, 2005
Andres Martinez Editorial Page Editor Los Angeles Times 202 W. 1st St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Dear Mr. Martinez,
This letter is to inform you that I am canceling my subscription to the LA Times, and here is the reason why:
The greater Southern California community is one that not only proudly embraces its diversity but demands it. Your publisher's decision to fire Robert Scheer is a great disservice to the spirit of our community.
I'm almost embarrassed for you in seeing the LA Times being referred to as the "Chicago LA Times" on the myriad of internet sites I've visited in the last few days. It seems, however, an aptly designated epithet, representing the feeling among many of your readers that your new leadership, especially that of Jeff Johnson, is entirely out of touch with them and their desire to be exposed to views that stretch them beyond their own paradigms. So although the number of contributors to your op-ed pages may have increased, in firing Robert Sheer and putting Jonah Goldberg in his place, the gamut of voices has undeniably been diluted, and I suspect this may ultimately decrease the number of readers of those same pages.
In light of the obvious step away from the principals of journalistic integrity, which would dictate that journalists be journalists, editors be editors and accountants be accountants, I am now forced to carefully reconsider which sources can be trusted to provide me with accurate, unbiased news and forthright opinions. Your new columnist, Jonah Goldberg, will not be one of those sources.
Robert Scheer's column, with its often singular voice of dissent and groundbreaking expositional content, has been among the most notable features that have sustained my interest in subscribing to the LA Times for many years now. Apparently, previous leadership at the LA Times had no trouble recognizing Mr. Scheer's journalistic prowess in that they nominated him for the Pulitzer Prize.
My greatest fear is that the underlying reason for Mr. Scheer's termination is part of a larger trend toward the corporatization of our media, a trend that we, as American citizens, must fervently battle for the sake of our swiftly diminishing free press.
Sincerely,
Barbra Streisand
And this is what ultimately got printed in the Op-Ed section of their November 23, 2005 issue...
LETTERS
Singing the Op-Ed blues
Re "Times Plans New Op-Ed Lineup," Nov. 11
The greater Southern California community is one that not only proudly embraces its diversity, but demands it. Your decision to fire Robert Scheer is a great disservice to the spirit of our community. It seems that your new leadership, especially Publisher Jeff Johnson, is entirely out of touch with your readers and their desire to be exposed to views that stretch them beyond their own paradigms. So although the number of contributors to your Op-Ed pages may have increased, in firing Scheer and hiring columnists such as Jonah Goldberg, the gamut of voices has undeniably been diluted. I suspect this may ultimately decrease the number of readers of those same pages.
My greatest fear is that the underlying reason for Scheer's termination is part of a larger trend toward the corporatization of our media, a trend that we, as American citizens, must fervently battle for the sake of our swiftly diminishing free press.
BARBRA STREISAND
Santa Monica
As if she were capable.
Bob Scheer is a commie..OF COURSE she loves him.
Babs is not amused!....But I am.
The story here - and the corresponding good news - is that the LA Times loses another subscriber. Who knows, maybe she convinced some other lefty half-wits to cancel theirs, too.
The enenmy of my enemy.....
She is a terminal twit (not my first word choice). If what she says weren't so pathetic, I'd have to pay attention to it.
Happily, her influence approaches zero.
Just what I was thinking. LA Times can't even hold the moonbats.
Dang, they can't keep anybody LOL.
http://www.usefulwork.com/shark/archives/000674.html
There are two as yet underreported aspects of the Scheer case which should put this on par with the Blair scandal. The first is that Scheer is not merely a reflexively anti-American columnist who puts forth silly analysis. He habitually distorts quotes and misrepresents facts. The second aspect of the scandal is that Scheer's work seems to have escaped due scrutiny at least in part because of the influential editorial management positions held by Scheer's wife.
The "Robert Scheer Canard-o-matic" that I just posted contains a long list of Scheer's most frequent and comically biased statements on Iraq. Most of these are merely fantasy dressed up as analysis (e.g. "the UN weapons inspections were working") The guy is an opinion columnist, after all, not a reporter, so it isn't necessarily a scandal simply to express his opinions, even the goofy ones. But the real scandal is factual distortions such as these:
snip
Sheer wasn't your average wing-nut. This guy was operating somewhere way outside of our vicinity of the Milky Way. I think it's swell of Babst to freely admit she loved the guy so much, that she would cancel her subcription to her soulmates at Pravda on the Pacific over his dismisal.
I don't know where Streisand and some of her soulmates get their hatred of our nation. I only know that they do. If she liked Sheer, she is one poor screwed up escuse of a human being.
It's shocking to hear that she thought Sheer was great. Just wow!
I demand my diversity!
Weren't you once in music or acting?
You can spot the illiterate pseudo-intellectual every time. They use six-bit madeup words like "expositional", so you don't even know what the hell they're trying to say. They don't really know what they're trying to say either, they just want to sound extra-smart.
The enemy of my enemy is a self-absorbed ignorant twit?
Think she will support FR's efforts to disect whole LATimes articles now that she believes they have gone conservative? They are "the enemy" now so surely there is nothing for them to gain anymore by being shielded from FReeper analysis.
Oh wait. The LA Times is that paper that printed a digitally composed fake war image of a soldier holding up his rifle and telling two refugees to stop.
The LA Times is that paper that had a reporter attempt to start a riot of Cubans vs. police in Florida during the Elian Gonzales case (she was arrested for throwing rocks, the rest of the crowd did not followe her lead). I'm sure there are numerous other incidents of the LAT making it up.
I'd rather see what phoney articles the Weekly World News has fabricated today. At least the majority of the public KNOWS those stories are completely untrue.
Man, is she ever a terrible writer.
(As if I expected anything else.)
Leftie Dictionary.
Diversity: The destruction of all voices not anti-American. Also, see Liberal Monopoly.
Just who are the principals of journalistic integrity?
Just as long as that diversity does not differ from Streisand's own political views.
Just who are the principals of journalistic integrity?
Just who are the principals of journalistic integrity?
At least she's not complaining about Irack anymore.
Babs digs Stalinists.
Scheer Fired?
I may renew my subscription!
Dear Babs
Methinks perhaps maybe you could take your dumbbutt whiny left wing complaint down the hall to somebody who really gives a big fat rat's behind.
Like maybe your goofy wannabe actor husband will listen... or maybe not, he's probably getting really tired of it like the rest of us.
Also Michael saw things the RIGHT way. He probably had to battle to get any toons printed!
I gather that she is complaining that the published letter is cut way down from the original letter that she sent. I read both, and frankly it just goes to show that a good copyeditor can take a poor writer like Streisand and cut out 70 or 80% of the verbiage without losing a thing.
The only substantive cut was that crack about the Chicago LA Times, and you can't really blame them for that, frankly. Otherwise, they represented her idiotic complaint fairly, and even made her look better by cleaning up her style.
I've heard of Robert Sheer. Who th' heck is Barbra Streisand?
"aptly designated epithet"
"exposed to views that stretch them beyond their own paradigms"
"myriad"
"the gamut of voices has undeniably been diluted"
"must fervently battle"
"among the most notable features that have sustained my interest"
Trust me, FReepers, Babs wrote a third grader version, and she had an assistant write this version. Hey, Babs, I fervently urge you to kiss my paradigm in a myriad of positions with a gamut of sounds.
In light of the above Babs, stick to singing, writers should be writers and your writing sucks...
They are leftists to the core...it's time that they are shown the door
For DemocRATS they're shilling shamelessly
It isn't too surprising...they're losing advertising
They are going down in flames, the poor L.A. TIMES
The gig is almost up for the L.A. TIMES
Let us bid a fond farewell to the L.A. TIMES
They are really out...out to lunch without a doubt
The gig is almost up for the L.A. TIMES
They had tried to stop FR...but they did not get very far
The FReepers grew...they're stronger every day
It isn't too surprising...they're losing advertising
They are going down in flames, the poor L.A. TIMES
The gig is almost up for the L.A. TIMES
Let us bid a fond farewell to the L.A. TIMES
They are really out...out to lunch without a doubt
The gig is almost up for the L.A. TIMES
Lessons they refuse to learn...it's for the truth their readers yearn
And now they can't give it away for free
It isn't too surprising...they're losing advertising
They are going down in flames, the poor L.A. TIMES
The gig is almost up for the L.A. TIMES
Let us bid a fond farewell to the L.A. TIMES
They are really out...out to lunch without a doubt
The gig is almost up for the L.A. TIMES
Oh, the poor L.A. TIMES...oh, the poor L.A. TIMES
Barbra, Robert is a white male, no diversity there... he's got to go!
What cliché ridden drivel. Liberals think slinging a few favored buzzwords constitutes an argument.
I saw that grainy tape once...it was definitely Babs Monica-izing some guy; she busted the 'Jewish Woman' stereotype bigtime and did herself proud.
I think I heard Scheer once on the radio, maybe with Larry Elder or Al Rantel. He is an absolute ***clown.
Scheer fired and the LA Times losing a subscription. This is a double win.
But since he was a conservative, he wasn't a "real" Mexican/Asian, so he doesn't count as far as the race pimps are concerned.
I wonder why she wasn't equally upset at Mr. Ramirez, the Pulitizer Prize winning Editorial Cartoonist from the LA Times, who was let go as well.
Oh wait, he's a conservative. Never mind.
Barbra, you're not the little liberal girl from Brooklyn any more. You're a Hollywood elitist left-winger.
I read a piece here on FR once by David Horowitz about Scheer. Let's just say that Horowitz fisked him so badly that I almost felt sorry for the little stalinist.
Oh, and get a new shrink. The one you've been using hasn't helped your overabundance of self importance complex.
That's funny, girl.
Good catch there. Baaaaaaarbra needs to hire a proof reader.
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