Replies

I grew up in the LA area and have read the LA Times my entire life. Believe it or not, until the mid 60's the Times was a very conserative paper. I remember my dad would follow their recommendations when he voted and dad was as conservative as they come. The Chandler family controlled the paper until they sold out to the Tribune a few years ago. As an example the Chandlers were very anti union and there have been various violent union protests over the years. But when the long time publisher Norman Chandler retired in the late 50's, his young son Otis took the reins. He was in his thirties and wanted to make the Times into a great (meaning liberal) newspaper. The Times began paying very high salaries, for the newspaper business, and as a result attracted a lot of reporters and executives from the eastern liberal newpapers. In the 60's and 70's the the paper gradually became a very liberal paper like it is today. As I understand it much of the Chandler family was not happy with the liberal leanings of the paper but none of them succesfully challenged Otis. Besides the paper was and is the dominate paper in LA and as LA grew rapidly after the war, the paper continued to grow and it was making a lot of money for the family. There must be some Freepers out there that remember the Times from the old days.