Robert Scheer fired for telling the truth

[Guest guest]

S

Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:06:23 EST

Robert Scheer fired for telling the truth

 

 

 

 

Robert Scheer was fired after 30 years of service to the Los Angeles

Times, without even an explanation. Without truth tellers like Robert

and without the internet, we would be Nazi Germany because there is no

other place to get the truth now. Think about it. If we didn't have

internet, would any of us know what was going on?

 

well, Robert is probably on that list of Bush's -- and he is wearing

it like we are, as a badge of honor, so our grandchildren know we are

not one of " them. " I wrote a letter to the publisher of the LA Times

and canceled my subscriptions for myself and my daughters, and I would

imagine they got tons of letters and cancellations. They have lost

many readers since Chandler has been gone. People are not going to

read Bush propaganda here in Los Angeles. So they can take their

newspaper and stuff it.

 

I hope even if you are not in LA, you'll use the links below and send

email to the publisher. I'm sending another one today.

***************

 

 

 

Cruising With Scheer

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reported that, " In a major shakeup

of its editorial pages, " it " ...was discontinuing one of its most

liberal columnists. "

 

Three days later that columnist, Robert Scheer, had 150 people aboard

The Nation's (8th) annual cruise crammed into the Queen's Lounge

listening to his take on life, liberty, leisure, lies, the state of

journalism and what's going on at the LA Times. The Nation's John

Nichols led the conversation. Here are a few extracts from Scheer's

spirited sprint through the last decades and days:

 

" From the company's point of view, it was a dumb move...If only they

were interested in sales and profits--be better newspapers. This was a

stupid management decision, A bad marketing decision...Let's go bland

and safe. "

 

" The publisher is a wise guy accountant, a bean counter from Chicago.

These guys come in from Chicago. They don't know the community, and

buying the LA Times may be illegal. The Chicago Tribune already owns a

TV station in same market and they're going to need a waiver request

which comes up next year. The publisher/bean counter's Pasadena golf

buddies probably warned him about me--that flaming leftie. Now, (Times

founder) Otis Chandler was no liberal but he understood his community.

The paper is in decline. They have 300,000 fewer readers now than when

I went to work there nearly thirty years ago....The Times needed me

more than I need it...I always have two or three balls in the air at

same time...That's why I teach full-time at USC's Journalism school,

do my radio show, write books. It's the only way to live. I've been

preparing for this moment for 30 years. I wrote this column for 13

years and never missed a deadline.

 

Probably the main reason they got rid of me was O'Reilly and Limbaugh

made a living out of attacking me, pounding, pounding away and doing

mass mailing campaigns against me and using me as a punching bag. But

I'm still standing; the paper may collapse....Would never go back to

LA Times, and I start at the San Francisco Chronicle next week. They

called Wednesday to offer me a column. And my syndicate stood behind

me, and the syndicate's editor, a conservative, was quoted in Editor &

Publisher saying he was 100 percent behind me. And it's the same

syndicate which runs O'Reilly's column.

 

These bean counters from Chicago are so cowardly that the day after

the paper won five Pulitzers they flew into LA and met with chief

editors at Burbank airport hotel to let them know of cuts. This

corporation doesn't understand that the paper belongs to readers and

they forget that it's not just shareholders and wider profit margins

that count. " Bob then broke some news: " And this week, they're going

to lay off over 70 editorial people. "

 

" They may own the paper but they don't own the readers. And LA is the

greatest city in the world, and it deserves a great newspaper. Send

emails and make them aware that if they want to keep readers, they got

to be smarter. Let them know readers don't like being treated with

contempt. I know there's shock in the Times building; every

switchboard jammed, emails streaming in. " [One estimate is that close

to 10,000 e-mails have come in; on Saturday, the paper ran a series of

articulate, intelligent, reasoned and serious letters protesting

Scheer's ouster.] " I hear the publisher is walking around in a daze.

Didn't anticipate these protests, the level of outrage. Every

complaint you send will give space to others who want to do bold,

brave reporting. "

 

Click here and here to email the editor (Andres Martinez)

http://www.latimes.com/services/site/la-comment-oped,0,5293584.htmlstory

and publisher (Jeff Johnson) respectively of the LA Times.

Jeff.Johnson

 

And don't worry about Scheer. Two weeks from now, he launches his new

website, TruthDig.com. " I think of A.J. Liebling, who said 'freedom of

the press belongs to those who own one' and fortunately, now I own

one. I think of the site as Ramparts on speed. "

 

" I don't like to get bummed out, " Scheer said. " Hey, reports of my end

are premature. I am not into suffering. Want to enjoy life, act on my

passions, write about the truth. And I will. "

 

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=36403