Last week the L.A. Times announced that Jim Newton was appointed Editorial Page Editor to replace ousted Andres Martinez. For those who indulge reading the Times, let alone the spooky editorials, it is a return to the bad old days.
For years the Times has tormented its readers with predictable pasty liberal editorials. This section was certainly the least read of the newspaper. That is until Andres Martinez, took over a couple of years ago. To the amazement of many. his editorials were funny, pithy and interesting. Previous editorials was like reading Pravda under Stalin. Always kowtowing to the Party Line. Always boring.
Martinez, who left under suspicious circumstances, excoriated Villaraigosa, supported Bush’s surge, and was a critical of democrats as he was of republicans. In a word, the editorials were unpredictable. That made reading them fun.
Sadly, tried and true PC Jim Newton has reverted to bad writing and boring but predictable lib-dem positions. His latest effort was lamenting the US Supreme Court’s decision to reject a civil suit against IBM because one employee said something nasty that another employee heard. . Come on Times, get with it. The PC culture to limit our free speech rights is dangerous even to editorial writers.
Newton’s background includes service to the far left Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the New York Times, where he clerked for senior columnist James Reston, as well as years at the L.A. Times. Newton published a biography of Chief Justice Earl Warren, "Justice for All’ last year. He describes himself as a "mainstream liberal" whatever that means.
So, don’t count of anything vibrant, succinct or irregular from future Times editorials.