A Pair Of Kneepads For The LAT

Los Angeles, CA

Remember when the L.A. Times wasn't Sam Zell's bukkake whore?

The Los Angeles Times ran an ad after the fold of their front page yesterday for the new NBC cop show Southland. It was made up to look reasonably legit (.PDF here). They surrounded it with a bold outline and plastered "NBC Advertisement" on the top and had it next to a banner for the new show. Only an idiot would mistake this for a real story.

But they put it on the front page. Seems to have pissed off a few people. The paper got 50 emails complaining.

Shocking. Didn't know they even had 50 subscribers left.

Twenty years ago if this had happened a few hundred would have written letters. Paper letters. Plastered with postage stamps and walked to the mailbox. In the snow. Both ways.

Fistfights would have broken out in the newsroom instead of petitions.

This is the paper that MADE Los Angeles. It defined its politics, its geography, its people. It's won 38 Pulitzers for fuck's sake. And now Zell and Company are pissing away its reputation away for a few bucks. This is like watching your mom give blowjobs to pay the rent.

Sure, the paper needs money. It needs to adapt. Digital is the future. But embracing the future doesn't mean throwing away your dignity.