Losing The Paper We Love To Hate?

With John Carroll's departure/firing/"open-ended vacation" and Managing Editor Dean Baquet's ascention to the editorship of the LATimes, will the paper get more balanced?

Even the LAT release blamed "a struggle with declining readership and flat revenue" for Carroll's demise, but it's unclear if the LAT connects the dots between its strident advocacy of increasing unpopular viewpoints and its financial woes.

A good analysis in LAWeekly (I can't believe I put "good" and "LAWeekly" in the same sentence") quotes an LAT reporter saying of Baquet:

"He’s a remarkable person in that he seems to create almost no hard feelings and no enemies. He’s obligingly had lunch with everyone and listens attentively, so all of my experiences are unsettlingly positive. I say that because I’m nervous about anyone who’s so likeable."

Sounds like he'd get along great with a certain Supreme Court nominee. Let's see if he can keep that record up once he's responsible for charting the editorial course of what has become one of the most disappointing major news outlets in America.

h/t Media Bistro