Joy! Knocking Streisand & the LAT

What fun! I get to poke fun at Barbara Streisand and the LATimes in one post!

Babs was so upset that the LAT fired liberal whack-job columnist Robert Scheer (here and here) that she fired off a letter. Then she got even more upset when they edited her creative work.

Let's take a look, with the LAT's cuts in strike-through and additions in blue:

Dear Mr. Martinez,

This letter is to inform you that I am canceling my subscription to the LA Times, and here is the reason why:

The sentence is a grammatical nightmare and deserved its death -- but by killing it, the LAT edited out reference to her cancellation of her subscription. That's a serious breach of ethics -- smart given her fanatical fan base -- but definitely unethical.

The greater Southern California community is one that not only proudly embraces its diversity but demands it. Your publisher's decision to fire Robert Scheer is a great disservice to the spirit of our community.

I love the idea of demanding diversity! It just reeks of intolerance. "You'd better get more diverse you bigot, or you'll pay! We don't like people like you!"

I'm almost embarrassed for you in seeing the LA Times being referred to as the "Chicago LA Times" on the myriad of internet sites I've visited in the last few days. It seems, however, an aptly designated epithet, representing the feeling among many of your readers that your new leadership, especially that of Publisher Jeff Johnson, is entirely out of touch with them your readers and their desire to be exposed to views that stretch them beyond their own paradigms. So although the number of contributors to your op-ed pages may have increased, in firing Robert Sheer and putting hiring columnists such as Jonah Goldberg in his place, the gamut of voices has undeniably been diluted. I suspect this may ultimately decrease the number of readers of those same pages.

While the LATimes hardly touts the fact that they're owned by the Trib, these edits are basically just cutting for length. Babs thinks she was being cute; they didn't have room for cute.

In light of the obvious step away from the principals of journalistic integrity, which would dictate that journalists be journalists, editors be editors and accountants be accountants, I am now forced to carefully reconsider which sources can be trusted to provide me with accurate, unbiased news and forthright opinions. Your new columnist, Jonah Goldberg, will not be one of those sources.

Jonah Goldberg, of course, is a conservative. Babs may demand diversity, but not that kind of diversity! The reference to accountants is obviously a clumsy attempt to imply this is being done for money -- humorously clumsy. It's a good thing she just sings songs and doesn't write them.

Robert Scheer's column, with its often singular voice of dissent and groundbreaking expositional content, has been among the most notable features that have sustained my interest in subscribing to the LA Times for many years now. Apparently, previous leadership at the LA Times had no trouble recognizing Mr. Scheer's journalistic prowess in that they nominated him for the Pulitzer Prize.

Having cut the earlier reference to her subscription cancellation, LAT had no choice but to cut this paragraph, deepening their ethical stew.

My greatest fear is that the underlying reason for Mr. Scheer's termination is part of a larger trend toward the corporatization of our media, a trend that we, as American citizens, must fervently battle for the sake of our swiftly diminishing free press.

Personally, my greatest fear is either that jihadist Islamofascists will take over the world, or that I'll suddenly realize that I'm at work in my underwear. But to each his/her own; I'm a tolerant guy who loves diversity. I imagine the LAT kept this in as a show of disrespect to Babs, since most rational people don't think we're in any risk of losing our free press.