Monday, August 27, 2007

Slate Magazine: Zell's Big Dis of LAT *

[Link added]
On his "mostly political weblog" on Slate.com, Mickey Klaus suggests LAT's publisher should release the video of Zell's visit to LA staff:

...David Hiller sent a memo to the paper's staff describing Zell as a "high energy straight-talking business owner" who "believes Los Angeles Times is very important and 'has a great future'." Kf hears Zell was rather more critical than that. In his talk to the assembled staffers, he said he found the paper "pretty bland." He pissed on the business section. He ran down the importance of foreign coverage as opposed to local news. Asked whether front-page ads compromised the integrity of the paper, he called that idea a "crock of shit." He made a big point of saying the paper had to print what readers wanted to read, not what LAT editors wanted them to read — an idea that's pretty much in complete conflict with the existing DNA of the Times ... Whose account is more accurate — Hiller's or mine? There's an easy way to find out, since a video of Zell's talk was posted on the Times' internal network. Hiller could release it.
Ouch. Sounds like he saw the video. We haven't. (end of post)

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