The Old Gray Hag She Ain't What She Used to Be

Kevin Roderick posts up a super-long screed lamenting the terminal nature of THE OLD GRAY HAG ON SPRING STREET (also known as LA ANTONIA TIMES, The Former Fishwrap of Record and The Los Angeles Times).

For the Westside White Guy for sure it's all traceable to poor decision making and foul language by Sam Zell owner of parent company Tribune Media. I guess it all started when Zell dropped an F-bomb on a staffer.

Yet the Times is having the same problems the dinosaur media is having all over the country and is in worse shape because 1) For years being embedded as part of the kleptocratic old guard that runs LA and never having the balls to take on those who have been destroying the City, 2) Focusing on the fru-fru tastes of a small handful of enclaves in sections of Council Districts 4, 5, 11 and 13 while ignoring everything from South Central to the San Fernando Valley and 3) Simply never ever getting it when it comes to how the new media works and being completely unable to conquer the Internet as some newspapers have.

For years The Times has been embedded as part of the kleptocratic old guard that runs LA and never had the balls to take on those who have been destroying the City.

It's time for the handwringing over the Times to come to an end. The horse and buggy had it's day and so did the Times. Unlike papers in other cities the Times never challenged Los Angeles and now it's paying the piper in it's seeming irrelevance. New technologies, blogs and other publications will get the word out, probably more directly and without the Spring Street filter, and we'll be the better for it.

Trib: Bankrupt

The Tribune Company, corporate parent of the newspaper we all know and love as LA ANTONIA TIMES, THE OLD GRAY HAG ON SPRING STREET and the FORMER LOCAL FISHWRAP OF RECORD, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

No word if they're asking Congress for a bail-out.

Newspapers are dinosaurs. Just like public access TV and polyester. Deal with it.

"LA ANTONIA TIMES", R. I. P.

To Steve Lopez,

We at Mayor Sam can empathize with your plight.

After all, with the "ZELL MAN" at the helm of the "MOBILE TRAILER TRIBUNE", the pressure to produce quality news print is on the level with the quality of pole dancers on the roof(Roderick can be your "DOORMAN" to the roof, just a thought).

So you are in a funk over the fact that our esteem Mayor does not have the mental fortitude to focus on a "ONE ON ONE" with you.

You offer to walk with him around Skid Row to discuss the current state of affairs in the bowels of "EASTERN DOWNTOWN", nada?

Want to critique Mirthala on her new show at " MIGHTY RADIOBIMBO 690 AM"?, no go?

You want to ask the Mayor to respond to the Council's numbers cruncher who panned his budget proposals, no way??

Steve, I and the others who are in the decreasing ranks of daily readers of actual newsprint, love your style. Whether it is the "Esteem Cardinal" or "C.A. Rocktard", you "T.J." and Steve Harvey's "The Bottom Ten" are the only reasons I continue this daily ritual of reading the newsprint in hand.

But as a point of reference, when you piss off the "POLITICO FORMERLY KNOWN AS MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, tony villar, with what Tim Rutten wrote,

Perhaps the mayor simply hoped to demonstrate that he really is a "friend
to the department." After all, the ongoing reduction in crime in L.A. is one of
the few unambiguous achievements of a mayoral administration that seems to
generate more unfinished initiatives than an ADD clinic.

......and the Mayor (ADV®) responds with this,

"a cheap shot at people who have ADD" and added, "I think he knows my son
has attention deficit disorder."(M.O. of Mayor to hide behind family member when the "s..." gets deep).

...then rest assure, you (great find on Mirthala's radio show quote), Rutten and your "FISHWRAP OF RECORD" are in the "CASA DE PERRO". Maybe Helfand can plead your case, he is the Mayor's favorite P.R. writer.

In closing, with the endorsement of Obama, Rutten's missive on Mayor, and with the dishing of scribe Lopez, we announce the retirement of the moniker "LA ANTONIA TIMES"...........that is until the next mayoral election in 2009.

LA Times to become the "POLE DANCING TRAMP ON SPRING STREET"??

Want to catch the attention of the "WWG" aka Kevin Roderick or my bloggin friend "NO HO VALLEY WHITE GUY" Mayor Sam??

Girlie pics or ads of lust will do.

And the supply of both will get better if new L.A. Times owner Sam Zell has his way.

"WWG", never one to let a scoop from the "OLD GREY HAG ON SPRING STREET" get by him (hard to get around "WIDE RODERICK" in his current state), has this lusty comment from the trailer park mind owner of "BIG TRIBUNE".

“Everyone likes pussy. It’s un-American not to like pussy.”,

this refering to the possibility that the Times would allow ads for "Gentlemen Clubs" in the near future.

Right now Higby and Roderick must be waving their dollar bills in unity. A certain big city mayor is swamping the editorial rooms with phone calls seeking to get back in the good graces with the editorial board and the strip clubs are creating a flash flood of revenue requesting ad space.

Yes, and this will get better if "TRAILER PARK ZELL" allows ads for Turner's Sporting Goods promoting the latest in guns and gunracks. That will boost sales in S.T.

One can see the shock and vile in the days ahead from the likes of Morrison, Rutten, Martinez, and retirees such as Boyarsky. Plus, somewhere in the catacombs a Hiltzik will be playing with his "Sock Puppet".

YOU GO SAM!!, and remember to put that pole on the roof to good use.

Sunday Morning Mimosa

JM, Guess? 1.26.08

FIDM downtown put on an enormous opening last night for its Hollywood costume exhibit from recent movies, some even in current theatrical release. It's good to see someone downtown still supporting Hollywood's workers. The show runs January 28-April 12.

Forget golf and tennis for a while. There are a few mudslides in Griffith Park, none notable, but everything is very, very, soggy. The local course in worst shape, according to the Weather Channel's service, is Studio City.

Nine days before the primary, I guess it's hard to find good local editorial topics...The LA Times thinks you should increase your financial literacy---it even editorializes that you should. A financial literacy reminder: the paper is now owned by a man who made a fortune in the mobile home business.

The Daily News's Rick Orlov has a small item on the costs of Measure S at the DN's blog. (It's listed on the ballot as a Proposition, by the way, and no, I don't know why some are called propositions while others are called measures). He says it could cost Angelenos up to $120 a year in taxes. But you might be able to duck that if you have a PO box in Glendale and can convince your carrier that it's your "suite."