Callous Treatment of a Fifty Year Journalist

The Writerly Pause at Veteran Journalist Al Martinez's last month.

When we were at Al's he said, "I write whatever I want to write about."

And of course, he could be trusted to do this. The 77-year old's career has spanned over fifty years, starting at the Oakland Tribune with an editor named Al Reck. He's worked every desk --from local news, national and international affairs. He garnered a Pulitzer and many other awards along the way for the Los Angeles Times, helped multitudes of readers understand the intricacies of what was going on around them, and he helped at least one kid from the farmlands and rivers of the delta love good writing.

So he has the chops, this is a reporter who can be trusted with a biweekly column to "write whatever he wants." But yesterday the LA Times cut the lines with him. No more Al. The 77-year old veteran journo will not finish out his career as Jack Smith, Jim Murray and Art Hoppe (in San Fransisco) were allowed to do. His last column will be on June 1. The Tribune company is tossing out a trove of history, experience and knowledge. Crikey, they even shut down his email last night.

It seems that with all the cutbacks, hard lines are being taken. If they can get it off the wire, then go ahead, cut that reporter. The weirdest example is the reporter outsourcing of city council and school board meetings to India by a Pasadena paper. Now school principals will be known as Headmasters, and for sure, children will be taken to school in putt-putts and pedi-cabs. We also know that if there's not an apparent tie-in with the selling of advertisements, such as fluff interviews with celebrities in the Calendar, then it can be cut too.

This is in contrast to the late Jack Smith in his final years. It was a long hard slog to read about his health problems. But each day he'd get up and pound out words. If you don't know, I will tell you now: stringing words together is what keeps a writer alive. Though the Times could've booted him out, they didn't. They kept Jack on staff, after all he was a part of the institution.

They also knew this: Jack Smith had fans. People who subscribed to the paper out of loyalty, not only for him, but because the LA Times stood as a point of civic pride. There were people who got the paper and the first thing they did was look for Jack's column.

It's the same with Al Martinez. He has a fan base too. He represents the Times when it was a great paper. Whether you want to think of it as a point of civic pride or just nostalgia, people like me keep our subscription even though it's painful to see this paper being treated as though it were an entrant in a demolition derby.

Frankly I can't believe that getting rid of a 77-year old, biweekly columnist like Al is going to make a huge dent in their bottom line. No, he got swept in with some quota that said, "X number of jobs must go." And so I think with moves like this, it becomes apparent that the paper is entrenched in the same track as the rest of society: more information, but far less critical thinking. Other veterans were pushed out as well, and also some journalists on the rise. In all, it's a sad time, but then again, it's been sad for many years at the Times.

So who is next? Dana Parsons? Steve Lopez? Chris Erskine? Maybe they're too much to pay as well. Maybe they're going to make the trek up to the Flathead Beacon and do fishing reports, nature stories and yeah --best of all, hard news. At least they'd know the bottom line is the community and two wealthy off-beat journalists named Maury and Connie. As opposed to Sam Zell, who is simply wealthy.



If you disagree with not letting this august journalist ride out his career at the LA Times write to the publisher: david.hiller@latimes.com or the editor: james.oshea@latimes.com

More on the push:
Bill Boyarski: Dumping Al
Ken Reich: Take Back The Times
Mail from LA Observed: We Get Mail
Straight from the Lion's Mouth: The note from Al Martinez regarding his 'voluntary' departure