Duck Here Comes Sin Again
According to Patterico, one of the most ethical and reliable of bloggers, the politically correct name-callers at the Times, like toddlers playing with a bowl of chocolate icing, find themselves in one more embarrassing mess over ethics.
Patterico is an attorney in real life, the kind you can trust.
Via ex-Times staffer Kevin Roderick (laobserved.com), he reports the Times has gone swimming again in the River Ethics.
Frequently, this is a deadly plunge for free-thinking liberals who regard themselves as bullet-proof as controllers of the media.
These Aint the Quiz Kids
Because of a tangled and still scrambled boy-and-girl relationship, Sundays op-ed section, now known as Current, was in danger of being junked.
The Times made the startling call this afternoon to kill it.
This absolutely courageous and necessary decision will be a huge financial and prestige hit for the Times.
The descending credibility of the newspaper is careening toward the level of the career drunks who crawl through the Timess neighborhood.
Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest
It seems the doomed editor at the top of op-ed, Andres (Ill Bet You Never Thought I Was This Dumb) Martinez, has a proclivity for panky-hanky.
Foolishly, he has dived into a love relationship with one Kelly Mullens, a well-connected Hollywood girl, a public relations-type.
That would not necessarily be problematic except that some of the girls pals have shown up on previous op-ed pages of the Times.
That is not all that smells.
Isnt This a Firable Offense?
Not long ago, the Times announced one of its nuttiest ideas yet in a desperate attempt to prevent the newspaper from choking further on red ink.
Mr. Martinez announced that he would occasionally have guest editors organize the Sunday op-ed section.
By the darnedest coincidence, the Hollywood girlfriend of the op-ed editor no genius herself just happens to be the publicist for a chap named Brian Grazer, who was scheduled to edit this Sundays edition.
Sheer coincidence, you understand.
Mortimer Snerd Calling
The latest publisher of the Times, a not necessarily swift thinker imported from the equally chaotic home office in Chicago, made the final call which, happily, led to the resignation of Mr. Martinez.
One day after the first-rate blog laobserved.com reported the story and Patterico picked it up, the newspaper itself owned up to the humiliating predicament this morning.
Time for Confession
To quote Times reporter James Rainey from this mornings edition:
Many reporters and editors in the Times newsroom said they were unhappy about how readers might perceive the decision to let an outsider with the appearance of a special inside connection hold sway over the Sunday opinion and editorial pages.
Where Is the 3 Strikes Rule?
After months of committing a series of failed decisions regarding the still-unsettled reorganization of the op-ed section, the distracted Mr. Martinez, an aspiring boob, had earned one single kudo:
The most immature Mexican-born staffer at the Times.
He may even be an illegal alien.
Slinking out one moment before he would have been canned, Mr. Martinez now will be able to join the 8 fired U.S. attorneys to form a new hip-hop singing group, The Worst 9 Former Employees in America.
They can have a sing-off with the Dixie Chicks
Tracking a Sizzling Rumor
Our crack research staff is sprinting down Braddock Drive as we write this.
They are seeking to confirm a rumor that ethics-challenged Mr. Martinez, in a pre-emptive call, supposedly has asked the Culver City News to hire him in case both inamorata shows him the door now that the Times has dumped him,
If, however, his status remains quo, he reportedly has told the Observer he will moonlight for them.
What Was Achilles a Heel?
As readers and revenue shrink daily, the wobbly Times continues to throb with ethical conflicts. It has a history of them.
Ronnie Brownstein, the newspapers second weakest political columnist, has a terrific conflict. His latest wife is a flack for the McCain presidential campaign.
Are You Serious?
In a tortured ruling, the Times has decided that Mr. Brownstein can write about anybody in the political universe not named McCain. Swell.
To be fair, if Mr. McCain is elected President, he should be allowed to shake the hand of every American not named Brownstein.
