Dangerous Liaisons

While the circumstances of Grazer’s selection prompted an almost absurd level of concern about the integrity of the paper’s Hollywood coverage, the Iraq war is a staple — yet another reason to stear clear of Rummy. But it was Hiller’s job to ensure that the LAT editorial page made the “right” connections. Because ever since the 2003 California gubernatorial-recall campaign, when the paper published its election-eve Schwarzenegger-groping allegations, right-wing media and bloggers have ganged up to savage the paper’s perceived lefty politics. The flight of the right obsessed Tribune Co. management.

Ergo Hiller. However, when he arrived here, the Republican Party–donating publisher was stuck with Martinez, an editorial page editor who’d been handpicked by his predecessor, neo-liberal Michael Kinsley. When I interviewed Martinez back in 2005, he candidly spilled how he’s “definitely liberal on social issues” but was considered “on the conservative end” at his previous employer, The New York Times, where he was the only editorial-board member who supported the Iraq war. But in charge at the LAT’s editorial pages, Martinez quickly got with Hiller’s program. Some left-wing columnists were dropped and right-wing columnists added. Soon the section was publishing bizarre takes on events or issues mostly written or assigned or edited by a small clique of fringe (neo-con, libertarian, thuggish right-wing, self-loathing liberal, feminist-hating female) ideologues all palsy-walsy with each other. Literally. This demimonde of a few successful but mostly barely employed TV producers, screenwriters, freelancers, bloggers and journalists meet on the first Friday night of the month at Yamashiro restaurant in Hollywood. Not only did Martinez frequent, but his underling Nick Goldberg is a regular.

All this L.A. Times infighting occurs, of course, against the backdrop of Tribune Co. putting itself up for sale; the uncertainty over who will ultimately control the parent corporation has been making the atmosphere inside that much more poisonous. Financial reports say Tribune could accept real estate tycoon Sam Zell’s $8 billion offer for the entire company before March 31. Since the Chicago bosses won’t fire Hiller, that should be a new owner’s first act.

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