First the social, with the caveat that I am not very social. Baldilocks and I grabbed a couch and waited for people to find us. For the most part, that worked. Calblog husband joined us, then Justin, then Flap and finally SoCalPundit. Patterico, RogerLSimon, and Cathy Seipp stopped by. ((Most folks dropped by to see Baldilocks). We had chatted with BoifromTroy earlier and met new to me bloggers, Gay Patriot and Rene. The downside is that I got increasingly tense messages from home and I had to leave before talking much with SoCalPundit.
Someone did not get the memo last night. Clearly if Bob Sipchen, editor of the LA Times, was specially appearing with Outside the Tent writers, there was an expectation that they'd all get along. The gloves were off.
Hugh Hewitt has reproduced his remarks. There was mention of the Titanic and the GM ad pullout. Bob Sipchen replied that they were not the Titanic, but a battleship. I'm not sure how he described bloggers but Patterico later responded that bloggers were not floppy fish, but bombs. Sipchen insisted GM pulled out in an effort to sway Times' coverage and he was sure that bloggers would have changed their wording. Not likely. Sipchen also compared their news coverage to bloggers who merely read Google. Sigh. It's only a matter of time before we have not only access but given the emergence of the blog, probably better access.
I wish I could tell you what Mickey Kaus said. I can't recall. I can only recall my reaction that there was no sugarcoating whatsoever. As I collect reports of the night, perhaps it'll come out. UPDATE: Calblog husband recalls him saying that he thought it would be a tragedy if newspapers went out of business but not if the LA Times went out of business. LAObserved, below, confirmed this.
Other thoughts:
Patterico
Rene's Ramblings
LAObserved
LAVoice
Flap
SoCalPundit
Gay Patriot
Yeah, that pissed me off a little. I suppose maybe some blogger somewhere might feel like that, just as some podunk newspaper somewhere might.
But if that's what the LAT thinks is happening, they should resist it. And any respectable blogger would do the same, and tell GM to go to hell.
As I've said, I don't know what the GM thing is about, for sure. But I find it interesting that they are willing to take the risk. I think that says something about their perception of the LAT's reputation.
Posted by: Patterico at April 27, 2005 10:57 PM (Permalink)