I've been remiss in not reporting the bizarre goings-on at the Los Angeles Times where a senior executive resigned after claiming his credibility had been undermined. I thought it was a storm in a teacup but the so-called Grazergate saga continues, so here goes...
LA Times editorial page editor Andres Martinez decided to start a programme of guest-editing for his section and chose Hollywood producer Brian Grazer (Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind and 24), as the first man for the job. But it was discovered, after the pages were ready for publication, that Martinez was dating Grazer's publicist Kelly Mullens and that Martinez might have also had a business relationship with Mullens. Are you still with me?
So, in the belief that there might be a conflict of interest, the Times's publisher, David Hiller, scrapped the pages. That prompted Martinez to resign in a huff, announcing his decision in a blog posting on the paper's website. He said he had selected Grazer before his girlfriend had begun representing Grazer's company, Imagine Entertainment. He followed that up with a letter of complaint, also published in the Times.
Now Hiller has announced that the paper has discontinued the guest-editing programme altogether despite the fact that there were some interesting guest-editors lined up, such as former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Melinda Gates (you know, wife of Bill).
In a further act of extraordinary pomposity, Hiller has also appointed the paper's reader's representative to determine whether personal or professional connections have improperly influenced previous content in the editorial pages.
This is a first-class example of the way in which US journalism gets so far up itself that it looks ridiculous. I think guest-editing is daft. But I just don't see how Grazer's one-day effort could compromise the credibility of the LA Times in such circumstances. On the other hand, did Martinez need to resign? Everyone involved seems to have over-reacted. And this is a paper riven by strife, having lost a couple of editors recently over the imposition of staff cuts. What a farce.
