'LA Times' Dropping Cartoonist and Columnist in Editorial Page Shake-Up

By: E&P Staff The Los Angeles Times is dropping conservative cartoonist Michael Ramirez and liberal columnist Robert Scheer as part of a major editorial page shake-up, the paper announced Friday.

Scheer was a Times reporter for 17 years before starting his Op-Ed feature in 1993. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Ramirez, who joined the Times in 1997, will leave the newspaper at the end of the year and will not be replaced.

Andres Martinez, the paper's recently appointed editorial page editor, said the Op-Ed page will use more commissioned artwork and illustrations, as well as stand-alone graphics.

Speaking more generally, Martinez was quoted in the Times as saying: "The opinion pages are the newspaper's town square. Our readers expect us to publish all points of view and the broadest range of opinion -- from those of our editorial board and columnists to those of our readers and Op-Ed contributors. And we intend to do exactly that."

Ramirez and Scheer told the Times they feel their strong political stances played a role in their dismissals.

Scheer, whose column is distributed by Creators Syndicate, believes the newspaper grew tired of his liberal views. "I've been a punching bag for Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh for years and I think the paper finally collapsed," he said, as quoted in the Times. Scheer added that he and Ramirez "both had strong opinions and [I think] the owners think they can improve circulation by making the paper bland and safer."

In a posting at the Huffington Post blog, Scheer wrote: "The publisher Jeff Johnson, who has offered not a word of explanation to me, has privately told people that he hated every word that I wrote. I assume that mostly refers to my exposing the lies used by President Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq. Fortunately sixty percent of Americans now get the point but only after tens of thousand of Americans and Iraqis have been killed and maimed as the carnage spirals out of control. My only regret is that my pen was not sharper and my words tougher."

Ramirez told the Times he also believes his removal was partly for budgetary reasons and to change the look of the editorial pages.

The 1994 Pulitzer winner, who's syndicated by Copley News Service, becomes the latest in a long line of editorial cartoonists to lose their jobs in recent years. Some papers, such as the Chicago Tribune (whose cartoonist Jeff MacNelly died in 2000), have not hired replacements.

Ramirez -- whose Times predecessor, Paul Conrad, won three Pulitzers -- said of his soon-to-be-former employer not replacing him: "You have a newspaper that has such a grand tradition of editorial cartooning. I think it makes a lesser product and I think the readers lose."

As part of the Times editorial-page shake-up, columnists Michael McGough and David Gelernter will also be dropped.

"I think we've put together a smart, original, and provocative team of writers who reflect a variety of interesting and thoughtful perspectives on local, national, and foreign affairs," said Op-Ed Editor Nicholas Goldberg, as quoted in the Times article. He added: "I don't think these changes are going to move the page to the left or the right."

The revised lineup consists of new columnists and ones already running in the paper. They include longtime Times columnist Patt Morrison, L.A. Weekly writer Erin Aubry Kaplan, Jonah Goldberg of the National Review and Tribune Media Services, Jonathan Chait of The New Republic, Meghan Daum of National Public Radio, Gregory Rodriguez of the New America Foundation, Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations, University of Virginia Law School professor Rosa Brooks, Harvard University professor Niall Ferguson, and Hollywood columnist Joel Stein.