Progressive Readers Meet With 'LA Times' Editors in Wake of Scheer Firing

By: E&P Staff A delegation of progressive Los Angeles Times readers angry with last month's firing of columnist Robert Scheer met Dec. 13 with Times editors -- and have devised an "inside-outside" protest strategy.

That's according to an LAObserved.com report linked Tuesday on Jim Romenesko's media blog at Poynter.org.

The delegation -- which said it met for 90 minutes with Times Editorial Page Editor Andres Martinez and Op-Ed Editor Nicholas Goldberg -- wants more liberal voices in the Times to balance conservative columnists such as Max Boot and the Tribune Media Services-syndicated Jonah Goldberg. Martinez and Goldberg said the Times does run various pieces containing liberal commentary.

The "inside-outside" approach involves some unhappy Times readers re-subscribing on a contingency basis (to see what the opinion pages look like in the next three months) while others don't re-subscribe. The delegation also suggested that people write the Times to praise or criticize opinion content.

Those meeting with the Times editors included representatives from Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, SoCal Grassroots, and Chicano Moratorium, according to LAObserved.com.

Scheer, who's syndicated by Creators Syndicate, is now affiliated with the San Francisco Chronicle.