Cruelest blow

By Kevin Roderick

Newsroom sources at the Los Angeles Times are angry that today's axe fell on ex-publisher Jeff Johnson at a personally difficult time. According to the sources, a family member this week received distressing medical news. Tribune bosses who headed to Los Angeles to remove Johnson were asked to delay the inevitable, in deference to the developing health situation. They reportedly did allow one day's reprieve, but the company's unwillingness to hold off further appears to have heightened the simmering anti-Tribune feeling in the Times building. As it was, Editor & Publisher, which did not mention the medical issue, picked up today on the hard feelings on Spring Street. Longtime investigative reporter and editor William Rempel told E&P, "resentment runs deep and wide...There is no one in the building who has any confidence in Tribune management to do what is right for our newspaper or for journalism. It is punishment for Jeff for speaking truth to management and doing it publicly."

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