Take Back the Times: L.A. Times Should Restore Specific Bylines

In the lead story of Sunday's Los Angeles Times, Doyle McManus, the Times' venerable Washington bureau chief, has a useful article laying out prospectives for the new debate on Iraq war policy that will be kicked off this week in Congress by the release of the report by General David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, as to how the war is going there months after President Bush ordered a "surge" of U.S. troops.

McManus is a far more authoritative writer, and far fairer I might add, to all sides of the debate than the antiwar advocate in the Washington bureau, Noam Levey, who has been covering the Democratic side of the debate this year.

But in the old days, before editor John Carroll scrapped the tradition of having bylines that identified staff writers by their specific roles at the newspaper, such as "Times political writer," "Times Science Writer," "Times Urban Affairs Writer," "Times Religion Writer," and so on, McManus would have been identified by his title, "Times Washington Bureau Chief" just under his byline. This would have tipped off readers that they were reading a report by the Times' senior national reporter.

It is time to bring back this system. In addition to giving readers' more information as to just who they are hearing from when they are looking at an article on a specially-defined subject, it also confers on the senior reporters some additional title that brings with it a higher status.

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L.A. Times Should Restore Specific Bylines