Tell Zell: Bye Lines, LA Times

Another round of farewell emails. Photog Bob Carey penned one of the best goddamned exits in a while. Full text:

I am a very lucky man. I've spent the last 24 years at the Los Angeles Times as a photographer and a photo editor. I can tell you what it's like in the eye of a typhoon, in a firestorm, under an offshore oil platform or the wrong side of the green line in Mogadishu. I know what a whale feels like and I've buzzed icebergs. I've had lunch with rock stars and seen President's sweat. I've tried to get Carolyn Cole out of jail, even.

When I die, I hope I have a bag of popcorn, because if my life flashes by, it's going to be a hell of a show.

Best of all, I've had the pleasure of your company. I can't imagine a more engaging, talented and dedicated group of people anywhere. Years ago, I was cooling my heals at some news event next to a New York Times reporter who had worked here. She said, "Oh! The Los Angeles Times! The New York Times is warm on the outside but cold on the inside. The Los Angeles Times is warm on the outside and warm on the inside."

Civility. Kindness. Fairness. Intelligence. These are the qualities that pervade the Los Angeles Times. Stay here for a while, and it get's in your blood.

Those folks who pine for the demise of the gatekeeper media don't know squat. What people really want out of the news business is a fair shake. We do that here. We worry about the truth and getting it right the first time.

There were 1,200 of us, but now there are a little more than half of that. I like to think that the Los Angeles Times is not so much diminished as dispersed. All those folks who have left the building still carry the Los Angeles Times spirit around with them. It's my turn to join them.

I am a very lucky man.

Bob Carey

Tell Zell: Bye Lines, LA Times