Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Missing Local Obit Big News In LA Times? Nope! Just Business As Usual!

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2006/01/first_thing_wednesday_140.html

Kevin Roderick over at LA Observed finds it wrong that the New York Times scooped the LA Times on the passing of a major local figure:

Unless the L.A. Times search engine has it wrong, this is frankly just embarrassing for the hometown paper: today's New York Times runs an obituary on Frank Wilkinson, the Los Angeles city official who became a key figure in the Chavez Ravine controversies of the 1950s and who spent time in federal prison for refusing on First Amendment grounds (not the usual Fifth) to tell Congress whether he was a communist. (He was.) A judge finally ordered the FBI to stop spying on Wilkinson, who died Monday at age 91 in Los Angeles. Nothing in the Los Angeles Times, far as I can tell.

This, however, is the standard practice at the LA Times.

Today, for example, there are several obits on national figures that are printed close to the dates of their deaths. But when it comes to one of the most important leaders in the local Asian-American community of the past century, highly decorated war hero - Retired Army Col. Young O. Kim....

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-kim4jan04,0,2288053.story?coll=la-home-obituaries

It took almost a full week before his passing was noted. And when it came to noted local educator, John Leichty -

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-leichty4jan04,0,7579394.story?coll=la-home-obituaries

It took a full week before his passing was covered.

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