LA Times White Washes, Covers Up and Buries Their Lies About Skid Row!

On the front page of last week's Current section, the LA Times published an article on the alleged gentrification of Skid Row in which almost every statement was either an out and out lie - or a serious distortion of the truth as I demonstrated in yesterday's post.

http://lacowboy.blogspot.com/2006/08/la-times-op-ed-page-publishes-single.html#links

And while I had hoped that the Los Angeles Times would correct at least half of those lies and errors, instead - buried at the bottom of their corrections page is this pathetically inadequate response:

Gentrification: A July 30 Current article on urban revitalization said the Central City East Assn. had "literally swept and hosed" homeless people from encampments on skid row when it cleaned the streets recently. Homeless people had been informed a day in advance that the street would be washed, and the organization waited until everyone was out of the way before beginning the cleanup.

But that is just the beginning of the cover-up of the truth. First, let's look at all the corrections contained on today's on-line corrections page and see what the LAT considered more important than correcting the lead front page story in last Sunday's Cuurrent section about a major civic issue that was largely... fraudulent:

Negro Leagues: The Sports series on the Negro Leagues included a July 28 article on former team owners that said Alejandro Pompez was the first owner in the league to sign Latin players. In fact, several Latin players had signed with major league teams before Pompez became an owner. Also, a chart on July 30 listed those who made the jump from the Negro League Monarchs to Major League Baseball. Left off was Harold M. Jones, a Monarch who later signed with the Kansas City Athletics.

'I Love Led Zeppelin': A review of Ellen Forney's "I Love Led Zeppelin" in July 30's Book Review cited the author's account of attending a 1970s Halloween costume party with her father. The author actually recounts her mother's experience attending the party with Forney's father.

'Conversations With Other Women': An article about actress Helena Bonham Carter in today's Calendar says that "Conversations With Other Women," in which she stars, was directed by Hans Canosa from a script by his wife, Gabrielle Zevin. They are not married.

Museum blogs: An article about museum blogs last Sunday misspelled as Brian the first name of the Science Museum of Minnesota exhibition developer who manages its Science Buzz blog. His name is Bryan Kennedy.

Photographer's gender: A caption with an item last Sunday about an art exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center incorrectly referred to photographer Michal Ronnen Safdie as a man. Safdie is female.

Museum blogs: A Calendar article about museum blogs on July 30 misspelled the first name of the manager of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Science Buzz blog. His name is Bryan Kennedy, not Brian.

Mustard Day: A Sunday Punches item in July 30's West magazine misidentified the pope who created the office of Mustard Maker to the Pope. It was Pope John XXII of Avignon, not John XII.

"So You Think You Can Dance": An article last Sunday about the TV show "So You Think You Can Dance" mistakenly gave choreographer Nancy O'Meara's first name as Anne.

Solar energy: A Real Estate section article on July 30 identified a member of the American Solar Energy Society board as Alan Black. His name is Andy Black.

African tour: A tour to South Africa and Namibia in the July 30 Tours & Cruises column listed the single surcharge as $325. It is $1,325.

The article on blues deejay Margaret Ann Long-Dolan (a.k.a. Ann the Raven) left the impression that musician John Lee Hooker was still performing ("The Blue Raven," July 23). Hooker died in 2001. The article also indicated that Long-Dolan hosts one of three blues-centric radio shows in Southern California. In addition to the three mentioned, "The Blues Shack" broadcasts on KCLU-FM in Ventura County (88.3) and Santa Barbara (102.3).

The 800 Words column on the TV commercial ad for HeadOn ("Ad Nauseam," July 23) misspelled the diet pill Relacore as Realcore.

Gentrification: A July 30 Current article on urban revitalization said the Central City East Assn. had "literally swept and hosed" homeless people from encampments on skid row when it cleaned the streets recently. Homeless people had been informed a day in advance that the street would be washed, and the organization waited until everyone was out of the way before beginning the cleanup.

Ok - this major screw-up was buried as correction number 13 of 14 corrections. And it was considered less important than calling Alan Black, Andy Black (whoever he is), less important than getting the spelling corrrection on a freaking diet pill, less important than the cost of a surchage on a trip to Africa - and, my favorite, less important than not once, but twice, correcting the misspelling of the first name (Brian instead of Bryan) who is the ... drum roll please... manager of the Science Museum of Minnesota's Science Buzz blog; a correction which I am certain is of vital importance to everyone in Los Angeles.

And then in the printed paper, I had to look through the whole section twice before I found the correction of the front page, top of the fold story, and that correction was buried on the last page - buried under another correction.

Now before we get to the totally inadequate correction itself, I wanted to refresh myself on the article, so I went to the Current page on the website since it always has last week's stories on it. But, uh - no - it was not there. But, no bother, all stories are still free on-line for at least ten days, so just searched for Central City East and while I found the correction of the story and the CCEA's letter to the editor - I could not find the story itself

Then I searched 'Skid Row', and got tons of hits - but still not that article. Ok - so the LA Times search engine isn't the greatest. So I ran Tom Slater the writer and - still no article!

I then tried direct quotes from the article - and still no article. So it appears that someone has removed the article from the searchable database to try and hide the evidence.

I did - finally - find the story, though, by going to the on-line print edition and since last Sunday was no longer an option, I changed the 7 days back to an 8 in the URL - and I... finally... found the Slater story. And guess what - even though they were forced to print a (partial) correction - but have refused to correct the on-line story itself!

So why has the LA Times not only refused to correct 90% of the errors in the story, and then try to bury the correction? And when you do find the story - why has it NOT been corrected?

More on this in my next post.