Al Martinez Sacked-One Less Reason to Read the Los Angeles Times

I tried to send an e-mail to my favorite columnist at his work web-site the other day, and it was returned as undeliverable. That was an immediate red flag because Al Martinez is, actually now it is was, a columnist with the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

I basically abandoned the Los Angeles Times quite some time ago after many years as a faithful subscriber. I did so because I could no longer stomach the leftist/liberal persuasion that escaped the editorial pages and wormed itself into the news sections like a virus infecting and sickening the entire body. Gone, for the most part, was objectivity and balanced reporting. In short, the LA Times could no longer be trusted to be my news provider. Their dishonesty and misinformation was more than I could stand.

Last weekend, the LA Times had a booth at the Simi Valley Cajun Festival. I got a chance to use my favorite newspaper joke when asked by a booth sitter if I wanted to subscribe to the LA Times. The scenario goes like this. The solicitor said, “Do you take the LA Times?” I replied, “No, but I will when it is printed on pink paper.” One of the solicitors smiled and laughed, but his companion didn’t get the joke, and he was left standing there with a blank stare. I had to explain about the LA Times’ political agenda bleeding over and contaminating the news sections.

There is no secret that the LA Times has fallen upon financial bad times, and it has been reported that there were to be staff reductions. So, it is no surprise that Al was let go. He may be a dinosaur in today’s newspaper business world. He’s an old school sort who writes honestly from the heart with no pretenses about his admittedly liberal persuasion. He’s a columnist and as such he is entitled to write with a liberal bent. I did not know of Al’s writings as a news journalist, but I can’t help but believe that such a decent man wrote with anything but fairness and balance.

So, Al wrote his goodbye column, “Goodbyes are just too damned hard” and it ran in today’s paper. Now I have no reason to go to the LA Times on the Internet every Monday and Friday. I’ll just have to find some other way to start my day.

Al, I won’t say goodbye because you have more to offer to the world, and I’m hopeful that I will find where you will be published in the future. But, I will say that I’ll miss you for the time being.

Yes Al, I am violating the principle that you taught me about letting a piece sit for a day or so before publishing to be sure that it resonates properly. But, I’m writing from the heart, and today that’s good enough.