April 18, 2004

A Different and Far Better LA TIMES?

This morning the LA TIMES appears to me to be almost a different newspaper. Perhaps it’s a one-time fluke; it seems too much to hope for that this would be a new direction for it.

Several front-page stories report on the achievements of a number of leaders, rather than slamming everything that moves, which has often been the way in the past; rather than slanting all stories to a Leftist agenda.

Here are the stories I’m referring to:

Israel Kills New Leader of Hamas

I knew yesterday that Israel had killed, as Drudge had reported “Another Hamas Leader.” But this story reports that Rantisi was the new head of Hamas.

The TIMES captions a photo of Rantisi, “FIREBRAND: Abdulaziz Rantisi sometimes took a harder line on Israel than did his predecessor,” which appears to support Israel’s move by saying Rantisi was even more of an enemy of Israel than his predecessor.

The second paragraph of the story says:

The airstrike came four hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed an Israeli border police officer at the main crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Again, that supports Israel’s move, rather than slams it.

Later in the story:

Frenzied crowds of young men swarmed over the twisted, smoldering wreckage of Rantisi’s car, which was struck just after 8:30 p.m. a block from his family home in the Sheik Radwan district of Gaza City.

Previously I’d only seen the phrase “car swarm” on LGF, which has frequently noted this ghoulish behavior common to some nations that support terrorism. This is the first time I’ve seen it reported on in the LA TIMES.

All of this adds up to a story that supports efforts to eradicate terrorism from the Earth. It puts the TIMES on the right side of America and of history.

Okay, here’s another story that impressed me. Reports on all the good news coming out of Iraq have been absent from the TIMES for months. Yet this morning, one such story is on the front page:

Disfigured Iraqis Are No Longer Scarred for Life

BAGHDAD Rolling on a gurney toward the dank operating room of Al Kindi Hospital recently, Khalid Abid Nimer flashed back to a decade earlier, when he had made a similar trip in the same hospital for a far different operation. Back then, Nimer’s arms were bound and his eyes were blindfolded to prevent him from seeing the reluctant surgeon who was ordered to carry out one of Saddam Hussein’s sadistic punishments: cutting off the right ears of Iraqi men deemed to be traitors. Nimer awoke alone in a recovery room that day, a solitary start to a life of shame and isolation. An estimated 3,600 Iraqis suffered the same fate, according to the newly formed National Iraqi Assn. for the Defense of Human Rights. Now hundreds of them are rushing to get plastic surgery to repair the physical wounds and the psychological ones.

... “These operations will help the men retrieve some of their dignity, to return to more normal lives,” said Mohammed Hussein, co-founder of the Iraqi human rights group, which was formed after the fall of the regime and has helped fund the surgeries.

And then there’s this:

Bold Risks Mark Bush’s Policy on Middle East

WASHINGTON Last fall, delegations began shuttling between Washington and Jerusalem to discuss a secret Israeli proposal that would overturn decades of Middle East diplomacy: a U.S. recognition of Israel’s claims to portions of the West Bank seized in the 1967 war and an acknowledgment that Palestinian refugees would never be able to exercise the “right of return” to lost land in Israel. At least some U.S. officials were anxious. How would the Arab world, already inflamed, react? But by late February, word had come down from the Oval Office: President Bush wanted to break with his predecessors. “The president said, ‘Find a way to make it happen,’ ” said an official with a pro-Israel group close to the negotiations.

Look at that: a TIMES story that supports President Bush. It’s like an entirely different newspaper.

And there’s still more. In the California section, the paper reports on the achievements of Gov. Schwarzenegger, whose election the paper had opposed with blatantly slanted coverage.

Some Are Unsettled by Gov.’s Victory

SACRAMENTO He has used his celebrity to flatter lawmakers into reaching deals, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger deployed a new tactic in pushing through an overhaul of the state’s costly workers’ compensation system: muscle.

Over the six weeks that talks unfolded, the governor set tight deadlines for lawmakers to act, used the prospect of a November ballot initiative as a weapon to keep negotiations moving, and mused about curbing the Legislature’s clout by pushing for a part-time body.

In the end, it worked. Schwarzenegger is to sign a bill in Long Beach on Monday that is expected to wring billions in savings from an insurance system often blamed for causing businesses to flee the state.

... “I like the idea of using the stick,” he said at a news conference Friday. “And I like the idea of using deadlines. Because why would we hang here for the next two years and negotiate and debate over this issue?”

The article is no puff piece; it reports on reasonable concerns some have about Schwarzenegger’s methods. But you come away appreciating his accomplishments and achievements—things the paper in the past has refused to cover.

One day is not enough to show that the TIMES has chosen a new direction for its coverage; but today’s edition shows the way the paper can go to help celebrate our achievements, as well as pointing out our errors.