Update: Scheer's straight-to-the-point response.
Scheer responds
In an email to friends and supporters, soon-to-be-ex Times columnist Robert Scheer blames Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson for his ouster from the op-ed page:
On Friday I was fired as a columnist by the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, where I have worked for thirty years. The publisher Jeff Johnson, who has offered not a word of explanation to me, has privately told people that he hated every word that I wrote. I assume that mostly refers to my exposing the lies used by President Bush to justify the invasion of Iraq. Fortunately sixty percent of Americans now get the point but only after tens of thousand of Americans and Iraqis have been killed and maimed as the carnage spirals out of control. My only regret is that my pen was not sharper and my words tougher.
Posted November 11, 2005 08:22 AM
Anytime you're ready for my daily, weekly, or even monthly column, Los Angeles Times, just let me know. I'm used to working cheap; that ought to appeal to you.
Second update: My letter to the Times:
I was surprised to read Andres Martinez' claim that your editorial pages feature "all points of view and the broadest range of opinion" in the news section of the paper, rather than on the funny pages where it belongs. Like most American media, the real range of opinion featured on your pages ranges from mildly liberal to extremely right-wing. Real left-wing voices, like Norman Solomon or Noam Chomsky, aren't even remotely in your spectrum, and now, apparently, even just regular liberal voices like Robert Scheer's aren't welcome.
I've been writing a blog of news and analysis from a left-wing perspective on a daily basis for more than two years now, and, as an unpaid blogger, you can guess I'm willing to work cheap. As an active member of the antiwar movement, and as someone who believes American troops should be withdrawn from Iraq now (by which I mean this week, not the end of next year), I represent the sentiment of a substantial portion of the American public, yet, strangely, one which is totally absent from your editorial pages. Surely my point of view must be one of those "all" you talk about featuring.
As far as my writing talent, you can judge that for yourself -- all two year's plus of my writing is available on my blog, Left I on the News (http://lefti.blogspot.com).
I'll await your call.
