Posted 1:05 PM by steve

Patterico did his usual great job critiquing the LA Times... which in turn brought him some criticism from Michael Hiltzik,, a business columnist for the LAT... which in turn brought Hiltzik some criticism from the likes of Tom Maguire and Cathy Seipp...

One of Hiltzik's complaints, that the likes of Patterico don't care about improving the product, prompted this particular response from Seipp:

Hiltzik "actually thinks the left only criticizes newspapers for not doing their job well enough; the right, he insists, complain when papers are trying to do their job at all".

Well, I think Hiltzik is right... it all comes down to what the definition of 'their job' is.

To the likes of Hiltzik, 'their job' is to do everything they can to lessen public support for conservatives and conservative causes and to build as much support as possible for liberals and liberal causes... while people like me view their job as getting the facts straight, keeping their personal views out of the paper and not trying to advance a personal political viewpoint through selective quotes, relegating opposing viewpoints to 'below the fold' and so on.

By this standard, of course, liberals complain when the media isn't doing "their job well enough", i.e., not doing enough to advance the liberal agenda... and conservatives complain when they do try to do "their job".

Makes sense to me... the MSM long ago stopped being happy simply reporting the news and started viewing themselves as agents of change.

So my suggestion to those like Hiltzik is pretty straightforward: go back to doing things the right way... and we'll have a whole less to criticize you about.

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