Kinsley Forced Out at L.A. Times

Posted on September 14, 2005

Editor and Publisher reports that über-editor Michael Kinsley has gotten the heave-ho from The L.A. Times. And the parting wasn't pretty.

Michael Kinsley, the high-profile editorial page honcho and columnist at the Los Angeles Times since 2004, has been forced out at the paper, ending on what he called a "bitter note." The Times announced Tuesday that Andres Martinez will take on full responsibility for the editorial and Op-Ed sections at the paper.
Kinsley, who had lost his main managerial duties several weeks ago, found the latest turn of events unexpected, writing in a memo to colleagues today that publisher Jeff Johnson wanted a "clean break." Johnson used the same phrase himself a little later in announcing the exit.
"For whatever reason," Kinsley wrote from Washington, D.C., in the memo posted at the blog L.A. Observed, "Jeff isn't merely uninterested in any future contribution I might make, but actively wants me gone. So I'm off, with some regret and some excitement, to the Washington Post, duties TBD but including the column. I hope it will continue to appear in the LA Times as well, but that is beyond my control.
"I'm sorry this has ended on a bitter note. I've loved my brief time at the Los Angeles Times. I've learned a lot, and made (I hope) some friends for life. Even the frustrations have been fascinating frustrations. And I think I've done some good for the paper, though others may not agree. The LA Times has some of the nicest people and finest journalists I've ever worked with, starting at the top with Dean (Baquet). And even Jeff will have to give me credit for bringing in Andres. I expect great things from him, and from you."

It's all so dramatic and personal: it sounds more like the father-son drama that just played out at News Corp between Rupert Murdoch and least-favored-son Lachlan Murdoch, who just got his pink slip. We sense a dark tale full of vicious backstabbing, raw emotion and heated battles. Or that could just be the influence of all those epic fantasies we've been reading lately.