O'Shea Is Not Good Enough To Criticize Keller

Just as Andrew Johnson could never adequately replace Abraham Lincoln, so James O'Shea will never adequately replace Dean Baquet. He and David Heller should return to Chicago, the Tribune Co. should be broken up, and the L.A. Times be restored to local control.

These conclusions are no-brainers. And the more O'Shea talks, as he did to the L.A. Weekly's Nikki Finke, the more he puts his foot in his mouth and proves himself unworthy to be editor of the Times or a (part-time) resident of Southern California.

"There's some pretty well-written stuff in the (LAT), But my emphasis is on shorter articles," O'Shea states. "People don't have a lot of time."

What this means is that O'Shea wants to dumb down the Times to the abysmal level of the Chicago Tribune and treat Los Angelenos as if they were hicks like Chicagoans. He is so used to his inferior city that he thinks every Californian should sink to its level. And, of course, aware that Tribune is shrinking the L.A. Times news hole, O'Shea wants to go ahead with Tribune's treatment of the Times as the wicked stepmother treated Cinderella.

Also, O'Shea states he is fed up with Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times for stating, "(The Washington Post will) probably go hire all the good people from the L.A. Times...All the good people who are left after we've finished our own hiring."

"Somebody sitting in New York isn't a god of journalism," O'Shea says. "I personally don't take shots at their paper."

What a fool! James O'Shea isn't fit to fetch coffee for Bill Keller, and he's certainly not fit to defend the L.A. Times against personnel raids from the Washington Post, the New York Times, or, for that matter, the Valley News.

Now that he's moved into Manhattan Beach, probably so he can eye all the stewardesses who live there, and is driving his Lexus downtown, O'Shea is pretending he is a legitimate resident of this area.

Not for long, I hope. Otherwise, we'll see just how persona non grata he is when the Tribune resumes cut backs at the Times.