In an editorial fit for The Onion or the Babylon Bee, Los Angeles Times’ letters editor Paul Thornton wrote a column this week entitled “If you want to leave, fine. But don’t insult California on the way out.” The column acknowledges an exodus from the state, but sees the problem as former Californians sharing their experiences about what drove them from the Golden State. It is like Captain William Bligh asking the mutinous crew of the Bounty for a reference as they head for the lifeboats.
Thornton wrote that “more than 800,000 Californians moved away in 2022, and many thousands more left last year. Often, the departees, cash in hand from the sale of their $1-million bungalows, feel the need to express disdain for their home state, and even some anger too.”
He then begs them to keep mum about their reasons for leaving the state, which commonly range from rising crime to high taxes to runaway spending. Instead, he portrays those leaving as intolerant bigots for criticizing the “California ways”:
“And which ways would those be? Perhaps it’s our embrace of LGBTQ+ Californians. Or it’s our liberal politics, with the state Republican Party shrunk to irrelevance after its vicious attempt in 1994 to marginalize immigrants with Proposition 187.”
The reference to Proposition 187 was interesting since it passed with roughly 60 percent of the vote in the blue state to deny social services to illegal migrants. It was blocked by the courts, not the voters, including many democrats. Recently, California added free healthcare to other benefits for undocumented migrants.
The week that Thornton wrote his plea for people to keep quiet about conditions in California, the staff of the LA Times conducted a strike to oppose massive layoffs due to declining readership and profits of the newspaper. Like other newspapers such as the Washington Post (which lost $100 million last year), the editors and reporters appear willing to consider any option other than returning to objective reporting.
We previously discussed the release of the results of interviews with over 75 media leaders by former executive editor for The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward. They concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.”
Downie recounted how news leaders today
“believe that pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading “bothsidesism” in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects. And, in today’s diversifying newsrooms, they feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.”
Now, objectivity is virtually synonymous with prejudice. Kathleen Carroll, former executive editor at the Associated Press declared “It’s objective by whose standard? … That standard seems to be White, educated, and fairly wealthy.”
The L.A. Times has long been known for such advocacy journalism. As readership and revenue declined, it has gone through various owners and restructurings. However, it is still effectively writing off half of the population with its advocacy reporting. That is why it is so telling that an editor’s solution to the state’s problems are the same: simply do not report the problems. It will have the same success as framing the news in the newspaper.
Thornton, however, pledges that they will stay the course — just as his paper has done:
“We have 39 million people, Hollywood and Shohei Ohtani. This state is a haven for reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, but income disparity and the housing crunch are critical problems we have to fix for progressive ideals to match the reality on the ground.”
One fix again being discussed is a wealth tax, which will likely expedite the exodus of those trash talking former residents. They are also planning to tap their emergency reserves as legislators continue massive spending plans.
There is a pathetic element to the column’s plea. High earners are leaving the state as many undocumented migrants continue to arrive. Thornton admits that “the departees, cash in hand from the sale of their $1-million bungalows, feel the need to express disdain for their home state, and even some anger too.” He is hoping that these “departees” simply say that they loved the state that they just left at considerable cost and inconvenience. Alternatively, they could just say “I can’t talk about it” to, as Thornton suggests, “extend some goodwill to those of us who remain?”
I happen to love California. I would go there to spend summers with my grandparents in Cherry Valley. I also used to write regularly for the LA Times. I am also an avid hiker who loves the wonderful parks in the state. I have been crushed by watching the decline of both the state and the paper. The way to send “goodwill” to those who remain is to tell the truth about the state and the disastrous course that it is on.
We should not have to wait for LA Times or the state to collapse to discuss these problems. Both are a huge part of our nation and our history. So here is an idea for the LA Times. Instead of asking “departees” to stay silent, why not start to listen to them?
Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to lauded for his work in California. Newsom has received the “U-Haul Salesman of the Year Award” for the third year in a row.
Just to be clear – it was Captain Bligh heading to the lifeboats.
There is a place in Sienna Italy called the “Sala die Nova” which is the Salon of Nine where the elected officials conducted government. On the walls are paintings by Amrogio Lorenzetti that were painted in 1338. The theme is “Good Government” and “Bad Government.”
The virtues of Good Government are depicted by six female figures in crowns and they represent: Peace, Fortitude, Prudence, Magnanimity, Temperance and Justice. Justice is painted in another part holding the balance of Wisdom. On another side of the room is a depiction of the results of Good Government with the citizens happy, having a wedding and the harvests are plentiful, thriving and prosperous. The commonwealth is peaceful, safe and secure. The artist depicts that it is the people participating in the process that allows this bounty.
The effects of Bad Government are less detailed but the city wall is crumbling, Tyranny, replete with horns and fangs, sits on the throne with his feet on a goat (luxury) holding a dagger. Below Tyranny, Justice is bound and the figures of Cruelty, Deceit, Fraud, Division and War surround Tyranny.. Above him ar Avarice, Price and Vainglory all considered enemies of human life. The scene of the city is that or ruin, windows open, houses demolished, businesses nonexistent, except the armourer. The streets are deserted and in the countryside are armies engaged in battle.
The painting was made to remind the city counselors, nine in number, that when they make decisions, there are direct and indirect consequences. What we are witnessing now is a full display of human nature that is absent of goodness and those in power who are in power for the sake of power and self gain. The United States of America is under a coordinated attack and the results are being seen in certain states that were once the the powerhouse of world business. The erosion over time will weaken the strong foundation upon which this nation was built and attracted individuals from every part of the world who had a dream in their mind and the willingness to put in the sweat and toil to dare and take risks to bring about something special.
The painting is nearly 700 years old but the theme remains fresh and relevant to our current events.
I forgot to add Fury and “Price” should be “Pride.”
E.M.:
Thank you very much for making me aware of the “Allegory of Good and Bad Government” frescoes.
Their theme is grand scale and important. And they are a great example of the early-Renaissance style. Notice how the artist is just getting a handle on perspective.
An absolutely brilliant work of art.
So Sad. Tragic. Born and raised in NorCal. When I return to visit, I don’t recognize my home state. What happened to the land of Reagan? Too bad Rush Limbaugh isn’t still working at the Sacramento radio station where he got his start. He’d have more comic material than he could use. The ultra-radical, liberal, progressive Marxists have taken over. May it sink into the Ocean. Or better yet, be split into 3 separate States.
This story reminds me of Emily T. Gail who started a movement “Say Nice Things about Detroit” at a time (early 1980’s) when the city was in decline. Her words, and the words of others, did not stop the decline. Ms. Gail moved to Hawaii. Her boyfriend moved to Canada.
Edwardmahl,
Is that not the MO of woke leftists?
Invade an area. Corrupt it. Destroy it. Then leave.
We can see it from so many woke leftists Democrats who do the same to make those cities and states into failed cities and states.
Just look at California, or Chicago, Seattle, or Portland.
All Democrat failures.
Let it, and the state, crash and burn
It was about the time of Prop. 187 that progressives began suggesting that responsible voters unhappy with California’s turn toward political insanity “just leave.” Eventually they did, first in a trickle and today in a tidal wave. And now progressives, cowering in fear, swimming in debt, and surrounded by filth, are frantic to somehow lure responsible young people into policing the cities they’ve turned into hell holes. $100k starting salaries, $75k signing bonuses: too bad they didn’t raise enough responsible young people.
Jonathan: Judging by many of the comments about California some seem to think the answer is to do what the IDF is doing in Gaza. Anonymous (the one disconnected from reality) thinks “We are NOW in WWII” so why not? He claims “progressives” in CA “want to turn it into Brazil with some virulent anti-white bigotry thrown in”(1/23@4:17pm). He thinks white people are endangered in the Golden State and should probably leave–and turn the state over to the Blacks and the Mexicans. Now Anonymous says he has lived in CA for decades. Considering his dire predictions why doesn’t he just leave the state? UpstateFarmer thinks CA is a “failed state” because “everything else Democrats touch, they ruined it” (1/23@4:12pm). Others agree thinking CA should be compared with Brazil and Venezuela.
To those above I think they need a reality check. CA is not a “failed state” and can’t be compared to Brazil, for example. Brazil is 2,008% larger than California. Brazil’s economy is dwarfed by just the economy of Southern California. And I know something about Brazil. We have close friends who live in Rio and have visited them many times when we lived in LA. They live in a high-rise penthouse condominium close to Ipanema Beach. The entrance is guarded day and night by armed patrols. You can’t compare daily life in LA with what Brazilians have to put up with in Rio.
On a personal level daily life has not changed much in LA over the last 20 years. Except for the traffic. It’s horrific! and smog has returned to the city. And what is the “progressive” leadership in Sacramento doing about the smog problem? By 2035 all new vehicles will have to be zero-emission. That’s what “progressives” do to tackle a problem.
Now, I live in a very “red” state. It’s DJT country where “drill, drill drill” is the mantra. But what happens in 20 years when my state is faced with oppressive smog and residents end up in the hospital with severe respiratory problems? Will the state’s GOP MAGA leadership finally try to address the problem by passing legislation similar to that in CA? By then it might be too late.
We do miss LA despite all the challenges of getting around. LA is a melting pot of many different races and ethnicities. I like that. I speak Spanish so I miss the opportunity to practice the idiom where I now live. I miss the sights, sounds and smells of East LA. The chance to enjoy the authentic cuisine of Mexico. For example, there is a little Mexican restaurant on Gage Ave. between the 110 and 710 freeways. The name is “La Casita Mexicana” and features the cuisine of Jalisco. The owners of the restaurant are two gay partners from Mexico who Bobby Flay calls “the Kings of authentic Mexican cuisine”. That says it all about LA–diversity with a capital “D”!
Now LA has its pollution, crime and traffic jams. But what large city doesn’t have the same problems? That’s why I often play Randy Newman’s songs–especially his famous song “I Love LA!”. I walk around the house shouting “I Love LA!”. That speaks volumes about how I feel about the city where I was born and raised. So for Anonymous and others who still live in CA why don’t you just pack up and move to my state where the cost of living is more reasonable and there are few traffic jams? And you will love the politics!
After reading your article, it’s easy to surmise that you were part of the problem. I hope you learned your lesson and you are not a part of the problem in the new state that you are living in. People live there because they love it, don’t try to change it with your leftist politics.
I was moved by your response. I hope you get back to Los Angeles, hopefully permanently, as soon as you can.