Nolte: Executive Chaos and ‘Major’ Layoffs Hit Far-Left Los Angeles Times

The far-left Los Angeles Times is dealing with the “abrupt resignation” of its executive editor, Kevin Merida, and a coming round of “major” layoffs.

Yes, My Children, grab some milk, some cookies, and prepare yourself for yet another heartwarming tale of leftists hurting leftists…

Here’s the key portion of a statement released by the paper:

The company and the Guild are currently in discussion about how to proceed. In simple terms, the Guild is asking for buyouts prior to any layoffs, and management is asking for more flexibility in how layoffs will be conducted. Management also shared with the Guild that more flexiblility in how layoffs are conducted would allow the company to save 50 Guild positions.

We don’t yet have a firm number of how many job cuts are on the horizon, but if how the layoffs are conducted (buyouts or not) might or might not save 50 jobs, we’re likely looking at one of two things: a lot of overpaid deadwood in top management on the chopping block, or a very high number of layoffs in the general staff.

Whoever gets fired, they hate you and me, so it’s all good.

Here’s my second favorite part of the statement…

“Separately, the company received a letter from the Guild’s Black, Latino, AAPI [Asian/Pacific American], MENA [Middle East and North African], and Queer caucuses urging management to maintain the gains in diversity reached over the years.”

That I agree with 100 percent.

You see, because I want the Los Angeles Times to die the slowest and most painful and humiliating death possible, please, please, please continue to put “diversity,” quotas, and token hires above merit. That will ensure my dream comes true.

The Guild — which is obviously useless at protecting jobs and very good at collecting a piece of everyone’s paycheck — described the coming layoffs as a “major round” and revealed that management would like the Guild to “gut” its seniority protections to preserve jobs. The Guild’s statement closes with  a warning certain to put a smile on the face of normal people everywhere: “This is the Big One.”

Oh, man, I sure hope so.

This comes after the Times lost 13 percent of its staff to layoffs just last year.

At the risk of sounding entirely heartless to those of you who might lose a job where you are overpaid to spread hate against people like me, I offer this, which is nothing less than the opportunity at a second career.

But that’s only half the story… At the top of the heap, the L.A. Times is without an executive editor after Merida apparently had enough meddling from Nika Soon-Shiong, daughter of the paper’s billionaire owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. After only three years, Merida walked, and this is almost certainly why: “[S]ources point to friction with Soon-Shiong’s 30-year-old daughter, Nika Soon-Shiong, who in recent years has apparently appointed herself the paper’s unofficial ombudsman[.]” Using social media, she publicly attacks “journalists when their politics don’t fall in line with her own progressive thinking.”

More:

The most recent clash — and the one that might have been the last straw for Merida — involved the paper’s coverage of the war in the Middle East. According to insiders, a group of senior editors approached Merida to express outrage that more than three dozen Times reporters had signed a Nov. 9 statement severely critical of Israel’s invasion of Gaza but barely mentioning the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel launched from the Hamas-controlled territory. Insiders say Merida initially was reluctant to insert himself into the matter but decided to restrict, for 90 days, signers of the petition from participating in future coverage of the conflict. That decision reportedly did not go over well with Patrick Soon-Shiong, and couldn’t have thrilled Nika, either; she has made her pro-Palestinian views clear on her Twitter feed, where she has pinned a picture of the Palestinian flag and posted instructions to journalists to refer to Israel as an “apartheid state,” and even followed (and frequently “liked”) Quds News Network, a news agency often accused of being affiliated with Hamas.

The LA Times serves one of the most Jewish communities in the world, and the owner’s dilettante daughter is pushing the paper into pro-Hamas territory with her Twitter feed.

“The Times’ coverage of Israel has appeared, at least to some readers, to have grown noticeably more hostile since Nika began poking around the newsroom,” per the far-left Hollywood Reporter. “The day after the Hamas attack” that saw some 1,200 innocent Israelis massacred and hundreds kidnapped, “the Times illustrated its front-page report on the assault with a photo of an injured Palestinian child, a decision that triggered furious pushback on social media.”

This fallout continued after “a Times reporter attempted to debunk reports that Hamas fighters had committed rape and other atrocities during its Oct. 7 rampage[.]” In response, a “pro-Israel group sent a billboard truck to the Times offices, which circled the building playing videotaped testimony from survivors of the attack.”

This has been going on for years. Back in 2020, during the George Floyd riots, the owner’s daughter was “calling out staff writers on Twitter and clashing with Times leadership over the use of the term ‘looting’ in headlines.”

You can never get enough of the left eating its own. We close with this hearty laugh involving the owner’s wife, Michele:

More recently, Michele has reportedly been pushing for Patrick to sell the newspaper, seeing it as a gigantic money suck. During a Zoom conference in 2021 with the Black Caucus, she was said to have broken down in tears, complaining that the family had to write a million-dollar check every week to keep the paper afloat.

By the way, Breitbart’s hiring.

Get a FREE FREE FREE autographed bookplate if you purchase John Nolte’s debut novel, Borrowed Time (Bombardier Books). 

I find myself reading less and less these days as all pop culture (books, movies, music) have degenerated into simplistic “content” that tries to beat you over the head with a message. That being said, I found … Borrowed Time to be refreshing and delightful with complex characters and a messy (re: authentic) world. Also, I have to commend you on your idea of what heaven looks like. Too many writers have a trite vision of heaven, but I found both versions of heaven that you came up with (Doreen’s version of heaven as a campground with the Arthurs and Mason version with Doreen and Hok’ee) to be true to those characters and sublime.  — Reader email.

After your purchase, email JJMNOLTE at HOTMAIL dot COM with your address and any personalization requests.