LAST WEEK in this space I described the Los Angeles Times’s slide into mediocrity and agenda journalism. Some objected. The Nation’s always reliable Eric Alterman condemned the column as “nonsensical,” and then quoted one of my objections–that “columnists who deal regularly with politics outside of the editorial pages come in two varieties: left and far-left.” To which Alterman replied: “Oh really. My goodness. Nora [sic] Vincent is on the page as part of what I perceive to be an affirmative action program for young right-wing lesbians.” Note that Alterman cites Vincent’s presence on the editorial page as evidence against my charge that outside of the editorial page, the Times employs only leftists. I suppose I shouldn’t object: After all, this is close-reading for the Nation.

Mickey Kaus, on the other hand, conceded the bias on the Times’s editorial page, but not at the paper in general. Kausfiles argued that “the LAT is getting better under its new owner.” About the horribly skewed op-ed pages, Kaus conceded that “Hewitt’s right . . . but the LAT’s recently-hired Nick Goldberg is trying to diversify it.”