The Los Angeles Times provides chuckles on an almost daily basis, but the chuckles grew to an uproarious bellylaugh when the paper announced its "ethics guidelines" in an article on July 15, 2005.

        Says the article,

The Los Angeles Times has issued a set of ethical guidelines designed to encourage the newspaper's journalists to limit the unnecessary use of anonymous sources, avoid conflicts of interest and write in precise language.

        According to laobserved.com, the actual code states,

"A fair-minded reader of Times news coverage should not be able to discern the private opinions of those who contributed to that coverage, or to infer that the newspaper is promoting any agenda. A crucial goal of our news and feature reporting – apart from editorials, columns, criticism and other content that is expressly opinionated – is to be nonideological." (emphasis added)

 

"Nonideological"? TheMediaReport.com would like to pose a few items:

1. Patterico.com addressed an instance of pure ideology inserted into a movie review of Wedding Crashers. The review appeared on the same day the Times published its guidelines!! Will occurrences like this continue?

Said the Times review:

From the first scene of the movie, as screenwriters Steve Faber and Bob Fisher’s raunchy, lunatic jokes begin to spill from the mouths of the protagonists in great, cheerful, Tourretic bursts, it’s clear that “Wedding Crashers” hearkens to a simpler, more innocent time — a time before the movies were hijacked by family-friendly merchandisers and bully moralists. Witty, unhinged and fearless, it’s exactly the kind of movie we need now; if only to give James Dobson something to get exercised about after a long day of focusing on the family.

Remarked Patterico.com,

It’s hard to imagine a Times critic taking a totally gratuitous potshot at a comical leftist figure. (“This is one Chinese restaurant that serves food so plentiful, even Michael Moore wouldn’t be hungry an hour later!”) [UPDATE: Or, a review of the “Dukes of Hazzard” movie might say: “This throwback to simple Southern pleasures, complete with the Confederate Battle Flag proudly displayed, is exactly the kind of movie we need right now; if only to give Jesse Jackson something to go on about after a hard day of shaking down corporate boards.” (Credit for that line goes to Kevin Murphy, with a tweak from the Clam.)]

 

2. Will the Times reign in the editorial control of copy editors who blatantly insert their own ideologies into Times articles?

Here and here are two egregious examples, as highlighted by TheMediaReport.com, where copy editors were flat-out derelict in their duties.

 

TheMediaReport.com says ... We're not holding our breath on any changes at the Times.