What to do about Michael Hiltzik?

I hope that as editors at the Los Angeles Times ponder that question, they are able to isolate Hiltzik’s act from the medium, and not retreat from their (limited) efforts to a create more interactive news organization.

Hiltzik’s self-promoting pseudonymous comments crossed a line — but as his angry anti-Patterico screed this morning showed, it’s one he must not be able to see.

The fact that he hacked into co-worker’s email accounts, though over a decade old, is relevant since it reinforces the notion that he’s a loose canon.

A Times staffer once described Hiltzik to me; I can’t quote verbatim, but I’m fairly certain the words “smart,” “arrogant,” and “a**hole” were all in close proximity.

Those aren’t bad things for a blogger. But mixed in with what seems to be a win-at-any-cost mentality, it points to the need for closer supervision — probably not what Hiltzik got while writing his blog. LAT management bears some — not much, but some — of the blame for this little fiasco.

What shouldn’t be blamed, even unconsciously, is the medium. It would be easy for the LAT to learn the “lesson” that reporters or columnists can’t be trusted with blogs.

I hope they go the other way. While I don’t enjoy Hiltzik’s blog — too self-righteous, too ad-hominem, and too venomous — the LAT should let more staffers blog, not less.

If the LAT is concerned about a hit to its reputation, I think that’s overblown. Blogs are continuous op-ed pieces; and just like op-eds, the public associates them with the writer, not the paper that contains them. Hiltzik has embarrassed himself, not the LAT.

So — what to do about Hiltzik? Reinstate the blog. Let him bloviate. Let us find fault.

But please find more, and more interesting, in-house bloggers.

Please.

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Other thoughts by Patterico and Armed Liberal at Winds of Change.

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Our week o’ Hiltzik:

The comments that started it all are by nofanofcablecos here.

Our other posts on the Hiltzik affair in chronological order:

• Selective Comment Moderation at Michael Hiltzik’s Golden State Blog?
• Did We Violate Our Privacy Policy When We Outed Commenter “NoFanOfCableCos?”
• Michael Hiltzik’s big bad week in the blogosphere
• Los Angeles Times Suspends Hiltzik’s Blog for Ethics Violations
• Michael Hiltzik’s Other User ID’s

Technorati Tags: Hiltzik, LA Times, LAT, Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 20th, 2006 at 10:12 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under LA Times' Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.