Everything You Need to Know About the State of US Journalism

Tim Noah no longer has a job.

Andrew Malcolm still does.

Author: Jonathan Zasloff

Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees. Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses. Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy.

6 thoughts on “Everything You Need to Know About the State of US Journalism”

  1. Is there any metric that tells us how many people change their thinking because they have read something that Andrew Malcom wrote? I understand that a guy like that can get the already not-terribly-adept-at-critical-thinking to deepen their already deep trances. But how many new trances can he induce in those who are not already hypnotized? There ought to be a metric to measure how many people who had been respectful of Obama to change their minds decide that he is nothing more than the Smoker in Chief, with this change attributable to Andrew Malcom convincing them that their former opinion was wrong and his opinion is right. Is there such a metric?

  2. I’m stuck with the Denver Post after the Rocky Mountain News folded. We have a lifetime sub. as my better half’s dad retired from there, so we can’t really lose the memory… Anyway, I’ll stack my rickety stable of third-rate hacks and manure-shovelers against yours any day, buddy. Bring ’em on. The trip through the paper is very fast most mornings, let me tell you. Complaining about a non-print blogger is he? I got yer blogger and I’ll…um…ahem.

  3. I’m going to guess that there are more LA Times subscribers who would drop, or stop eyeballing the paper if the Malcolm perspective were not there, than there are people who wouldn’t eyeball Slate if it were lacking Noah. Noah also will still be putting pieces into Slate, Slate has moved him to freelance status from salaried status. Politico said: “Timothy Noah, author of Slate’s “Chatterbox” column, confirmed that he was one of the four editorial staffers laid off, and will now become a nonstaff “contributing writer.” He’s been on book leave since April writing a book about income inequality, based on a series he wrote last year for Slate..”

  5. I hope it’s just a matter of time before the Tribune sells the LAT and we get a clean sweep in there. I’m sorry to say it but there are a whole lot of people at the LAT who maybe ought to lose their jobs. Like, the entire editorial section.

    The LAT also does a cr*p job of covering labor issues — a reminder of the old days. Apparently there’s a big port strike up north and they don’t seem to have printed boo about it. The Verizon strike was barely covered too. I don’t even know if these strikes are still going. The word that comes to mind is … mediocre.

    But all we need is some rich person who wants a paper as a hobby … as long as s/he mostly goes fishing and lets the pros run it.

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