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Times theater critic Charles McNulty weighs in via blog on the layoff of LA Weekly theater overseer Steven Leigh Morris:
The news that Steven Leigh Morris, long-standing theater editor of the L.A. Weekly, was laid off in this latest round of Village Voice Media slash-and-burn management, is as exasperating as it is sobering.Yes, the newspaper industry is in freefall. And yes, the tanking economy has only exacerbated the situation. But sacking Morris — a strong incentive for picking up the Weekly — is the equivalent of destroying the village to save it. Double-think strikes again.
Morris hasn’t just been a champion for L.A. theater, big and small, spotlighted and marginalized. He is also a playwright who has approached criticism as an act of writing — one artistic sensibility bearing intelligent witness to another.
Also: At Marc Cooper's blog, his rant about the ruination of the old LA Weekly by the forces of New Times set off a heated round of comments from former staffers, plus assorted fans and enemies, including ex-New Times Los Angeles editor Rick Barrs and Zuma Dogg. Cooper also calls on the L.A. Times to print its first words on the near-total transformation of the LA Weekly in recent years: "With no prejudice, hostility, or rancor, might I now publicly and politely ask Times media reporter James Rainey and/or sometimes media columnist Tim Rutten to please take the time to do this story?"