LA Register rolls off the presses, explains its free market bias

Sections from the first edition of the Los Angeles Register, posted to Twitter.

The new Los Angeles Register looks to have a column by TJ Simers teased on the front page as his triumphant return to LA, a column about LA movies by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the local page, and a front-page piece on why the Register is expanding into Los Angeles. The sections above were posted to Twitter by Register staffers, along with pics of them observing the presses with a bottle of bubbly in the picture.

The website is up and has restaurant critic Brad A. Johnson telling us the five LA spots that he says are the hardest to get a reservation at — he says Maude, Republique, Orsa & Winston, Bestia and Trois Mec. On the editorial page, an unsigned editorial opens with a bit of a false start that doesn't bode well — claiming "the accepted wisdom about LA" is that it's monolithically Democratic and liberal but the Reggies know better — and offers a curious allusion to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor at the start of World War II. But the piece does, finally, give voice to the bias that Aaron Kushner has been saying that the paper will be proudly building into its view of its new city:

Los Angeles Register Opinion aims to infuse a new perspective into the political and public policy debate in our community and lead the charge for a new generation of liberty-minded, free-market intellectuals.

To do so, we deliberately try to ignore party affiliation, focusing instead on principles and ideas with a very simple bright line: What can be done to increase economic and social liberty?

We favor free-market economic and fiscal policy and believe government – at all levels – should exercise budgetary prudence and restraint.

We believe individuals have the right, and are solely suited, to make the incredibly personal decisions about who to love, what to buy and what to consume.

And we believe that thriving cities and regions need a strong advocate for community building and development to support the everyday people who are the lifeblood of any great metropolis.

There's a nice graphic on how the rivers that cut across LA County came to be encased in concrete.

Also: Kushner was interviewed on KPCC on Tuesday.