As for the LA Times, part of its problem is a basic lack of accuracy. LA Cowboy (http://lacowboy.blogspot.com) has some rather gruesome examples of the paper’s leadership not knowing its own city.

I think it likely that the LAT’s political stances are costing it readership. I’d just like to see a little more neutrality.

I’m not a fan of really hard partisan stuff from either wing. Hewitt, while obviously partisan, is not deranged about it. That I can live with. He’s also a big supporter of the troops. That really makes him OK in my book.

Yes, you do have standards. I think you would not be taken in by a supposed press release that says the governor of Wyoming is nullifying federal law. Shades of John C. Calhoun! I’d call the White House for response, at least.

I’d also be suspicious if I found the press release on other Web sites, but not at the governor’s own Web site. That merits a call to the governor’s office, even if it’s during the holidays. This is pretty basic reasoning.

As for Hiltzik, I am aghast at the low factual quality of his argument in the piece against Hewitt, and in his arguments with Patterico. This should not be a liberal vs. conservative issue. It’s a matter of Hiltzik not meeting elementary standards of journalism.

For the record, I don’t care much for Hewitt’s site, as I don’t care for his counterparts on the left. Such sites are way too party line for my taste — “Four legs good, two legs better!” Patterico is willing to point out important facts even when they are uncomfortable ones for his side, and he also seems to be enjoying himself more.

I read about the article you mention when it happened. Funny as heck. And you call me for sourcing! I have some standards!

Around the beginning of the year, Hiltzik published a two-part response to Patterico that was extremely flabby. Part One was almost entirely nonresponsive to Patterico’s claims about LA Times errors and mostly consisted of name-calling. Winds of Change said what I had been thinking for the last couple of months — that Hiltzik is being sloppy and leaving himself open to counterattacks. That’s dumb when going up against a prosecutor.

Some of Patterico’s criticisms of the Times are matters of news judgment, such as the play given to a story, and thus are gray areas. It would be better if he stuck entirely to indisputable, massive errors. Not that he would lack for examples.

My favorite example of such an inexcusable LA TImes error was in a front page article in December. The reporter mistook an Internet prank for a real press release from the Wyoming governor’s office.

http://www.regrettheerror.com/2005/12/la_times_quotes.html

So much for the legendy four levels of editing that the late LAT writer David Shaw boasted of at his paper. The article ran on Dec. 27, which I think may be related to letting this howler get published.

Trivia: The Wyoming governor’s press secretary, Lara Azar, used to work at my paper. In fact, she replaced me as business reporter in its Temecula office.