Gawker: tim rutten

Still a Few More Years Before the Total Collapse of the NYT

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:03:13 EDT

In your sad Monday media column: the New York Times will limp along a little longer, Iran locks up journalists while they're engrossed in Twitter, Tim Rutten is predictable, and the television industry loses a couple billion, no biggie.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.A little while ago Michael Hirschorn wrote a piece in the Atlantic about the New York Times in which he pointed out that the paper could go out of business in May of 2009. This was a clearly hyperbolic statement, but now it's the chief thing that NYT "defenders" (as opposed to "impartial analysts") pick up and wave around: "Haha, look, we're still in business!" No shit. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. In Ad Age there's a piece suggesting that the Sulzbergers should be safely in charge of the NYT Co. until at least 2015, assuming a broader economic revival. Well, nothing to worry about, then. America's greatest paper won't be sold off to a heartless Mexican oligarch for pennies on the dollar for at least five or six more years. Once all the layoffs are done.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.This whole Iran business has news outlets showing web videos and Twitter messages that they haven't even personally verified, if you can imagine. Nevertheless, Iran now has more journalists in jail than any other nation. Foolish government, leave the journalists out there to keep spreading unverified Twitter messages which will destroy journalistic integrity forever, bwahaha!

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.The Serious Media spent too much time and space covering Michael Jackson's death, says Tim Rutten in the most predictable column ever written. Stop writing about it then, Tim.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Ho hum, the US television industry is looking at a $2 billion decline in ad revenue over the next four years, according to a new report. They call this an "inflection point" but we call it a "you will never get that MTV VJ gig you used to practice with a hairbrush in front of your mirror for" point.

Sam Zell Burns Boats On Shore Of New Tribune World!

Choire — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 10:30:36 EST

Tim Rutten's last media column for the LA Times is about the purchase of the paper's parent company by Sam Zell:

[W]hen Cortés landed on the shores of the New World, he burned his ships so that his men would know that death was the only alternative to success. For the foot soldiers of American commerce — like the 20,000 Tribune employees who have been drafted into serving as Zell's co-investors — that remains true, at least in a financial sense. But American capitalism being what it is, there's always a comfortable way out for the guys at the top.

It is exactly this sort of metaphor that will make me miss Rutten, before he shuffles off to the Op-Ed page. WHO WILL BE ZELL'S DOÑA MARINA? WHOOOOO? Disclosure: Does anyone care that I'm taking some of Sam Zell's money?

A change of hands for Tribune [LAT]

LA Times media columnist Tim Rutten castigated...

Choire — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:20:38 EST

LA Times media columnist Tim Rutten castigated the sports journalists of America over the weekend for not covering "the transformation of baseball clubhouses into the plush equivalent of crack houses." Then he went on to recount a blind item about a "very veteran National Hockey League defenseman," who told him decades ago that "If I were a racehorse, they'd never let me on the track." Well, that's the first time that quote appears on Nexis, so we're gonna assume that either Mr. Rutten was writing for the Podunk Weekly or that he also turned a blind eye to sports doping. [LAT]

CNN, 'LATimes' And Politico To Host January Debates

Maggie — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:10:37 EST

The final two presidential debates before Super Tuesday will be co-hosted at the end of January by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico. Apparently, nobody relayed news of this partnership to LA Times media critic Tim Rutten, who, over the weekend, called CNN "corrupt" and "incompetent" for botching last week's "debacle masquerading as a presidential debate." Awkward! Also, we think it would make some damn fine television if Politico reporter Ben Smith was allowed to ask Rudy Giuliani a question on live TV, such as "How much do you hate me for writing about your mistress slush fund and exposing the blueprints for your presidential campaign?" [LAT]