There’s a point to this all, so bear with me.  It’s not about a favorite food, though it may seem so on the surface.
 
The tale does begin though with what has become a favorite food.  It’s known as “Nashville hot chicken” and has become very popular in Los Angeles, and apparently has been spreading through other parts of the country.  It began back in 1936 when Thornton Prince opened the BBQ Hot Chicken Shack (in Nashville, of course…), which later changed its name Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in the 1980s.
 
I became a big fan of the food five years ago when Kim Prince (great-great niece of the original) opened her wonderful Hotville Chicken in South Central Los Angeles.  The inveterate Chris Dunn -- who introduced me to the place -- and I began frequent lunches there, and I wrote about Hotville four years ago here, if you want to know more about the place and its history.  Though that’s not the point here.
 
As great as their food is -- and it is great, in fact a “Best of L.A.” award--recipient from Los Angeles Magazine and making the Los Angeles Times 101 Best Restaurants list -- the owner/chef Kim Prince is even better.  She’d visit with the customers, and Chris and I have always loved our conversations with her, not a perfunctory "How's it going, how was your meal?," but stopping to talk, sitting down sometimes ​for 10-15 minutes. Full of kindness, not just for her customers, but her community, but even (actually) for her competitors.  She wants everyone to succeed, and puts actions to her words, a dynamo going out through the city relentlessly.  But that’s not the point here either – though it gets closer to it.
 
Because of COVID and the restaurant’s difficult location (though one Kim insisted on because of the community), Hotville Chicken unfortunately had to close down.  However, she teamed up with another pillar of the community, Greg Dulan of the legendary L.A. spot, Dulan’s Soul Food on Crenshaw – and the two created a successful food truck, Dulanville, which has relentlessly (of course) traveled throughout the city for the past several years.  And no, that too is not the point, but we’re getting close.
 
The point (and finally, we’re there…) is that last week, Kim Prince and Greg Dulan were on Jimmy Kimmel Live!  The reason is that he’s been featuring local chefs who have shown up in wildfire zones to feed people in need – and Kim and Greg, being who they are, are among those.
 
But it’s even more impressive than that.  To put it in perspective, when I sent an email to the Hotville account about how nice it was to see her on Kimmel’s show, she wrote back the following note, the details of which blew me away.  Though (being who she is), I wasn't surprised at that.  She wrote –

​​Here’s the video of their appearance on the show –
​

 
No, I didn’t watch the Inauguration.  I had better things to do than great dragged into dystopia and listen to lies.  There’s four years ahead to witness it and hopefully see it implode on its own venality, encircled by a better world.
 
And I had better things to do.  Including this morning rectify a huge oversight.  And that’s note the passing the other day of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, at the age of 87. 
 
I never saw the trio perform in person, though did see Peter and Paul each perform separately during the few years they all had apart before reuniting for a long return.  I saw Peter in Chicago in a large auditorium.  And Paul, when I was working on the movie Pet Sematary in Ellsworth, Maine – he lived five miles down the road in Blue Hill, and gave a concert in town.  (It was sold out, but a father and daughter had an extra ticket at the door.)
 
I also had sort of personal contact with the group, kind of.  It’s a story I told at length here.  The very short version is that when I was a little kid, about 11, our family too a Sunday to “visit O’Hare airport” and wander around.  At one point, my older brother thought he saw a well-known basketball player (named Jerry Lucas), and he and I went off to track him down.  (Imagine today parents letting their young kids wander off in an airport.  It was a very different time…)  My brother was right, it was Lucas, we got his autograph and, very excited, returned back to our parents.  We all headed off to some chairs to rest and enjoy our treasure – and when we sat down, saw some musical instruments on them.  On which were tags saying, “Peter, Paul and Mary”!  (Imagine today professional musicians leaving their musical instruments in an airport.  I was a very different time…)  Needless-to-say, we all waited to see who would show up.  And a few minutes later, Noel Paul Stookey and the group’s longtime bassist Dick Kniss came by.  And my brother and I got some more autographs.
 
To honor Peter Yarrow, here are three videos.

​To start with, this is a short video of Peter Yarrow talking about the group and also about his far-and-away most famous song, "Puff the Mag..." oh, you know.

Next, we have one of the songs that Peter Yarrow wrote when the group went its separate ways for a while -- but it was so clearly a perfect Peter, Paul and Mary song that when they reunited, it became part of their repertoire, "Day is Done."

But I include it here for another reason.  He performed it at a memorial concert in 1976 for Phil Ochs (who I'd seen perform a year or two earlier).  But what most stands out are the fellow-performers who join Yarrow on stage halfway through -- legends Pete Seeger, Odetta, Bob Gibson and Oscar Brand, along a few who I'm not as familiar with: Len Chandler, Jean Ray and Jim Glover.
​

And finally -- oh, of course you know what I have to end with.  

There are so many wonderful versions of "Puff the Magic Dragon" on YouTube to pick from, but I've decided on this from one of the group's PBS specials, this their Holiday concert.  What I like about it is the wide range of ages of people singing along, and with beatific joy on their faces.

I've often thought, if I had to write just one song, which one it might be.  And the list is long.  But for one song that would last an extremely long life, untouched by the culture of any particular time, and cut through being so affectionately loved and sung along with by as many generations as possible, it's very probably this.

Every once in a while, you make one of those revelatory "light bulb moments," when the bulb goes on over your head and something comes to you that you're surprised hasn't occurred to you before.  It was big realization about the wrong-headed slams by the MAGOP at how Democrats supposedly mishandle fire management, which they then use to justify the unjustifiable -- their reprehensible claim that they may not provide emergency aid to California during a catastrophic disaster without any "strings".  Or perhaps not give any aid at all.
 
Putting it aside for the moment that Democrats do not mishandle fire management, and no MAGOP has really explained how they do (other than Trump suggesting that they use brooms to sweep up debris…) -- even if someone on the extreme right chooses not to believe that fire management is mishandled and instead blindly (and wrongly) insists (wrongly) that Democrats in California really do screw up fire management, and that’s why the state shouldn’t get emergency aid --
 
-- there's the very-simple, basic, near-impossible to not understand reality that anyone should be able to grasp: 

The forest that surrounds Altadena where one of the major wildfires has been burning out of control is…Angeles National Forest.  Which, of course, is..."national"! It’s controlled by the federal government, and so California has absolutely zero to do with managing it.  As for the other major fire in Pacific Palisades, that is surrounded by two separate forests.  One of them is Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area…which again, is…(yes, you've figured it out by now) national.  The other forest is state – Topanga State Park -- but (okay, are you ready?)…it’s actually part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area!!!

Which, y'know, is again -- national.
 
Don't believe it?  Well, okay, here's a screenshot from the National Park Service website, with information about its properties.  You can't miss it -- there's "National Park Service" at the top, and "Topanga State Park" at the bottom.  And you can read about it here.

​In fact, there's even a page on the National Park Service website devoted to Fire Management in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.  Rather then type it in second-hand, I figure it's best to see it direct --

​(Moreover, back in 2012, Congressman Brad Sherman, who represents the district that the SMMNRA is in, got federal funds that helped restore sections of the park's popular Backbone Trail.  So, yes to reiterate -- those were federal funds, not state.)​

In other words, almost all the current wildfire damage in Los Angeles forests has been on federal land.  Some parts are overseen by state management, but all is controlled by the federal government.  Yes, of course, there have been wildfires in state forests and state parks in California over the years.  But these major wildfires -- right now -- here in Los Angeles, these forests are federal.

I will anticipate your question:  “So, why is no one else mentioning this??!”  The answer is – I don’t have the slightest idea.  Is it possible that the state of California is involved with some of the forest management?  Absolutely possible, if not likely, though only on state grounds.  But not on national forest land -- and it's the national forest and national recreation area that overwhelmingly have predominated in these two most-major and devastating wildfires.  Perhaps there is some coordination that overlaps -- I don't know.  But I do know that the only forestland around Pasadena is Angeles National Forest.  And that all the forestland around Pacific Palisades is under the oversight of the National Park Service with the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

So, why has this seemingly gone unmentioned, as far as I can tell?  At times, this is one of my burdens in life…  Who knows?  Having worked years ago for Will Rogers State Historic Park helps grasp the fact, but that’s no explanation why it's been largely overlooked.  But overlooked or not -- it's reality.

The only guess I can make is that most officials and reporters are focusing on the immediate hell of the forests and homes burning, and they hear “Topanga” and "Pasadena and Altadena" and it’s all in Los Angeles, so that just viscerally says local -- and their other focus is the repugnant, but serious threats of MAGOPS in the White House and Congress to withhold aid, so they’re dealing with resolving that.  And while dealing with these critical issues, they can't see (no pun intended, but oh, does it fit) the forest for the trees.

But it's still the reality.

It might be an inconvenient reality for those on the right tied to trying to screw people in the midst of a catastrophic disaster who (whatever their party affiliation) live in a state that votes Democratic.  But it's reality nonetheless.

​In an interview late last week, Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (owner of the Los Angeles Times) said it's “crazy” that California “doesn’t elect leaders with competence.”
 
This from the man who blocked his newspaper from endorsing Kamala Harris against an incompetent convicted felon, found liable of rape and guilty of fraud -- with dementia.
 
Moreover, Dr. Soon-Shiong had what seemed to have been a TwiXter meltdown last week, as well, and posted a relentless stream of tweet rants about the Los Angeles fire which not only come across as repeatedly ignorant -- and wildly irresponsible, not waiting until after the fire is contained and lives are saved -- but he doesn't appear to even be reading his own newspaper.
 
Reading through his TwiXter timeline on Saturday and seeing a stream of almost manic statements from him continually slamming Mayor Karen Bass so shamelessly in ways that had little bearing on the truth, I tried responding to them all until it just became far-too many and got to the point where if I continued replying to many more, I might have been detained for stalking.  At a minimum, I got tired of typing different versions of “For someone so supposedly-concerned with ‘competence,’ your comments, which purportedly are supposed to seem wise and profound, are shockingly devoid of knowing the truth.  Which is a starting point of competence.”
 
As I say, there were far, far, far too many tweets from him – each and every one overflowing with inaccuracies, or lies or disinformation (take your pick, it was a buffet…) – that I can’t repeat them all, but as an hors d'oeuvres here’s just one that will serve will as an example of them all.  He wrote --
 
“Proactive vs reactive planning and the need to fund water infrastructure is so clear. Why no fire breaks when we clearly anticipate wildfires? #competencematters.  State to probe why Pacific Palisades reservoir was offline, empty when firestorm exploded.”
 
What I replied was --
 
"You have experts at @latimes you own -- ask them, they'll tell you!

"January is NOT wildfire season. It's May-Oct. So, we don't "anticipate' fires NOW, let alone SIX CATASTROPHIC WILDFIRES!

"The article YOU QUOTED explains the reservoir was damaged & they were doing maintenance!"

And yes, honest, the Los Angeles Times article he himself quoted really did write about the repair work being done on the Santa Ynez Reservoir.  There is nothing to "probe."  As the article clearly states -- and that's the "Los Angeles Times" he owns -- there had been damage during the previous Palisades fire last February, and it was being repaired.  You couldn't miss it -- it wasn't buried, it was in the second paragraph!  "Officials say the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been closed since about February for repairs to its cover."
 
But further, what Soon-Shiong got wrong is that Santa Ynez Reservoir is a small, standalone faciiity in Pacific Palisades – not connected to the main system, and it isn’t even the reservoir that the Palisades relies on!  That’s the Stone Canyon Reservoir near UCLA, which was operating normally and flowing water to the Pacific Palisades.  The Santa Ynez Reservoir, on the other hand, is used for the higher ground of forestland  above the Palisades – but because of the massive demand on the water system dealing with six fires (in January, not the wildfire season), experts say that even if had been operational, the water pressure would likely have been too low to reach the higher altitude of the foothills and been of little use.  And had no affect on the village of Pacific Palisades.
 
Hey, if I knew this, one would like to think that Competence Maven Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong would know it, too.  He owns the Los Angeles Times, after all.  Or at least check it out with his staff (or Google) before trying to sashay his supposed expertise and posting online.  That would have been really cool -- and competent! -- especially given that (did I mention?) he owns the Los Angeles Times and a great many people probably assume that he reads his paper, knows what he’s talking about and trust him.  Silly them.
 
And this was just one tweet out of a bundle that he kept posting.
 
The good news is that, seeing all of his pontificating, smarmy, inaccurate posts made me feel slightly better about having canceled my subscription to the paper.  Something I’d been torn over doing.

I can’t imagine what it must be like for people working at the paper.  Who are career journalists.  Who believe in journalism.  And fact checking.  Getting your story right or risk being fired if you get it wrong time after time.  And knowing that this is their Peerless Leader.
 
And again, this is also the guy, ranting about “competence,” who blocked his newspaper from endorsing Kamala Harris who was running against an incompetent convicted felon, found liable of rape and guilty of fraud -- with dementia.  That can't be said too often.

Of the many things that's galling about such reactions during the disastrous fires – not just by Dr. Soon-Shiong but by almost everyone who has been “slamming” Mayor Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom during the fires – is their utter ignorance of not understanding that the wildfire season here is May through October.  For even just one fire to occur in January is deeply uncommon – but to have six catastrophic wildfires is otherworldly.  It would put a stress on the system even if it occurred in August, when fires are expected.  But...in January??? 
 
And galling, too, their not understanding that that was traditionally the wildfire season, but now with Climate Change (that so many on the extreme right want to deny), many experts now call it a “fire year.”  We see monstrous hurricanes.  Monstrous tornadoes.  Monstrous winter freezes.  Monstrous heat waves.  So, of course we’re now seeing monstrous winds – during monstrous droughts.  And end up with six catastrophic wildfires at the same time, in January.

But despite all that reality and their ignorance of it or intentional disinformation, there’s so much hatred by MAGOPs of Gavin Newsom because he’s a liberal and may run for president in 2028, and of Karen Bass because (I’m sure because) she’s not only black and a woman, but a black woman.  But beyond not grasping that January is not traditionally wildfire season, there have been all the lies about Mayor Bass – like that she fired the female fire chief (she didn’t) and shut down the Santa Ynez Reservoir (it was, as noted, being repaired) and not being prepared for six catastrophic wildfires in January, which has never before happened in the 243-year history of Los Angeles, and so many more falsehoods.  Including, perhaps at the top of the list, that she supposedly cut the fire department budget by $23 million, when in fact, a) the Los Angeles Times (Dr. Soon-Shiong’s newspaper…) reported that with other additions, the fire department budget actually increased by 7% (darn, if only Soon-Shiong read his own paper), and b) such a charge misses the ludicrous irony of conservatives crying out in fury at a budget being cut -- when “cutting budgets” is what they do for sport.  Man, I can’t even imagine how much they’d cut the fire department budget if MAGOPs were governor, mayor and controlled everything in the state.  For those scoffing, consider that Trump is saying he might not give emergency aid to Callfornia!!
 
But even putting aside that these “critics” don’t grasp that January isn’t the wildfire season, that six catastrophic fires puts massive stress on the system, and that most of their supposed facts are wildly untrue – what might be worse  is that they’re doing all this slamming right in the middle of when officials and the fire department are fighting six catastrophic active fires and trying to save lives and structures…and that the time to criticize how it was handles is not now, when everyone should be working to help those in desperate need, but after everything is contained and you have time to study and assess what didn’t work and what did.

(Side Note:  Things were done wrong.  And right.  This was a catastrophe, after all.  Things go wrong in all catastrophes.  That's a big reason why they're catastrophes.   You know the expression:  "If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans."  That and “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."  Or Mike Tyson's adage:
“Everyone has a plan: until they get punched in the face."   This is not to let anyone off the hook for mistakes.  Just putting it all in perspective.  There are understandable mistakes based on conditions, and there are inexcusable mistakes based on lack of skill.  The point is, this is why you make adjustments as needed during an event, but wait until after to do an assessment of what went wrong and why.  And what worked, and why.)
 
By the way, to be clear, I don’t know if the attacks against Mayor Bass (who was my Congresswoman for many years) are because she is a black woman.  Many may not be, some or many may be.  But I do know that when you wrongly attack a Black woman in charge, whatever your motivation (and especially when you don’t correct the record and apologize), it gives fuel to all those who are always extremely happy to attack a black woman for racist reasons, and as a supposed “DEI hire.” (Never mind that the people of Los Angeles voted for her after a distinguished career in Congress).  Just like others are happy to hug the lie that Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley was fired and believe that none of these six catastrophic wildfires in January would have happened if there was a white man in charge.  Because, of course, that’s apparently how wildfires work.  And as we know, nothing ever goes wrong when white men are in charge.
  
But in the end, it brings us back to Patrick Soon-Shiong and his World of Competence. If only we had elected officials in California who are competent.  That we wouldn't have six catastrophic wildfires in January.

Me, if I had the same wishes as Dr. Soon-Shiong, I'd have used them for two different things.

One, that all people believed in Climate Change, and we didn't have wildfires in the first place.

And two, I was we had an owner of the Los Angeles Times who was competent.

Well, it’s been quite a couple of days, so far.  On that first night, I was getting a lot of calls, emails and texts from relatives back in Chicago, watching news of the Los Angeles fires, and asking if I was all right and how close it was and if I was going to evacuate.
 
I much appreciated their concern – and completely understood:  the continual video on the news was horrific, and the fire came closer to me than any in all my time in Los Angeles.  Maybe 5-6 miles.  But although it was close, I wasn’t in any danger, which I would explain.  (The toughest question asked was “Do you have somewhere to evacuate to??!” – because I didn't want to frighten them further since most of my friends are on the Westside, and even closer to the fire zone than me.  I was offering my guest room to them.)
 
I did have my electricity go out for 15 hours, but compared to what else was going on in fire areas almost doesn’t qualify as much more than a temporary inconvenience.
 
But of course, what stood out most for me was not just what was sure to be massive devastation, but on a personal note were all of the people I knew in very real danger in the Palisades, or at nearby risk.  I was able to get in touch with one friend whose home was directly in the heart of Pacific Palisades, and his family was able to get out in the afternoon, thankfully.  Another friend lives in northwest Santa Monica (that borders the Palisades) right next to the evacuation zone.  He decided to evacuate and stayed in my guest room.  He safely went back home yesterday.  A third friend was packed and ready to leave as soon as he and his wife got an evacuation notice.  Happily, none came, though they did decide to evacuate to their son's home.  But so very sadly, my friend in Pacific Palisades lost his house.  I can't even imagine the feelings.  Fortunately, he has good coverage and a temporary place to live – but it’s not just the loss of a home and everything in it, but the major disruption to one’s life to have to regroup and start over.
 
Now, multiply that by thousands, and the devastation of all the fire zones – mainly for the Pacific Palisades and Pasadena/Altadena.  With one person, when such a loss happens, agonizing as it is you may have the option of rebuilding and eventually returning to the life and community you had before.  But in the Palisades and wide areas of Pasadena and elsewhere, there's no life to return to, no community, it's gone.  At some point, those villages and communities happily will be built up again. And may even (or likely) flourish with a new vibrance. Growth is the way of the world, a new start.  But it will be starting from scratch.
 
What also was so awful was another loss.  But first, some background.

In my earlier days after graduate school and before I seriously got involved in the film industry, I worked for 3-4 years for the California State Park Service at Will Rogers State Historic Park.  It was a great place – Will Rogers’ home, polo field, equestrian arena and barns, and grounds so wide that they were used as a three-hole golf course (which he put in when an actor friend, Lewis J. Stone, had badly injured his legs in an accident and recuperated there, for which Will Rogers converted the grounds to the golf course as an incentive for Stone to get walking in every day) and extensive forest land.  It was a wonderful job – I learned to twirl a rope and jump in it while spinning (really, honest!) and even considered applying for taking the California Park Ranger test.  Until my father basically said, “You didn’t go to film school and get a Masters degree in screenwriting to become a park ranger.”  He was right.  I loved the park service, but am glad I stuck with my goal.
 
The Rogers ranch house, up a winding road north of Sunset Blvd. in the Palisades, was tremendous.  It was two connected wings, full of historic mementos from his travels and life, cowboy artwork from his renowned friends (notably Charles Russell, who Rogers thought was far more authentic – being a former cowboy, like himself -- to the more famous Frederic Remington), a great library filled with books inscribed to him by his famous friends, letter and more.  I would periodically find hidden material as I wandered through the place, things that were never seen by the public and that probably even the staff didn’t know were there.  I surreptitiously made copies of some of it, and still have it – a book inscribed by Harry Houdini, a book with a magnificent thank you note carefully hand-printed by Helen Keller, a framed letter of thanks stuck in a drawer written by Theodore Roosevelt.  Things like that.
 
(By the way, if you ever see The Will Rogers Story on TCM, it’s not a bad telling of his life.  His son, Will Jr., played his father, with Jane Wyman – Ronald Reagan’s first wife – as Betty Rogers.  And they did a great job creating the house, though they moved some of the furniture around as better for the movie.)
 
And so it was with a rush of deep memories and heartache that learned it too was lost in the fire yesterday.  That was a fear of mine as I followed the news.  And it was awful to have it confirmed. I don’t know how much was destroyed, but it seems that all the buildings were.  I saw a photo of one small structure almost all ashes and a partial shell, and it awful.  If there’s a happy note, it’s this sentence – “State Parks was able to evacuate the horses and some of the cultural and historical artifacts, including artwork, at Will Rogers SHP ahead of the fire.”

I have no idea what the insurance is like on the estate.  While I suppose it's possible that the Park Service will rebuild a re-creation of at least the home and perhaps some of the horse facilities, it's not something I expect.  We'll see.

About 40 years ago, there was a big Palisades fire when I was working at the park -- I was off that day, but drove in to help.  I did what little I was allowed to, like watering the roofs of the home, and took a few photos of the fire.  And happily, the ranch house and buildings were saved, though the grounds and surrounding forest had been overwhelmed.  I went back the next day and took photos of the devastation, following a path I'd taken a year before, that I'd photographed. And then followed the same path six months later to photograph the regrowth.
 
I recall one of my fellow park aides – a girl named Lisa – got upset at me for taking the pictures after the fire, but later one of the Rangers said he was glad I did because it was important to have a record of such things.
 
I can’t touch on the devastation of the current fire that was so much more massive and destructive.  And the great loss to my friends and others.  And so I don’t want to even try – it would be too small and give the wrong impression.  Instead though, with the loss of Will Rogers State Historic Park, I thought I'd end this all by honoring it with some of those photos that I took.  Some before the fire, and those during, the day after and six months later.
 
None of these touch on what’s going on now.  These 28 pictures serve only as my way of honoring this one historic loss, and commemorating all the others.

It starts with photos I took of the ranch house, grounds and forest land of his property around a year before the fire about 40 years ago.

Then, there was that day when I got a call about the fire in the Palisades and foothills, asking if I could come in to the park to help. 

As I got in the car, I saw this looming to the west, where I was headed.  Adding to the impact of it all is that I lived across the street of the Veterans Cemetery in West Los Angeles, and you can see the headstones at the bottom.

The next day, I went back to the park and took photos of the burned-out grounds, and followed the hiking trip I'd taken previously to show the same parkland.  I would imagine that this is much like it so sadly looks today -- but with the ranch house and all the other building and barns gone.

Then, about six months later, I took the same hike yet again to document the regrowth, showing how remarkable nature can be so soon.  Along with the mudslides and work left to do.

Happily, nature can grow back.  So sadly, the same can't be said for man-made structures.  Here is the ranch house yesterday.  That is the fireplace in the living room from the third photo above.

Happily, as noted above, the Park Service saved some of the cultural and historical materials, and artwork.  Their prescience and efforts are honored for protecting at least some of a legacy.

After writing my piece yesterday on the Washington Post killing the editorial cartoon by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes that bluntly slammed Post owner Jeff Bezos and some other billionaires who have caved to Trump, I didn't feel that was enough, so I wrote to the paper's executive editor and opinions editor who made the decision -- as well as three managing editors, to cover all the bases.  And I thought it only proper to post that email, as well.

I think that considering how gnashed my teeth were when I wrote it, and curled my typing fingers, it comes across as very polite, all other things considered, though pointed.  Though I wanted to spew my anger more, I know from experience as a "professional letter writer" that a letter that blasts the recipient with fury won't get read much past the first sentence.

Not that I have any great expectation that this letter will be read, mind you.  Especially considering how many letters they must have been receiving.  And I have even less expectation that it will have any impact for what it says.  But at least having one more letter received that is highly critical of the decision will make the pile larger.

Dear Washington Post editors,
 
I fully understand that at this point any further comment on the Post’s decision to kill Ann Telnaes’ cartoon, will have next to no impact.  But to say nothing would be irresponsible.
 
The reason given for the action, that it was about “repetition” bordered on insulting to your readers.  It suggested that the Washington Post will only do a piece or two about a big news story and then move on.  I can’t even imagine a basis for merely hoping people would believe this.  For any notable story, every newspaper will cover it from countless angles – repetitively.  And that doesn’t take into consideration that an article, op-ed and cartoon are totally different entities.
 
The Post is certainly aware of the controversy it created when their endorsement of Kamala Harris was killed by owner Jeff Bezos, no doubt losing many subscribers.  So, to feed into that perception just a couple months later was deeply problematic judgement – especially for those who have long looked to the Post for clear, honest reporting…done (as the expression goes) without fear or favor.  And to do so when your publication certainly understands what’s at risk to democracy with the new administration coming in (that has been described by many experts as pushing an agenda that is authoritarian, or even fascist) is equally problematic for trust in the reporting and editorial judgement.
 
Problematic all the more because the Post obviously knows these decisions are in protective support of a political leader who has repeatedly called them and all journalists the “enemy of the people.”  To further enable such a person seems not just craven, but almost inexplicably self-defeating.

Though it’s not especially important that I’m a subscriber, I note that because I’m not quite sure why I haven’t canceled my subscription yet, especially now after this second “strike.”   The best I can figure is how much I deeply want to support a strong press in times when finances for the industry are difficult, even when I am appalled by some of its actions contrary to a free press and democracy.  Whether these are decisions forced by an owner, though agreed to by those who know better and are in a position to act otherwise, or are decisions made by those to anticipate the owner, the end result is the same.   And there is much excellent that the Post does.  But the paper (for me) is on the edge of that “three strikes and you’re out”.
 
If Jeff Bezos wants to protect his outside investments, that’s understandable.  But he shouldn’t then own the Washington Post and leave that responsibility to someone who is willing to defend a free press.  However, what he “should” do is clearly not a concern of his.


Robert Elisberg