The other story that omitted the offensive language was about new Times owner Sam Zell appearing at a company meeting and directing his ire at an employee.
So, let me get this straight: Zell appears at what is presumably a private meeting, uses two bad words and the Times gets ripped because it did not print them.
I wonder whether Zell would have used the language had he known that the details of the meeting would appear in the next day’s edition. And I wonder, too, whether there would have been a story if instead of a profanity Zell called the employee a “stupid idiot.”
My guess is no, there would not have been a story. But those two words are probably more hurtful than the two-word expletive he used.
To this day, I have no idea what words Zell used, nor can I recall what that dead man said about 31 years ago. And I have no intention of finding out, even though the answer is just a Google away.
Contrary to popular belief, neither story is better with the bad language included.
What Arellano sees as a behind-the-times (no pun intended) newspaper, I see one that distinguishes itself from the rest of the pack for not printing what everyone else is printing — and setting a standard for my kids.
The “everyone else” in this case includes OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper for which Arellano is a regular contributor and which often runs foul language in its stories and letters to the editor.
You see, I like my newspaper profanity-free. I like the fact that my kids can pick up any page of the Los Angeles Times and read a story that is free of language that we would not use in public.
And rest assured, there are still plenty of people like me; people who believe that reading “F-bombs” in a newspaper is offensive.
