Ted Rall
Ted Rall, at work
Nicholas Goldberg, LA Times Editorial
Editor----Villain?
Austin Beutner, LA Times Publisher----Super-Villain?
Charlie Beck, LAPD Chief----Working in-Collusion
with The LA Times to punish a critic of LAPD?
youtube Video is here (please copy/paste to browser):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=26&v=Xpdjb-owu_o
The story started in late July, 2015, when LAPD gave an audiotape of an arrest of Rall in 2001 for jaywalking to The LA Times. With regards to the arrest, Rall had previously recounted certain acts by the arresting officer that were denied by the LAPD. Supposedly, the tape verifed LAPD claims, and proved Rall a "liar" about the incident, which was grounds for his firing.
The LA Times dismissed Rall in a public editorial in their paper, with no further investigation of the only "evidence" they based the dismissal on----The audiotape itself.
Within a few days after his dismissal, a professional expert (sound engineer) was employed, by Rall. The Engineer's work verified the tape had been tampered-with, and as such, would be inadmissable as evidence in court, or in any legal process.
Further, the newly clarified audio tape seems to solidly support Rall's side of the story, and contradict the LAPD's side.
Excerpt from post linked-to below (from Phil Ebersole's Blog):
"Ted Rall, one of my favorite cartoonists, was fired last Monday from his job at the Los Angeles Times after somebody produced an audiotape indicating he had lied in a column about his bad treatment by a Los Angeles police officer when arrested for jaywalking in 2001.
He [Rall] said the tape consisted of about 20 minutes of talk and 6 minutes of unintelligible noise, so he asked an audio technician to try to restore the original tape. Lo and behold! – the tape indicated that Rall was telling the truth."
Read the rest, plus a couple good links for more info, here:
Summary of Ted Rall's Dismissal from LA Times and Later Developments
The Cole Smithy FilmBlog has an excellent write-up on the case, and do a great job as investigative Suspicionists, in the opinion of this Blog.
Bully for Cole Smithy!! (link below)
Excerpt:
"Nicholas Goldberg, LA Times Editor of the Editorial Pages, and investigative reporter Paul Pringle are both intimately attached to the scandal, and were both directly involved in Rall's dismissal from the LA Times, for which Rall has been a weekly contributor for over six years. Neither Goldberg or Beck has responded to media requests made by repeated email and phone calls. Fishy, fishy.
The world is about to get an up-close and personal look at what passes for investigative reporting at the LA Times, and it ain't pretty or professional."
Read MORE at this link:
Ted Rall case looks like possible LAPD-Times collusion
Here's Ted Rall's own response:
Ted Rall's Blog-response to his dismissal from LA Times and subsequent developments
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The cui bono aspect:
First, the LA Times' increasingly Corporatist leanings have been detectable to some readers (including this one). Perhaps Rall is way too "leftist/dissenter-ist" to be desirable any longer to The Times ownership, who perhaps needed an excuse to get him out of their paper without some of The Public objecting?
OK, that's my opinion.
But nonetheless ...
The question to ask is -----Did the LAPD have it in for Rall, after his series of ferociously-biting cartoons on police violence and malfeasance, including at least one specifically mentioning LAPD (see below)?
Here are some samples of Rall's recent work, which is protected by the US Constitution, even if it may be unpleasant for some people (including law enforcement personnel) to see:
And this one, specifically naming the LAPD:
So is this what America has come to---You criticize the police, and you pay a price (whatever they can come up with, apparently).
Sorry, but satire, even insulting, biting satire, is protected by our Constitution and Laws.
If it weren't, let's face it ---- Rush Limbaugh and his like would have been fired decades ago, as well as John Stewart, Bill Maher, Lee Camp,and at least 50,000 comedians and activists.
The LAPD and LA Times really look corrupt and complicit in this stench-ridden case where a talented, although admittedly controversial cartoonist and writer, was wrongfully dismissed.
Here's a good summary and time-line:
Time-Line and summary of Ted Rall Case, up to August 2nd, 2015
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