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Sep 17 2008 10:17AM EDT

Jarvis: 'Whiny' 'LAT'-ers Should Drop Zell Suit

Web 2.0 godfather Jeff Jarvis doesn't have much sympathy for the Los Angeles Times veterans who are pressing a class-action lawsuit against Sam Zell:

Journalists are such a whiny bunch, always complaining, constantly blaming someone else for their problems.... The Times veterans should not be suing Zell. They should be suing themselves. Oh, I, too, am angry at the state of newspapers in America but I'm angry at the right people. The LA Times' problems -- like those of other papers -- were caused by decades of egotistical and willfully ignorant neglect by the owners, managers -- and staff -- at the paper.

The real blame, says Jarvis, lies with the generations of newsroom managers who "had the hubris" to conceive of the Times as a national paper, neglected local coverage, and failed to recognize the importance of the internet. "You bear your share of responsibility for the paper's past and thus its present," he writes. "Whether Sam Zell is the guy to get the paper to the future, I have no idea. But I can look at your stewardship and see the results."

Well, okay. But doesn't that still leave you with the central question of whether Zell made improper use of the ESOP structure, raided employee pensions, and all that? Are Tribune employees supposed to surrender their legal rights because their bosses -- or predecessors' bosses -- showed a lack of vision?

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