Breaking the self-imposed silence he has maintained since retiring last year from Times Mirror Co.'s board of directors, Otis Chandler, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times, criticized the paper's senior managers for "ill-advised" policies, which he believes have undermined its quality and credibility.
Chandler's five-page-long reproof was conveyed late Wednesday afternoon by telephone to Bill Boyarsky, The Times' city editor. At the former publisher's request, Boyarsky read the statement aloud to a hastily convened meeting of reporters, photographers and editors, who gathered in somber silence in the newsroom. Also at Chandler's request, a copy of the statement subsequently was posted on the newsroom bulletin board.
Chandler's great-grandfather Gen. Harrison Gray Otis purchased The Times in 1882, a year after its founding. Like other members of his family, Otis Chandler, 71, is a beneficiary of the trust that owns a majority of the shares in Times Mirror, The Times' parent company.
Chandler, a former chairman of Times Mirror, said he was moved to speak out by the controversy that has arisen since the disclosure recently that business executives at The Times had agreed to share the profit from a special issue of the paper's magazine with Staples Center, the subject of the Oct. 10 issue. The profit-sharing arrangement was not disclosed to the paper's journalists. Journalistic ethics preclude such conflicts of interest.
Chandler said he particularly wished to support members of the paper's staff who, on Tuesday, presented Michael Parks, editor and executive vice president of The Times, with a letter requesting publication of a full and independent investigation into the incident.
"This is a personal message addressed today to the employees of the Los Angeles Times," Chandler said, "particularly of the editorial department because they have been so abused and misused."
He also said, "I consider what has happened to be the most serious single threat to the future survival and growth of this great newspaper during my more than 50 years of being associated with The Times."
Spontaneous applause broke out in the newsroom when Boyarsky read Chandler's expression of the "need to speak directly to the employees of The Times to assure them I admire what they are doing. I feel great support for their efforts under very difficult senior management circumstances as exemplified by . . . this unbelievably stupid and unprofessional handling of this Staples Center special section."
