Editor Russ Stanton's speech to the newsroom
First, I'd like to thank David for having the confidence and trust in me to lead our two newsrooms. I am very humbled to be standing before you here today.
There are dozens and dozens of people who have had a hand in my winding up at this microphone. I'd like to single out four of them: Mike Young and Bill Nottingham, who hired me into our Orange County bureau 10 years ago; and John Carroll and Dean Baquet, who chose me to be their business editor three years ago.
Before I share with you my vision for where I think we need to be going as a news organization, I want to talk about the newspaper that is the Los Angeles Times.
Like most of you, I was attracted to this great journalistic institution because of its size, reach and reputation. For nearly a half century, the Los Angeles Times has been one of the great newspapers of the world. And while the number of people in our newsroom has been reduced in recent years, I continue to be amazed at the astonishing paper that we dedicated journalists produce on a daily basis.
There is our breadth of coverage -- David Pierson writing about Chinese Americans in the San Gabriel Valley, Jordan Rau tracking the fate of the governor's health plan in Sacramento, Peter Wallsten dissecting the results of presidential primaries from Washington, Tina Susman on the conflict in Iraq.
There's our depth of coverage, the deep expertise on our beats -- Tom Petruno on the ever-changing financial markets, Charlie Ornstein and Tracy Weber tracking down medical malpractice, Greg Miller on national security issues, Russ Parsons on ramen.
There's our top-drawer investigative work by people like Alan Miller and Myron Levin on U-Haul.
There's our elegant writing - Stephanie Simon on a slice of Christianity in America, Tom Curwen recounting a horrific grizzly bear attack, Megan Stack showing us what it's like to be a woman in the Arab world.
We have an unbeatable line-up of columnists and critics. Steve Lopez can you move you to laugh, cry or write to city hall, sometimes in the same column. Plaschke and Simers also can make you cry, but for different reasons; And I absolutely love Mary McNamara, our TV critic. Did you catch her review of the reality TV show: "Crowned: The Mother of All Beauty Pageants?" It was scathing AND hysterical.
