April 28, 2008
Mr. David D. Hiller, Publisher and CEO The Los Angeles Times Times Mirror Square Los Angeles, CA 90024 Published in The American Srbobran and on Serbian and Greek websites Dear Mr. Hiller; As the newest in the line of Publishers of The Los Angeles Times, it has become apparent the Times no longer has any social relevance in this community—especially this Holy Week for over one million citizens in this community, the Russians, Greeks, Syrians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Serbians and Coptic Orthodox Christians. Once again the Times pretends we are all invisible. To simply ignore this large Christian community is not just a disgrace for a major newspaper serving one of this nation's largest metropolitan areas—it reveals the depth of religious bigotry of your editorial staff. Where was your religion editor, hiding in some closet with his head up his backside? Pages were devoted to the Pope’s visit to the county while 270 million Orthodox Christians across the world were celebrating Holy Week without even a paragraph in your “news” paper? Or does The Los Angeles Times ascribe to the New York Times motto, “All the news that’s fit to print?” Is Orthodox Christianity unfit or merely unworthy? I noticed in Sunday’s Times you devoted a half page to your own Festival of Books at UCLA. Aren’t you making enough millions on that event that you find it necessary to blow your own horn at the expense of more than a million Christians in this city whom you insult by your silence while utilizing page space for this week-long self promotion? This slight is ‘business as usual,’ at the Times. I have lived in this city for over 40 years and for many years I approached the Times at the end of the each year to remind your editors that a million citizens in this city celebrate Christmas on January 7th and each year for the past 30 years your newspaper ignored us with one or two exceptions. What a disgrace that a major newspaper would stoop to such behavior. Therefore, this lack of coverage this Holy Week is no accident. Shame on The Los Angeles Times for exposing its ugly religious bigotry. Your self-inflicted irrelevance is becoming self-evident as your sales and distribution continue to drop like a rock. And you deserve it! William Dorich, Publisher GM Books.com P.O. Box 5310 Beverly Hills, CA 90209 CC: John Arthur, Executive Editor Davan Maharaj, Managing Editor Leo. C. Wolinsky, Associate Editor Readerrep @ LA Times.com
