Angeleno of the Week: Andres Martinez

Oh, L.A. Times. So much drama for one place. (The debate over bringing back "La Cucaracha" seems positively cute in comparison.) If I were more cynical, I'd wonder if all of this publicity was a way to sell more papers. But that'd be giving everyone way too much credit. Instead, it's just the latest in what seems to be a forever ongoing cycle of unfortunate and unnecessary messes at our paper of record.

For those who haven't been paying attention -- or more likely, for those whose eyes glaze at such media navel-gazing and angst-ridden hand-wringing -- L.A. Times opinion editor Andres Martinez quit the paper Thursday after his employer decided to toss out this week's "Current" Sunday opinon section. The crime? Uber-producer Brian Grazer had been asked to guest-edit the section; Martinez, coincidentally, is romantically involved with P.R. exec Kelly Mullens, whose clients include Grazer.

Blah blah blah. You know the drill. Outraged bloggers, overblown internal reaction, snippy emails, Romenesko overload. And in the end, it just looks ugly on all sides.

Dodger Thoughts' Jon Weisman shares a comment from one of his blog's readers:

1) Scratch the entire thing, embarrassing a major Hollywood figure who didn't do anything wrong, subjecting us to the same nonsensical opinion section that we have to read every week, start a self-congratulatory noise chamber about journalistic ethics, enlist the aid of pompous blatherers who have nothing better to do than furrow their brows at non-scandals, sensationally force the editorial page editor out, followed (no doubt) by a new hire who pledges to uphold the high standards we've come to expect from the LA Times, followed by another self-congratulatory noise chamber about how wonderful the LA Times is.

2) Put a note in the lower right hand corner of the third page on Sunday disclosing who the editorial page editor is sleeping with.

Sure, #1 was clearly the way to go.

For being at the center of another out-of-control local media controversy -- please, don't let it lead to another special L.A. Times investigation and 10-page Sunday paper section dissection -- Andres Martinez is Franklin Avenue's Angeleno of the Week.