This editor’s note from the L.A. Times on Friday says it has suspended Michael Hiltzik, and discontinued both his Golden State column and blog.
[E]mploying pseudonyms constitutes deception and violates a central tenet of The Times’ ethics guidelines: Staff members must not misrepresent themselves and must not conceal their affiliation with The Times. This rule applies equally to the newspaper and the Web world.
Over the past few days, some analysts have used this episode to portray the Web as a new frontier for newspapers, saying that it raises fresh and compelling ethical questions. Times editors don’t see it that way. The Web makes it easier to conceal one’s identity, and the tone of exchanges is often harsh. But the Web doesn’t change the rules for Times journalists.
After serving a suspension, Hiltzik will be reassigned.
It will be worth noting what Hiltzik is reassigned to, but it’s good that the L.A. Times editors appear to have taken this quite seriously.
Via <a href="http://patterico.com/2006/04/28/4515/la-times-discontinues-hiltziks-column-suspends-him-will-reassign-him/-4515″>Patterico, Kevin Roderick has the staff memo, which shows how serious the L.A. Times is:
By now most of you know that Mike Hiltzik has acknowledged violating the paper’s ethics guidelines. He did so by using pseudonyms to post a single comment on his blog on latimes.com and multiple comments elsewhere on the Web that dealt with his column and other issues involving the newspaper.
Because of this violation, we are discontinuing Mike’s column in the newspaper, Golden State, and his blog of the same name. In addition, we are suspending Mike without pay for a period of time. At the end of the suspension, he will be reassigned.
Killing a column is a serious step. We don’t take it lightly.