Thank you, Jesus Sanchez, and farewell
1:29 PM | July 15, 2008
With so many good people leaving the paper, it seems unfair to single anyone out. But readers of this blog have come to know Jesus Sanchez, to seek him out for his sly and dry wit, his knowledge of the city where he was born, and his uncanny ability to find and tell the quietly great story. It would be wrong to have his photo vanish from this page without letting you know Jesus has been laid off.
Here's the start of a little tribute to all the journalists departing this place. It sprang up this morning, a note and a few flowers left in a hallway where framed displays celebrating past Pulitzer wins welcome visitors to the newsroom.
-- Veronique de Turenne
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Jesus Sanchez is a great journalist and he is one of my heroes. It is a tragedy that he is leaving the L.A. Times.
We helped spearhead the successful effort to create what is now the Los Angeles State Historic Park at the Cornfield. Mr. Sanchez covered that story in an excellent front page article above the fold on April 17, 2001. His opening sentence is classic: "On a deserted railroad yard north of Chinatown, one of Los Angeles' most powerful and tenacious real estate developers, Ed Roski, Jr., met his match." Wow, what a great sentence.
Later in the story Mr. Sanchez wrote: "Robert Garcia . . . organized a civil rights challenge that claimed the project was the result of discriminatory land-use policies that had long deprived minority neighborhoods of parks." We work on these things for years at a time, and that is one of the best descriptions of what we do that I have ever seen -- and he said it in one sentence.
I have Mr. Sanchez's article framed in my office.
Mr. Sanchez is a great writer. The L.A. Times and its readers are diminished by his leaving.
Posted by: Robert Garcia | July 16, 2008 at 03:39 PM
Jesus,
I'm sorry to hear that the Times isn't smart enough to hold on to such a talented and versatile reporter.
Posted by: Kevin Kuzma | July 15, 2008 at 10:43 PM
Dear Veronique,
I took it for granted the bloggers at the Times we’re immune from downzelling, I see this was an incorrect assumption. Sorry your co-blogger Jesus was a victim of the latest attack from Chicago.
After reading your post on Here in Malibu thought I should say something, but since this feels like a funeral, I’m at a loss for words.
Farewell Jesus
Peace,
Edward the Blogging Pressman
Posted by: Edward Padgett | July 15, 2008 at 08:16 PM
Sorry to read this. Best of luck.
Posted by: Jeff Millman | July 15, 2008 at 06:33 PM
This is such a shame.
The devaluation of writing just marches on, and at the LA Times no less.
Best of luck, Jesus. To quote a wise woman and a wonderful friend, "the universe abhors a vacuum." Your future is bright, to say the least!
Posted by: melissa lion | July 15, 2008 at 06:22 PM
I second Gustavo Arrellano's comments, above. Wish we had more people like that, just as I'm a Hungarian-born immigrant (came as a baby, very legally, after my parents waited 2 years for their visa even though an aunt here who was wealthy invited my family to live with her). After what my family had to endure to come here and being proud never to take a dime in welfare, even though they had to start with menial jobs in a chicken factory that Mexicans would barely want, I'm NOT in favor of overlooking illegal immigrants' jumping the line or expecting favors.
I'm in my 40's and look at my "old school" immigrant parents and others like them, and by my book, we can't have enough Jesus Sanches's to set an example for the current generation of immigrants and politicians. Another "accomplishment" of gravedancer Sam Zell.
I believe Kaplan's view as published in HuffPo and reprinted in WitnessLA today, that with the $8 billion debt Zell took on in his highly-leveraged buyout of the Times, saddling Tribune Co's with a $1 billion/ annual debt, while he only put down a few million of his own investment, there's no doubt Zell never gave the Times a chance, so its failures are more a result of his means of taking it over than any "faults" it couldn't have recovered from.
(Yes, it skews left, but so does the NY Times, but New Yorkers would never tolerate coming in and treating their paper like a tabloid and dumbing THEM down. There are plenty of us who realize that a major city losing its paper of over 100 years is a tragedy. )
I hope a local group who cares about L A buys what's left of the Times after Zell is done with it, and starts a new paper from scratch, with the Times name.
Posted by: skeptical taxpayer | July 15, 2008 at 06:15 PM
I'm in shock! Of all the people I can think of who should have been laid off, I would have never imagined one of the best reporters would be let go.
Posted by: brady westwater | July 15, 2008 at 05:42 PM
Sorry you lost your job, Jesus. But Bode, c'mon... blogging will be the paper's one and only salvation? It's a round-up! Is that really where we want to go with journalism? Posting links to other writers' stories?
Posted by: Ruby Jackson | July 15, 2008 at 03:45 PM
Jesus: Gracias for setting an example to everyone that Latino reporters don't always have to report on their ethnicity to make a mark in journalism.
Zell: GO TO HELL.
Posted by: Gustavo Arellano | July 15, 2008 at 03:12 PM
For a newspaper that is not known for its local coverage, laying off a native has got to be one of the dumbest decisions they could make. What a dark day for journalism and for Los Angeles. It'll be hard to stay a loyal reader when so many of my favorite bylines are quickly disappearing.
Posted by: lm | July 15, 2008 at 02:50 PM
Thank you, Jesus, and good luck for the future. I wish you all the best.
Posted by: Henry | July 15, 2008 at 02:22 PM
What a bummer -- good luck in your future endeavors. I'm not sure what it means when the breaking-news blogger is laid off at a time when Blogging Will Be The Paper's One And Only Salvation. Hrmph.
Posted by: bode | July 15, 2008 at 02:06 PM