Dear Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of LA Times
I sent you an email on September 15, 2022 volunteering to return as sports columnist for the LA TImes, only asking that you pay my previous salary in the form of a charitable donation to Mattel Children’s Hospital. I would work for nothing.
I thought it a win-win, the Times getting a muckraking columnist to stir the sports waters and bring some life to a deadly dull sports section in exchange for continuing your quest to find the cure for cancer.
I never heard back from you. I’m not sure if you thought I was still in the process of suing the LA Times, but for the record, I won and the hedge fund that was financially responsible for the lawsuit paid my lawyers. We’re still haggling over legal fees, the judge claiming Alden owes more than $3 million, but none of that concerns you or the Times.
Did I mention I never heard back from you with my offer to write for the Times for nothing. What a great advertisement to go with my first column: YOU SAID WHAT HE WROTE WASN’T WORTH TWO CENTS, AND WE AGREE.
I bring this up because I’ve tried reading your sports section, and what was once a mighty newspaper with writers like Mark Heisler, Chris Dufresne, Jim Murray, Richard Hoffer, Rick Reilly, Mike Littwin, Scott Ostler and Mike Downey is void of entertainment most days.
I can’t tell you how many times I heard people say they remember the good old days when they had a clown writing on Page 2 in sports.
Now if you can bring Murray or Dufresne back to life or get any of the other gifted scribes to return to return to work for nothing I would gladly step aside.
I know you are part owner of the Lakers and a little afraid I might poke fun at the bums, but who better to get them going. You think Shaq, Kobe and Phil were successful all by themselves? Every team needs a Smush Parker.
Let’s be honest, I don’t know why you bought the Times. Seems like a loser to me, and I love newspapers.
But you didn’t get rich by being stupid. Your sports editor announced the hiring of Tyler R. Tynes on Halloween, some six months ago. And to date he has written one story, something about the fans from Philadelphia at this last Super Bowl, the editors running the story one week AFTER the Super Bowl.
One story and he’s been on your payroll for six months.
I used to write three columns a week, and so theoretically I would have submitted 66 columns for submission in that time, and while I had one column rejected by the editors on Levitra and spokesman Mike Ditka, I would have had more than 60 columns in that time generating negative email.
The sports editor of your newspaper sent out a tweet on November 29, 2022 congratulating the ghost that is Tyler R. Tynes for being named to Forbes’ under 30 media list of stars.
She also wrote: “We’ve got big things coming from him soon,” on November 29. I guess it was that story on Philadelphia Eagles’ fans that appeared in February.
PATRICK, aren’t you curious why you aren’t getting something out of your media star? I gather you would rather donate money to him than the cancer kids at Mattel’s. The Times used to have an editor who told me it wasn’t the newspaper’s job to help the unfortunate while stopping me from raising money for Mattel.s.
It’s not like I’m asking you to break new ground. You are already paying Tyler R. Tynes to do nothing; is it that big of departure to ask you to pay for the scribblings of a has-been writer with the expectation of not getting much.
How does a newspaper like the LA Times make such a hire and lack the institutional discipline to get something in return? Are you not paying attention to your newspaper, or at the very least the sports news you are giving your readers?
So far. the only thing we know about Tyler R. Tynes is that he is under 30 and has no work ethic, ambition or desire to embrace Los Angeles. And we know your sports editor lacks the ability to make her charges earn their keep.
Come on Patrick, don’t you expect more from your newspaper?
I know I do.
Sincerely, Tj….you can reach me at tjpage2.blog, or bugamac@yahoo.com.
