C.P. Smith - FishbowlLA

OC Register Gets Skewered By Namby-Pamby Beatnik

Greg — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

The O.C. Weekly received an anonymous poem in the mail from someone who is quite obviously an Orange County Register scribe (and one who has been at the paper for a long= time, given the references to Rich Nordwind and Dan Froomkin who left the paper during the Clinton administration).

As the Weekly notes, the poem, entitled “Scowl,” is an obvious reference to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” but — if you’ve ever worked at the Register — it’s much funnier (for example, the lines about someone who “pissed off a parking lot ledge” is a reference to something that actually happened at the paper, though we’re not allowed to talk about it).

There are references to C.P. Smith, who was caught on KOCE with his middle finger up his nose shortly after accepting a buyout. An allusion is made to Bill Rams, the former cops reporter who became a flak for the Irvine Company; as well as Cathy Lawhon, who left the paper after more than two decades to become a spokeswoman for UC Irvine.

The “Robin and John” in the poem are Robin and John Doussard, editors who sold their Laguna Beach home in the early aughts to live the dream in the great Northwest.

And Blackstone, of course, is the investors group largely blamed for the layoffs, frozen wages and 401K shenanigans vexing OCR employees as of late.

With apologies to the Weekly (and, of course, to Mr. Ginsberg) here is the poem:

continued…

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More Changes At The Orange County Register: Andrew Horan Goes From Cub Reporter To A1 Editor

Greg — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 11:15:35 +0000

In a kinda mailroom-to-boardroom story, Andrew Horan this week was named A1 editor of the Orange County Register. He started out as a young buck, working for the paper as a Laguna Beach reporter back in the 80s.

This being the Keira-skinny OCR, Horan will remain managing editor of OC POST. But he tells FBLA, “I still have strategic responsibility, but no day-to-day hands-on there. Those duties shift to the other team leaders at OC POST.”

Readers will remember that C.P. Smith, the former A1 editor opted to retire a year early when the paper announced it would be laying off staffers. No idea whether he helped, um, pick his replacement.

Congrats, Andy.

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C.P. Smith Outed as OC Register Buffoon

Kate — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:33:47 +0000

LA Observed identifies the nose-picking editor at the OC Register as C.P. Smith, A1 editor.

Smith is married to Sherry Stern, the LA Times editor who told syndicated columnist Amy Alkon not to bother ever contacting the paper again–

We are not interested in adding any others, so I’d like to save you the trouble from writing us in the future. We’re quite content. Additionally, we are not in the market for writers, so again, there’s no need for you to continue to write us.

As Smith has taken the Register’s buy-out, will the Times be needing his unquie talents? Oh, wait, she already brought back La Cucaracha.

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