Jill Stewart penned a rebuttal to James Rainey’s “take-down” piece about the LA Weekly.

Since LATimes.com is crashing on and off due to the Michael Jackson deluge, we have posted then entire piece after the break, but here’s an excerpt:

Rainey accuses me of being an ideologue. Isn’t he talking about himself? I suspect that he cannot abide a mixed-bag political mutt like me, a lifelong Democrat raised in a working-class union household, yet one who finds the Democratic leaders now running most of L.A.’s political and civic institutions to be doing an exceptionally poor job of it. That’s news, and we at the Weekly will continue to cover it.

After their servers catch up – the story should be here.

Previously on FBLA:

James Rainey‘s column today in the LAT ends like this:

I don’t see the Weekly regaining its equilibrium as long as Stewart remains in charge of the news section. It’s likely that a new top editor will be brought in from outside.

But no one I talked to expects the bombastic Ms. Stewart to be going anywhere any time soon.

So Jill Stewart sent us this letter which we have printed in full:

Hi there,

I wanted to tell my colleagues and friends in journalism and blogging that James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times did not contact me for his take-down attempt column about me today, published during the very same week in which news-side stories I assigned and edited blew the Times out of the water at the Los Angeles Press Club awards. These awards, announced five days ago, were judged entirely by journalists in other major cities around the nation to avoid local favoritism. And then yesterday, a young reporter who won a major award for a piece that I assigned and edited beat The New York Times and was in Washington, D.C. collecting his award.

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Daniel Heimpel writes about how Measure B went down in flames – fire bombed by Facebook and Twitter activists.

The spokesperson for Measure B was not happy:

Some of this arrogance was still leaking out of the campaign shortly before its demise was verified March 19 at Los Angeles City Hall. Measure B spokeswoman Sarah Leonard refused to disclose how much money the campaign raised to peddle its vision, flatly telling L.A. Weekly, “I don’t think it’s relevant.”

Pressed further, she said, “I could just tell you, but you have not exactly been a friend to me throughout this entire process.”

Thataboy, Danny.

Daniel Heimpel‘s beat has been Measure B. He explains the implications of its failing for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa:

Villaraigosa is considering a run for governor in 2010, and, as L.A. Weekly has previously reported, he has spent much of his time as mayor focused on appearances at photo ops and other press-oriented events. Statewide polls have shown him trailing Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a mock gubernatorial election, and Villaraigosa still suffers high negatives following an affair that ruined his marriage.

His re-election on March 3 was supposed to create a political boost for him. His huge campaign war chest frightened off any big-name rivals for mayor, leaving him a largely clear field for a re-election romp. As the Weekly learned last month, solar Measure B was rushed onto the March 3 ballot to burnish Villaraigosa’s image with voters around California.

David Zahniser and Phil Willon write in the LAT:

The election was a mixed bag for the mayor in other ways. His ally, City Councilman Jack Weiss, was forced into a runoff in the race for city attorney. His push for the solar energy plan known as Measure B stumbled despite a flood of 30-second television commercials that featured the mayor as the sole salesman. And Measure E, a plan to give taxpayer subsidies to businesses, was defeated despite support from Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton.

We think it’s funny that Mayor V nearly lost to gadflies because that’s what he is to the Obama Administration.

We went to Patrick Range McDonald‘s birthday party in West Hollywood on Saturday. Here we are pictured with McDonald (in the middle) and Variety’s Ted Johnson.

Other notables at the party include Michael Weinstein, founder of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Mike Gatto, attorney and politico at Mayer Brown, Miki Jackson and John Walsh, who host Neighborhood Point of View (the cable access show), Japhy Grant, editor of Queerty.com, Rick Jacobs, founder of Courage Campaign, Christine Pelisek, staff writer at LA Weekly, Daniel Heimpel and Max Taves, freelancers at the Weekly Jill Stewart, deputy news editor at LA Weekly David Hernandez, longtime gadfly and public access producer Sabrina Venskus, environmental attorney, B. Daniel Blatt, blogger at GayPatriot.net, Tom Whitman, nightlife promoter, Nick Velasquez, Rocky Delgadillo‘s spokesman, writer Luke Thompson and Jim Hoffmaster, character actor.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was, of course, invited but didn’t show. Which was both disappointing and expected…just like his stint as mayor.