Los Angeles Magazine speaks to five former editors of the LAT about what the paper was like then – and where it’s going today. The overall picture is as grim as you’d expect: The good old days are good and dead and the industry is headed to hell in a handbasket. All that. Funny thing is, we remember some of these guys, and there were as many gripes during their tenures as now.

Shelby Coffey III for instance can wax poetic all day about the “tremendously stimulating time” he had as editor-in-chief from ’89-’97 and all the bureaus and new editions that were added under his watch. But let’s not forget that many of those bureaus were ghosts towns by ’95 populated by quasi-legally employed “stringers.”

Michael Parks seems to benefit the most from 20/20 hindsight, even offering his perspective of how he’d run the paper in today’s climate: “You have to get more imaginative in your coverage choices. The Los Angeles Times should not run and hunt with The New York Times and The Washington Post. It’s sui generis. It needs to be reported, written, and edited for the people of Southern California.” He doesn’t mention any other innovative ways to increase the paper’s funding. We’re guessing that’s a sore subject.

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That nice Jim O’Shea is gone from the LA Times, after what seems like only a few months. Quiet guy, kept to himself. The paper said so:

For the past few weeks, there has been a lot of internal Times gossip about O’Shea’s seeming distance from the newsroom operation. Basically, some people thought he wasn’t there even when he was there.

O’Shea had been in the top job for only 15 months, and was fired for resisting more of those budget cuts, just like his predecessor, Dean Baquet. While these proposed cuts weren’t as drastic as the previous, only about $4 million, out of a budget of $120 million, David Hiller canned O’Shea for his reluctance. O’Shea was said to have concerns about the paper’s ability to cover both the presidential election and the Beijing Olympics.

Spring Streetologists will note that this the fourth departure of a high ranking editor or publisher in three years.

Greg Mitchell, the editor of Editor & Publisher magazine, notes how closely this follows The Wire.

Dean Baquet lures away Marilyn Thompson, the LA Times investigative reporter based in Washington, DC. She joined the paper a little over a year ago. Baquet adds:

I’d like to say how terrific it is that The New York Times continues to build its staff at what is obviously a rugged time in the newspaper business.

He doesn’t have to rub it in.

Doug Frantz says farewell to the LA Times. Franz, who took the managing editor job at the behest of his friend Dean Baquet, was supposed to fall on his sword after Baquet’s ouster. John Montorio–also part of the Baquet boys–is still at the LAT–might he replace Frantz?

Jim O’Shea’s memo said:

He has been a huge help to me, convincing people to give me a chance at a time of uncertainty and turmoil. I can’t thank him enough. I will miss his wisdom, candor, professionalism and solid news judgment. The only comfort I find in his decision is that Doug leaves the newsroom his legacy of high standards and excellent, hard-hitting journalism. Doug’s last day will be July 6. I know you all join me in wishing him well in the future. I will begin the process of selecting a replacement for Doug soon.

Whistleblower Mark Klein told Nightline that former LAT editor Dean Baquet squashed his story about alleged government surveillance of domestic ‘net traffic. LA Times reporter Joe Menn worked for months with Klein, who had collected 120 pages of technical documents from the San Francisco office of AT&T showing how the NSA was installing “splitters” that would allow it to copy both domestic and international Internet traffic.

Baquet killed the story, since the paper couldn’t make sense of the technical documents. (And no one at the Times called CalTech?)

Wired.com published the documents last May.

Baquet confirmed to ABCNews.com he talked with then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and then-director of the NSA Gen. Michael Hayden but says “government pressure played no role in my decision not to run the story.”

The NY Times sat on the same story for nearly a year and ran a story in April 2006.

Klein has never been sued, but the documents have remained sealed in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s class action suit against AT & T.

KCET broadcast Frontline’s series News War last night, as counter programming for American Idol, never guessing that someone could actually want to watch both. This episode, What’s Happening to the News, which examimes the struggles of the LA Times, will repeat this Friday and the website has the whole series.

The producers interviewed all the right people for the series, and all but five of them are men.

In this episode, Amanda Congdon is presented twice–once in her Rocketboom days, and now as the fresh new face on ABC.com. She even gets an extended section on the website–the only woman with such a segment. (Maybe she’s supposed to help David Westin get a reasonable return.) Other than a woman in the LAT’s Baghdad bureau (in a burkha!) and Lauren Rich Fine from Merrill Lynch, women aren’t talking about the news business. And judging by the credits, women aren’t working in it either, at least not on this episode. (The first two episodes were written, produced, and directed by Raney Aronson-Rath.)

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Ah, February. That time of year when we have to pull long-sleeve shirts over our tanktops before we go out at night. Global warming may be bad for the polar bear, but it’s great for our tan. Let’s take a look at what else has been hot during this sorry, sorry week:

Dean Baquet feels sorry for the LAT.

Jack Bauer will feel a little more sorry for his enemies.

We all feel sorry for Dannielynn.

Vernon Loeb, LAT local investigations editor, is leaving to return to the Philadephia Inquirer as metro editor.

Loeb tells FBLA: “It’s hard leaving the LA Times, and hard leaving LA. I couldn’t pass up an opportnity to go to Philadelphia, work with Bill Marimow and show that locally owned newspapers can not only survive, but flourish. But I’ve got no complaints when it comes to The Times, the senior leaders of the newsroom and the unbelievable investigative reporters I got to work with. I was devastated when Dean Baquet was fired last fall, but I must say, the guy the Tribune Co. brought in to replace him, Jim O’Shea, won me over pretty fast. He’s an old school newspaperman who gets the web, and if Chicago supports the paper, its future is in good hands.”

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The New York Times announced today Dean Baquet has been named Washington bureau chief effective March 5. Baquet rejoins the newspaper after seven years at the Los Angeles Times, including the last two years as editor. Philip Taubman, who turns over the reins of the Washington bureau to Mr. Baquet, has been promoted to associate editor. Taubman will also do special reporting on national security.

FBLA thinks Tribune was short-sighted to let Baquet leave Los Angeles. Baquet, on the other hand, will miss real Mexican food.