It’s certainly not unusual, sadly, to hear about another round of layoffs at a SoCal daily newspaper. But the idea that the Orange County Register would not be able to find a way to keep Latina columnist Yvette Cabrera on staff is truly mind-boggling.

FishbowlLA was tipped to this development around the same time that James Rainey sent out the first tweet and Kevin Roderick got up the first post. Cabrera is the executive director president of CCNMA: Latino Journalists of California and was voted Best Columnist in 2011 by the OC press club.

So far, the most impassioned and detailed reaction to this developing layoff news (word is as many as eight other Register staffers may also be involved) comes from Gustavo Arellano of the OC Weekly. He writes:

Yvette was always kind to me, penning articles on various members of my family over the years. I, on the other hand, didn’t return the favor, both as part of the “Spy vs. Spy” game that is the rivalry between the Reg and your favorite infernal rag, and because I always wanted her to be tougher, more radical, more of an Agustín Gurza than a feel-good columnist. Immaturity on my part, I can now say with a bit more years under my belt.

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The Daily Caller‘s Tucker Carlson went on The O’Reilly Factor to talk about his latest “investigative” scoop. That would be his story on how various left-leaning columnists across America receive and report, without attribution, “propaganda” directly from the liberal media criticism site Media Matters. Among those with a propaganda inbox are LA Times media critic James Rainey and New York Times media writer Brian Stelter. Interestingly, Carlson’s story doesn’t cite a single example of either writer using Media Matters content. Instead, Carlson’s anonymous “insider” sources tell him they do.

Quite the scoop.

We reached out to Rainey to ask about his Media Matters-propaganda-using-ways, but haven’t heard back yet.

Digitally-oriented media mogul John Paton got a nice fat profile in the LA Times over the weekend, courtesy of James Rainey. Paton is the CEO of Digital First Media, the Journal Register Company and Media News–and oversees the Daily News, Pasadena Star-News, Long Beach Press-Telegram and the Daily Breeze, among a few hundred other papers and media outlets across the country. Paton is a one-time copy boy for the Toronto Sun, who has made it big as a media executive by pushing his newspapers to embrace digital journalism–and pushing hard.

Writes Rainey:

Paton and his Digital First Media — a management company established four months ago that now oversees the recently bankrupt Journal Register and MediaNews chains — have put a 21st century spin on “Stop the presses!” Reporters post video before writing news stories, tweet to their readers in search of news tips and invite customers into news meetings to help mull story choices.

Ad reps had better be pushing Facebook placements, email blasts and online video ads. Paton’s mantra: “Stack digital dimes to match print dollars.”

The roundish chief executive with the insouciant Sydney Greenstreet affect displays a notable lack of sentimentality for parts of his lifelong trade. He has said that traditional print journalism has a value of “about zero,” urged that newspaper people stop listening to other newspaper people, and stated that the public “knows more than we do” about their towns.

Paton later qualifies those statements by arguing that newspapers are no longer fit for breaking news, when stories can be posted on the web at a moment’s notice. Which is true. But he never disputes the notion that John Q. Public somehow knows more about their town than reporters do. We’d encourage Paton to take a stroll around LA and ask people on the street if they can name all the city council members. Or even their own city council member.

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Chelsea Clinton has a new job as a “special correspondent” for NBC Nightly News as well as the network’s new TV-magazine, Rock Center With Brian Williams. James Rainey‘s piece on the Clinton hire notes that Chelsea’s entry into media is fairly ironic, given her legendary unwillingness to be interviewed.

True to her long-standing practice, Clinton declined to speak to anyone in the media after NBC’s announcement. She strenuously avoided interviews during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential run, even refusing to speak to a 9-year-old reporter from Scholastic News. The child wanted to know what kind of “First Man” Bill Clinton might be.

“Chelsea Clinton has loathed the news media for most of her life,” Don Van Natta, a New York Times reporter, wrote via Twitter. “So it makes sense she has decided to join us and refuse to be interviewed.” The journalist co-authored a book about Hillary Rodham Clinton.

There’s no doubt that Chelsea has what it takes intellectually to handle the job. But we can’t help but be skeptical about NBC hiring someone with zero media experience. Just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you know storytelling. Or basic journalism for that matter. There are plenty of equally brilliant journalists out there looking for work. Granted, we’re talking about TV here and not the national desk at a major newspaper–a position that would require more rigor. Still, this thing has gimmick written all over it.

James Rainey wrote his last “On the Media” column for the Los Angeles Times Saturday, as the columnist will focus more on reporting on the media going forward.

LA Observed has the memo from the LAT announcing Rainey’s new role at the newspaper:

To: The Staff
From: Sallie Hofmeister, Assistant Managing Editor
Craig Turner, Arts and Entertainment Editor
Jim Rainey is taking on a new assignment, applying his formidable reporting, analytical and writing skills to the beat that he has skillfully covered as a columnist for more than three years. Starting next week, Jim will be doing longer investigations, profiles and analyses of the media world that we expect will land him regularly on A1, in Column One and on the Sunday and daily Calendar covers.

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Los Angeles Times media columnist James Rainey penned an excellent column on the late Steve Jobs and his relationship with the media.

As Rainey points out, the former Apple co-founder and CEO had a rocky relationship to say the very least with the media:

Conventional wisdom will vindicate Jobs’ media strategy. His products sold. His company grew to one of the biggest in the world. And reporters waited desperately for morsels about the slightest reconfiguration of the iPhone, iPod or MacBook. But because Jobs’ command and control paradigm worked at Apple doesn’t mean he was always right, or that his methods could be duplicated by lesser figures.

The tactics also created a perverse climate of breathless, under-informed speculation every time an Apple pod, pad or book was due for a launch or modification — which was essentially all the time. Addition of a data port on one device could draw oohs and ahhs in multiple stories..

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In his On the Media column today, the LA Times‘ James Rainey argues that the media needs to start leading a serious, realistic discussion of class in America.

Even though economists say the gap between haves and have-nots has been building for three decades, the growing income disparity and its causes have come up for discussion mostly as a sidebar — removed from the front page, rarely the lead story on the evening news.

It’s hard to know why arguably the central story of our times — featuring the retreat of the stable, single-wage household — has been pushed off the front burner.

We can think of a bunch of reasons.

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In his latest column, LA Times media critic James Rainey sends some love to Marketplace–the LA-based public radio program that has helped create a mini radio empire of 9.3 million listeners per week. That’s up from 5.3 million back in 2001.

Rainey credits Marketplace with being virtually the only economic show not based out of New York to find any popular success. He credits this to the show’s emphasis on the human side of the economy, not simple CNBC-style sucking up to the moneyed elite. (He doesn’t put it quite as bluntly as that.)

Snippets of “We’re in the Money” or “Stormy Weather” accompany the show’s good or bad news on the markets, refrains so ubiquitous that they join talk doyenne Terry Gross’ purr and the incessant cackle of the “Car Talk” guys as the signature sounds of public radio.

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In the wake of Wednesday’s news that Poynter’s Jim Romenesko is semi-retiring and Slate’s Jack Shafer has been laid off, Gawker has declared this the twilight of media critics. They’ve compiled a list of those critics of note still standing, and it’s a short one, with David Carr of the New York Times at the top. The LA Times‘ media writer James Rainey was also named, though without much enthusiasm:

Rainey’s not a particularly memorable writer, but he does a fair job. He also has the West Coast pretty much to himself now.

Rainey, for whom FishbowlLA has considerably more affection, tweets in response:

It’s the little things…

When LA Times media critic James Rainey called out Gawker this spring for completely bungling a report about Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s love child, the first reader comment suggested that flight attendant Tammy Tousignant, wrongly tagged by reporter John Cook (pictured) as the mother of the ex-Governor’s love child, should sue the Nick Denton publication. That has now, belatedly, happened.

Tousignant wants a minimum of $10 million from Gawker, the National Enquirer, and UK’s The Daily Mail. In her Orange County Superior Court complaint, she is basically alleging that the extensive correction posted on Gawker in place of the erroneous May 17 item was not nearly enough. Per Rainey’s original report:

I asked Gawker editor-in-chief Remy Stern how the error came about. Stern said the reporter is one of “the very best.” He called the Schwarzenegger story an anomaly.

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