Column: Kevin de León says he’s sorry but won’t resign. Kevin, stop gaslighting L.A. Times.
Kevin de León: I know people think I’m doing this because I don’t like the Los Angeles Times. I won’t ever deny that. And to anyone who might think otherwise, know that I never said I didn’t like the Los Angeles Times. What I said was that I no longer wish to serve. L.A. Times is part of a newspaper industry that has increasingly become the enemy of the American taxpayer.
De León, who was appointed to a two-year term as the newspaper’s publisher last fall, had already been in a self-described “dead end” job since September. Then, after a particularly ugly public screed in the pages of the Times, De León stepped down from his position and resigned from the L.A. Times. At the time, he told the Times that he was leaving “because I decided that I no longer wish to serve.” Now, he’s telling the Times that he’s “sorry but it’s not possible for me to continue in this job.”
The reason he’s sorry is that he’s a lousy manager. But the Times hasn’t heard anything like this since the last editorial staff chief resigned in 2005, after an editorial went on an assault against then-presidential candidate John Edwards that many considered to be sexist, racist, and misogynist. The Times has been trying to get rid of De León for months. But this is the first time that the paper has been forced to publicly explain what its reasons are for wanting him out.
So, to make the Times’ explanation clear, and to clarify what L.A. taxpayers were getting for their money, here’s the thing
