Is it the Los Angeles Times, or the Babylon Bee? That's the question I asked myself after reading the Southern California newspaper of record's endorsement of L.A. County District Attorney George Gascon, a man who's nationally known now due to the effect of his "Criminals First" policies on the City of Angels.

He is doing what he promised, and doing it well, despite intense and dishonest backlash from opponents inside his office and among right-wing politicians and pundits across the nation.

While they're 100 percent correct in saying that Gascon's doing what he promised despite intense backlash, and arguably correct that he's doing it "well" (depending upon how one defines "well"), the editorial board loses all credibility with the rest of the sentence. The backlash is neither dishonest nor is it limited to right-wing politicians and pundits.

And perhaps that lack of credibility is why the Los Angeles Times is laying off 115 people in its newsroom Tuesday, after losing between $30-$50 million a year since its billionaire lefty owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, purchased it five years ago. Even in a place as liberal as Los Angeles, people know when they're being sold a load of crap, or when they're reading incomplete reporting, or when they're being talked down to, and they don't like it.

This year-over-year decline in digital/mobile traffic for the L.A. Times is massive, and seeing the number in comparison to outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times puts it into perspective. It's more difficult to get advertisers when you're losing readers, and a 38 percent decline in digital traffic for a publication where the overwhelming majority of its pieces are for subscribers only is a very bad development.

Well, that’s not good. Traffic to news sites in November, per ComScore. pic.twitter.com/yzCcDPAKVF

— Paul Farhi (@farhip) December 19, 2023

It's also interesting that RedState's traffic is in the same universe as the Los Angeles Times' despite having a very small fraction of the resources (equipment, writers) the LAT has.

While the Times has definitely leaned to the left for decades, it's shifted even further left since Soon-Shiong purchased the newspaper. His activist daughter, Nika, is a big force in socialist politics in the region and makes her preferences loudly known. Reports say that a recent spate of resignations among the senior editorial staff is due in large part to Nika's interference in the editorial process, even though father and daughter both deny she has a say in anything.

Reading this endorsement of George Gascon for re-election, though, which even dismisses Jeff Chemerinsky (son of the "justice reform" scholar Erwin Chemerinsky) as not reform-minded enough, it's difficult to believe that Nika Soon-Shiong's fingerprints aren't all over it. It's just incredible that the editorial board thinks that telling Angelenos to not believe their own eyes and lived experience when it comes to the increase in crime and prosecutorial policies and to instead believe the Times about Gascon's record is a recipe for success. They write:

Falsehoods about his policies, and about the apocalyptic landscape that Los Angeles has supposedly become because of them, are widespread — so much so that voters who supported him 3½ ago may have forgotten why.

From there it just gets worse, as the editorial board becomes Gascon's communications team and outright lies out Gascon's policies.

Gascón’s policies seek the most fitting rather than the longest possible sentences. This smart approach was such a departure from older, failed strategies that the MAGA right promptly distorted it into the false narrative that Gascón refuses to prosecute misdemeanors at all, and generally avoids prosecuting felonies.

This fairy tale is so entrenched that several of his challengers repeated it on the campaign trail — and one of them, former Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan Hochman, told it to the Times editorial board. When asked to show evidence, he couldn’t — because there is no such policy.

This is just embarrassing. As we covered in December 2020, on Gascon's first day in office he issued a number of Special Directives, including one on misdemeanors. While the policy states that there could be "exceptions" or "factors for consideration" that would allow these misdemeanors to be prosecuted, a number of them don't have any exceptions or factors for consideration listed.

Certain misdemeanors are to be “declined or dismissed before arraignment and without conditions unless ‘exceptions’ or ‘factors for consideration’ exist,” including:

• Trespass – Penal Code § 602(a)-(y)
• Disturbing The Peace – Penal Code § 415(1)-(3)
• Driving Without A Valid License – Vehicle Code § 12500(a)-(e)
• Driving On A Suspended License – Vehicle Code § 14601.1(a)
• Criminal Threats – Penal Code § 422Drug & Paraphernalia Possession – Health & Safety Code §§ 11350, 11357, 11364, & 11377
• Minor in Possession of Alcohol – Business & Professions § 25662(a)
• Drinking in Public – Los Angeles County Municipal Code §13.18.010
• Under the Influence of Controlled Substance – Health & Safety Code § 11550
• Public Intoxication – Penal Code § 647(f)
• Loitering – Penal Code § 647(b),(c), (d), (e)
• Loitering To Commit Prostitution – Penal Code § 653.22(a)(1)
• Resisting Arrest – Penal Code § 148(a)

The above list of criminal offenses are generally quality-of-life offenses. So what we see in Los Angeles - people loitering while intoxicated, shouting threats, trespassing, disturbing the peace (hello, 2020 BLM riots and 2023 pro-Hamas "protests"), prostitution, drug-addicted vagrants setting up camp in public areas throughout the county, are absolutely a result of Gascon's policies. People cannot be prosecuted for these low-level crimes and therefore build up no record to be considered by a judge when they inevitably commit more serious crimes, and we end up with a major problem that wasn't nipped in the bud.

As the endorsement notes, Gascon was district attorney in San Francisco before coming home to Los Angeles. While they give him props for this "experience" (which he gained because he was appointed as District Attorney when Kamala Harris was elected Attorney General, not because he earned the position), they fail to note that he has never once tried a case before a jury. Ever.

He is the only Los Angeles County district attorney in the last century, and perhaps ever, to step into the job after learning the ropes in a parallel post in another county. Other prosecutors may know the courtroom; Gascón knows the system.

And, oh yeah, he was never a Deputy District Attorney. Just went straight from being chief of San Francisco's Police Department, a post he was appointed to by Gavin Newsom. All of that is conveniently left out of the Times' narrative of Gascon's career.

Gascón is a former police officer who rose through the ranks to become LAPD assistant chief under William Bratton. He then became the chief of police in Mesa, Ariz., a conservative city adjacent to Phoenix and Arizona’s third most populous municipality. From there he became chief of San Francisco’s Police Department, and then San Francisco’s district attorney.

In the LA Times editorial board's narrative, police are bad, mmmkay, unless they become justice reformers.

For some reason, the Times editorial board didn't think they should tell the public that Gascon openly brags that he started the Progressive Prosecutor Project with George Soros back in the early 2010's and even got him to commit to a $50 million seed donation to the ACLU to get it started (something RedState exclusively reported back in December 2020).

Why wasn't he as radical as SF DA? "You have to progressively... a lot of things that are acceptable today, in 2011 would have gotten me - there would have been a recall two years after I was in office, and I didn't want to get recalled because that doesn't get the work done." pic.twitter.com/Fyif6Bd5Md

— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) August 4, 2022

Wonder why that is? That shows some great leadership and should be celebrated, right?

We all know why that experience isn't highlighted, and that's because it gives credibility to criticism that Gascon is an activist first and public servant second (or third or fourth or fifth). It shows that his interest isn't in protecting the people of Los Angeles County and ensuring that people who break the law are appropriately prosecuted, but that his interest is in "get[ting] the work done."

With this sham of an endorsement, which completely gaslights the people of Los Angeles County and delves into activism, the Los Angeles Times editorial board shows that they're not interested in holding the powerful to account or giving a voice to the voiceless or sharing "lived experiences." And that's why they're bleeding money and why their newsroom is being gutted. As the paper was forced to report about Tuesday's layoffs:

The move comes amid projections for another year of heavy losses for the newspaper.

The cuts were necessary because the paper could no longer lose $30 million to $40 million a year without making progress toward building higher readership that would bring in advertising and subscriptions to sustain the organization, the paper’s owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, said Tuesday.

Drastic changes were needed, he said, including new leaders who would focus on strengthening the outlet’s journalism to become indispensable to more readers.

Good journalism isn't about writing what your readers want to read, but it's also not about attempting to dismiss their experiences, either. Good journalism seeks to get to the truth, even if it's sometimes not pretty or not what we want it to be. At RedState we work to bring you the stories that other publications, even conservative publications, don't - even if some of those stories might not rack up clicks or go viral. We work to bring those stories to you because they're important. We're grateful to all of our readers and grateful for the financial support our VIP subscribers provide. Without that support we would not have survived the COVID shutdowns or the ongoing censorship from Big Tech. If you're not already a VIP subscriber, you can enjoy an ad-free experience and exclusive content, and know that you're supporting independent journalism, when you join today. (Hint: Use code "SAVEAMERICA" to save 50 percent.)

Full disclosure: I've been the subject of a few negative and inaccurate pieces in the Times (which I won't link), but they did a good job covering the dismissal of the lawsuit Katie Hill filed against me personally and RedState after we published a series outlining her sexual harassment of a staff member and allegations of alcohol and prescription drug abuse.

FLASHBACK: CA Rep. Katie Hill Allegedly Involved Female Staffer in 2-Yr 'Throuple' Relationship