It Works for SNL

Last week the LA Times broke a major taboo. The Internet headline went:

Uproar over 'news story' ad on front page of LA Times

News reporters and others were up in arms. The very integrity of the news was challenged. I gather it was an ad for a TV show that even had a by-line and all the trappings of a normal news story.

We have to do something to save the paper was the publisher's response since the company is in Chapter 11. Why does it sound like the commander in the Vietnam War who reported that the village had to be destroyed to save it?