Doug Ross @ Journal

Hugh Hewitt hammers another nail into the LA Times' coffin

It is certain the LA Times doesn't need another reminder that their business is going to hell in a hand-basket (heaven knows that Patterico has delivered enough to rival a pizza-driver's mileage). Nonetheless, they got one yesterday. Hugh Hewitt delivered a blistering (and maniacally dandy) weather report for the LA Dog Trainer.

It comes after a May 2006 report showing that the Times has lost more paid weekday circulation (5.4% year over year) than any other major daily.

Hewitt's prediction? Continued blight, followed by extended drought, followed by seven or more years of famine. Think of it as the second half of Joseph's dream interpretation for Pharoah and you're pretty much there.

...When the new circulation figures for the [LA Times] appear, it is a guarantee that... any losses will be explained away by reference not to the papers' atrocious editorial decisions, but to the challenge from online competitors. To help the small brained dinosaurs... there's a useful new category cooked up by the Audit Bureau of Circulation that counts free papers left in hotel lobbies etc., "Verified Circulation." You can perfume a corpse, but that doesn't make it less dead. Keep your eye on home delivery, paid circulation. The advertisers will. And my guess is that they won't be happy. Nor will the shareholders or Wall Street...

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew. That's a mighty tall glass of shut-up juice the Times just got served.

It's always fun to see Mr. Hewitt delivering bi-coastal smackdowns. That's why CNN only books him on CNN's Reliable Sources infrequently. Say, when there's an eclipse during the Summer Solstice... and when he's outnumbered 3-1 or greater by the moonbattery. I did notice that the last time he was on, they pulled the usual one conservative versus three liberals (including a certain "Eric Lichtblau", recently infamous for a shameful national security disclosure). Hewitt rendered it a brutal mismatch for the Right.

I could be mistaken, but Hewitt delivered enough punishment that by the end of the segment he was yelling, "Is that all you got? Bring on some more! Carville, Rafferty, whoever you got!"

I could've imagined that last part, but I'm pretty sure that's the way it went down.

It will get considerably uglier for the Times, whose infantile behavior defies both logic and any semblance of business sense. The only saving grace for those employed or otherwise captive to the Times: the inevitable, chaotic meltdown won't last long, so it will all be over quickly.