Scarborough suspended*

MSNBC proves to be fair and balanced when it comes to handing out suspensions for violating its campaign contribution policy. Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman and host of "Morning Joe," got suspended today for unreported donations to Florida GOP candidates. It's the same violation that turned Keith Olbermann redder than normal.

*Rick Newman at US News has a solution: "MSNBC could solve its donation problem by employing ordinary journalists. They can't afford donations."

In from the cold

Blogger and Los Angeles Times pressman Ed Padgett says his suspension at the paper will be lifted at 4 p.m. today and that he will meet with management tomorrow to "discuss or clarify what content can be published online."

Padgett was suspended Tuesday over posts he made after a production problem that led to delays in the delivery of Friday's newspaper.

LA Times suspends pressman blogger

Los Angeles Times pressman Ed Padgett says his bosses suspended him for blogging about last Thursday's production problems that led to delivery problems Friday morning.

Padgett, who posts at the Los Angeles Times Pressmens 20 Year Club, said the suspension could lead to termination, pending the outcome of an internal investigation:

I was told I had been warned in the past regarding my blogging, but I was only warned about broadcasting circulation numbers and nothing else. 

So much for first amendment rights.

Padgett posts included the news that the Times had to restart its Orange County printing presses after having shuttered the facility days before and the rising temperatures inside the Olympic plant. (The warning he refers to came last June when he reported that the paper's circulation had fallen below one million.)

Padgett also called for unspecified changes at Times in response to the production problems, which might be the post that got him into hot water. Here's part of what he said:

I’m not certain how many subscribers have fled the Los Angeles Times over the fiasco yesterday, but the numbers will be revealed to the pressmen shortly as the amount of newspapers produced daily will most definitely decline deeply. ...


The public relations damage at the Los Angeles Times was great, with thousand’s of dollars in rebates to the advertisers for newspapers not delivered to our readers. We have a few anchors here at the LA Times that need to be jettisoned overboard, and quickly.