LA Times should reinstate Ted Rall cartoonist

On July 28, 2015, Nicholas Goldberg, the Editor of the Editorial pages at the Los Angeles Times posted a statement informing readers that the newspaper would no longer publish the cartoons of Ted Rall because a story written by Ted Rall at the Times' OpinionLA blog on May 11 contained facts about his experience with the LA Police in 2001 that could not be substantiated. Although there was no evidence offered to contradict Ted's story, Mr. Goldberg claimed that this was sufficient reason to terminate publishing his political cartoons.

We the undersigned respectfully request that Mr. Goldberg reinstate Mr. Rall and his cartoons immediately. We fail to see any relationship between a personal recollection of an event that took place 14 years ago to Mr. Rall's cartoons, and are troubled that an esteemed newspaper reporter used subjective and illogical justifications to terminate using Mr. Rall's cartoons.

Mr. Rall's cartoons are consistently brilliant and offer the Los Angeles readership and cartoon fans who read his work a unique and important perspective that would be lost should Mr. Goldberg's decision be allowed to remain in force.

The Los Angeles Times has proven, time and time again, that it holds its reporters and staff to the highest possible standards of ethical behavior. Mr. Goldberg's decision is an aberration and violation of these tenets.

Please reverse this decision immediately.