LA Times Editorial Page Editor Resigns in Protest

I accept responsibility for creating this appearance problem, though I also maintain that the newspaper is overreacting today. We are depriving readers of an interesting, serious section that is beyond reproach, and unfairly insulting the individuals we approached to participate in this guest editor program by telling them it is a corrupt concept. How we come about this decision when 24 hours ago the managing editor of this newspaper was assuring me he didn't see a story after I walked him through the facts, and while Hiller maintains we did nothing wrong, is a bit perplexing. In trying to keep up with the blogosphere, and boasting about their ability to go after their own, navel-gazing newsrooms run the risk of becoming parodies of themselves.

A native of Mexico, Martinez studied history at Yale University, graduating cum laude, and subsequently received a master's degree in Russian history from Stanford University and a law degree from Columbia University, where he served on Law Review. After law school, Martinez practiced communications law in Washington, D.C. and served as a law clerk for a federal district judge in Dallas. Switching to journalism, Martinez worked as a reporter for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he joined the editorial board in September 1995. He also worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal before becoming an editorial writer at The New York Times in the summer of 2000. There, he served as assistant editorial page editor and a member of the editorial board, and it was for work done there that he was a 2004 Pulitzer Prize finalist for editorial writing. After moving to the L.A. Times in September 2004, Martinez's duties were expanded to include oversight of the op-ed page and "Sunday Current," in addition to his responsibilities for the editorial page, upon the October 2005 resignation from the paper of Michael Kinsley, who had served as editorial and opinion editor.