L.A. Times' Tim Rutten Doesn't Get It

In today's Times, columnist Tim Rutten writes mournfully that the Times was "forced" to suspend Michael Hiltzik -- not because he's done something unethical, but because those mean right-wing bloggers want everyone in the media to be right-wing too:

"They'd like a press that is wholly blue or wholly red, one that stops bothering a nation...with inconvenient facts and doubts. That was a sentiment that came through with particular clarity this week, when the Los Angeles Times was forced to suspend columnist Michael Hiltzik's blog..."

Rutten connects dots in such odd ways it's hard to even follow the gist of his column...Hiltzik commits ethical transgressions, is called to account and suspended, and it's all a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

And Rutten wonders why the "right wing" criticizes the American news media?

More discussion can be found, of course, at Patterico's Pontifications.