LA Times and LA Workers Union at War Over Audio of Council Members’ Racist Comments
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The Los Angeles Times and a union representing Los Angeles County workers have been at war over audio of Los Angeles City Council members making racist remarks, which the union called an “illegal recording.”
The leaked audio was made public on Sunday.
According to the outlet, during an October 2021 conversation with Latino leaders, then-Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez compared a White councilmember’s Black son to an “accessory”; said in Spanish that a councilmember’s son was “like a monkey”; called that councilmember, Mike Bonin, a “little bitch”; and accused Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón of being “with the Blacks.”
Councilmember Kevin de León, according to the Times, “appeared to compare Bonin’s handling of his child to Martinez holding a Louis Vuitton handbag.”
Martinez also made anti-Semitic and anti-Armenian remarks. De León and Martinez have since apologized and the latter resigned on Wednesday from the city council.
Councilmember Bonin gave an emotional and powerful statement about the situation, and the idea of apologies, in front of a council meeting that was rocked by protests Tuesday.
An attorney representing the LA County Federation of Labor, Julie Gutman Dickinson sent a letter on Sunday to the Times before it was published, threatening to take legal action if it went public. The letter claimed the conversation “was recorded in violation of California’s privacy and recording laws on LA County Federation of Labor property.”
“If the LA Times publishes this illegal recording, or information contained within it, it is condoning this illegal conduct and subjecting itself to potential liability. It is imperative for this reason, and to avoid harm to innocent people, that the LA Times refrains from publishing anything from the illegal recording. And under no circumstances should the illegal recording itself be published.”
For those who have asked: Early Sunday, @LALabor sent this legal threat trying to stop @latimes journalists from publishing the racist comments made by top L.A. officials inside federation offices. I’ve asked the federation whether it has changed its position on the leak itself. pic.twitter.com/tEt6K5Ma5g
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) October 12, 2022
The Times punched back in a Sunday letter to Dickson, calling her letter “contrary to United States and California Supreme Court constitutional law, which recognizes that the First Amendment fully protects news reports on illegally intercepted recordings about matters of public concern.” The outlet defended its publication of the audio “as matters of interest to the public.” It cited legal decisions in citing that the publication is in the right.
The @latimes sent this reply to @LALabor by general counsel Jeff Glasser and proceeded to publish this story: https://t.co/RgRi0wlHbA pic.twitter.com/tKJxex32Q2
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) October 12, 2022
