LOS ANGELES - Former L.A. Times publisher Tom Johnson had some harsh words Saturday about Mark Willes, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis and the former president of General Mills Inc., who became CEO of the Times after Johnson's departure.
"I've never said this before in public," said Johnson, participating in a panel spotlighting "Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times," an upcoming PBS documentary. "Putting Mark Willes and Kathryn Downing (his protégé) in that position was like loading the cockpit of a 707 with a pilot and co-pilot without a day of training." Willes, who left the Times when it was purchased by the Chicago Tribune in 2000, is currently the president of Deseret Management Corp. a private business holding company.
After the panel, Johnson criticized some recent decisions at CNN, where he used to serve as president. He said anchors, with few exceptions, should keep their personal opinions to themselves, referring specifically to Lou Dobbs' recent rants about President Obama's birth certificate. "Angry talk shows and opinionated anchors may increase audience levels, but they decrease public respect for media long term," he said, adding that his desire that news channels stick only to reporting the news is now "a fantasy."
He didn't, however, let himself off the hook. He noted that during his stint at CNN in the 1990s, he helped create "Crossfire," the grandpappy of all shoutdowns. "We may have spawned this."
