The Wrap links Rutten firing to errors

Tim Rutten has been saying in radio interviews that he was laid off by the Los Angeles Times for financial reasons and because he was older. Now, Brent Lang of The Wrap says that description "has rankled some in the Times newsroom" who say errors in Rutten's columns contributed as well. The most prominent mistake came last February, when a quote attributed to the anonymous book "O: A Presidential Novel" actually came from a humor website. Lang says that editors responded to the error by banning Rutten from writing book reviews and putting his op-ed columns through more factual reviews. Rutten tells The Wrap:

"No mention of that correction or of anything connected to it was made to me when I was laid off," Rutten said. "I was simply told that I was being laid off because they were asked to make serious cuts in the department, and that’s the only explanation that I was given.”

Another possible factor, I've heard, stems from upset among editors that Rutten scored the paper's only substantial exit interview with Cardinal Roger Mahony when he stepped down this spring.