Slate.com founder Michael Kinsley named L.A. Times opinion editor

By The Associated Press

Michael Kinsley

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

LOS ANGELES — Political commentator and columnist Michael Kinsley has been named editorial and opinion editor at the Los Angeles Times, the paper said yesterday.

The 53-year-old Seattle resident will be responsible for the paper's daily editorial and letters page, its commentary page and its Sunday Opinion section, Times editor John Carroll said.

The current editorial page editor, Janet Clayton, will become assistant managing editor for state and local news. Both appointments are effective June 14.

Kinsley has been an editor at The New Republic and Harper's and for six years was the co-host of CNN's "Crossfire."

In 1995, he founded the online magazine Slate.com, financed by Microsoft, and was its editor for six years.

"Mike is a writer of wit and insight, a lucid thinker on public policy and an innovative editor known for spotting and developing talent," Carroll said.

Kinsley has worked as a columnist for Slate and The Washington Post and as a contributing writer at Time magazine since stepping down from his post at Slate in February 2002.

Kinsley left his position as editor shortly after acknowledging that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease eight years earlier.

In November 2002, Kinsley acknowledged that as a judge for the National Book Awards he had read only a fraction of the 400 books in contention. He said he agreed to be a judge out of "mainly vanity and a desire for free books."

A call to Kinsley late yesterday for comment on his appointment went unanswered.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More local news headlines...