L.A. Times To Settle Suit Over Race and Gender Bias, As Editor Promises Change

The Los Angeles Times is moving to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit filed by six Black, Hispanic and female journalists at the paper contending that the under-representation of people of color there is a result of longstanding discriminatory pay practices.

It is the latest episode in a newsroom with a fraught history over race and gender, though the L.A. Times has twice been led by executive editors of color: Dean Baquet, who is Black, and Davan Maharaj, a journalist born in Trinidad and Tobago.

On Tuesday, Black journalists at the Los Angeles Times called out their newspaper with the hashtag #BlackatLAT - a social media protest of what they said was a pattern of racist experiences at the paper.

Inside the paper, Los Angeles Times executive editor Norman Pearlstine and his leadership team are promising sweeping cultural changes to redress decades of mistreatment and neglect of journalists of color.

At that session, Pearlstine and his leadership team promised to do more to hire, promote, retain and develop Black journalists and to change the very culture at the paper.