NOT "FORCED OUT," SAYS TIMES CRITIC

Los Angeles Times film critic Kevin Crust has denied that he and fellow writers for the newspaper's arts section, Calendar, were forced to take a buyout package and leave the newspaper. In an email message, Crust wrote that they were "voluntarily taking the buyout to pursue other opportunities. ... There was no 'force' involved." Other writers have observed that the voluntary buyout package was a "carrot" accompanied by a rigid "stick" -- a warning by editor Russ Stanton on Feb. 19 that staffers had until March 3 to decide w hether to accept it or face the possibility of its being withdrawn following that deadline. Some writers have used the term "nudged out" rather than "forced out" to describe the departures of the staffers who applied for the buyout.

07/03/2008