Daily Inspiration Quote by Susan Estrich

Estrich is calling out a newsroom tactic that everyone pretends is just scheduling: the late drop. By specifying "the Thursday before the Tuesday", she turns timing into evidence. If the LA Times truly believed it had uncovered "serious misconduct", the ethical move would be immediacy. Holding it until the final stretch reads less like public service and more like political intervention - a calculated splash designed to shape an election rather than inform one.

The line works because it weaponizes a basic journalistic value (urgency) against journalists themselves. "If you had a serious story" is a conditional that implies the opposite: either the story wasn't serious, or the paper didn't treat it as such until it became useful. Estrich doesn't need to argue the facts of the misconduct; she undermines the paper's motive. It's a form of reputational jujitsu: she shifts the scrutiny from the subject of the story to the editorial judgment behind it.

There's also a savvy audience cue here. "My point to the LA Times" frames the criticism as direct and civic-minded, not partisan outrage. Yet the subtext is openly strategic: elections are about narrative momentum, and late-breaking allegations are uniquely powerful because they deny the target time to respond. Estrich is naming that asymmetry and implying it was exploited. In a media environment that sells itself as neutral, she's arguing that the calendar is an editorial stance - and sometimes the loudest one.