Editor resigns over killed opinion section

An emotional internal rift rocked the Los Angeles Times today, as Publisher David D. Hiller scrapped a special edition of the paper's Sunday opinion section to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, causing editorial page editor Andres Martinez to resign in protest.

The paper had been scheduled today to print an edition of its Current opinion section edited by Hollywood producer Brian Grazer, but Hiller announced this morning that he would not publish the section because it "might appear that something might not be quite right."

Hiller said he had only learned in the last few days that Grazer was represented by Kelly Mullens, Martinez's girlfriend -- leaving at least the appearance that the producer of "A Beautiful Mind" and other films might have received a special favor as the first "guest editor" of Current.

A controversy that had burst into public view only a day earlier escalated today as Martinez delivered an extraordinary online resignation, some of his colleagues rose up to protest that he had been targeted by enemies in The Times' news operation, and his second-in-command scrambled to produce a replacement section.

Martinez and Mullens denied that their romantic relationship had led to Grazer's selection. Hiller said that he believed that contention but that the appearance of a conflict was damaging enough.

"The problem with conflicts is, how do you know" what someone's motivation was, Hiller told a gathering of the newspaper's managers this morning. "It might appear that something might not be quite right."

The publisher, who joined The Times five months ago, added: "I think it's fair to say that we got ourselves into a predicament and we should not have let it happen."

About the same time Hiller was addressing the controversy in the newspaper's 5th floor auditorium, Martinez was three floors below writing a blog posting that gave his side of the story. He then met briefly with his staff and told them of his resignation.

"David Hiller's decision to kill the Brian Grazer section this Sunday makes my continued tenure as Los Angeles Times editorial page editor untenable," Martinez wrote. "The person in this job needs to have an unimpeachable integrity, and Hiller's decision amounts to a vote of no confidence in my continued leadership.

"I regret that my failure to anticipate and adequately address the perception of a conflict in this matter has placed Hiller -- whom I like and respect a great deal, incidentally -- and my colleagues on the editorial board in such an awkward position, not to mention Brian Grazer and Kelly Mullens, who did nothing wrong here but have been caught up in all this."

This afternoon 42 West, the publication relations firm that Mullens works for and that represents Grazer, released a statement from the producer.

Grazer said that readers would have found the essays and art created for the section "genuinely stimulating and would have added to our understanding of our ever-changing culture. My hope now is that we can find another way to present the results of our efforts to the audience it deserves."

james.rainey@latimes.com