This image was lost some time after publication.

Wow, why can't this stuff happen on days when there's no news? In an news shocking only for its lack of predictability, LAT Editor Dean Baquet is

stepping down under pressure from the newspaper's owner, Tribune Co., people familiar with the situation said. Mr. Baquet is departing a month after Tribune ousted the newspaper's publisher, Jeff Johnson, and replaced him with David D. Hiller, then the publisher of the Chicago Tribune. Weeks earlier, both Mr. Baquet and Mr. Johnson had publicly resisted pressure from Tribune management to make a new round of job cuts.

Thus concludes the longest suicide pact in history.

L.A. Times Editor Baquet to Leave [LAT]

Update: Baquet's replacement is Chicago Tribune managing editor James O'Shea. Finally, someone who knows how to cut!