Financial constraints lead news site to drop Leftie columnist

From Editor and Publisher Online: ?Liberal iconoclast? freelance writer
Harley Sorensen columned his last this week for SF Gate, the San Francisco Chronicle?s online counterpart. The unabashedly left-winged writer, among others, was cut from the SF Gate?s column lineup for purely financial reasons, according to News Director Vlae Kershner. Sorenson did not dispute the claim.

"Bear in mind that when Hearst bought the Chron a few years ago, it brought along its entire editorial staff from the Examiner. So the Chron is grossly overstaffed. It could use some trimming," said Sorensen.

While some suggested that Sorensen was laid off for his political bent, Kershner denied that politics played any role in the termination.

"Mark Morford is still our lead columnist," he said, "and he's as liberal as they get."

Sorensen was his liberal self in his latest and last contribution to SF Gate in his article "Wead Whacking and Gannon Fodder,? the final cap to several years of column writing for the site.

"I have no indication that it's anything other than economics," Sorensen told Editor and Publisher. "And, incidentally, if any publisher is interested in a 'liberal with an attitude,' I'm available."