Timothy Calder Rutten (April 8, 1950 – September 8, 2022) was an American journalist with the ''

Los Angeles Daily News The ''Los Angeles Daily News'' is the second-largest-circulating paid daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California, after the unrelated ''Los Angeles Times'', and the flagship newspaper of the Southern California News Group, a branch of Colorado ...

''. He worked for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' for nearly 40 years between 1971 and 2011. Rutten was married to Leslie Abramson.

Education

A native of

San Bernardino, California San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

, Rutten majored in political science at

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degree programs, 122 m ...

Career

Rutten started at the paper in 1971 as a copy editor in the View section. His positions in subsequent years included city bureau chief, metro reporter, editorial writer, assistant national editor, Opinion editor and assistant editor for the Editorial Page. He was laid off from his position as an Op Ed contributor in a staff cutback in 2011.Story and audio of ex-columnist Tim Rutten telling of his layoff and predicting the future of the ''Times,'' September 14, 2011]

Awards

Rutten won a 1991 award from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club for editorial writing. He wrote about the

1994 Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake affected Greater Los Angeles, California, on January 17, 1994, at 04:30:55 PST. The epicenter of the moment 6.7 () blind thrust earthquake was beneath the San Fernando Valley. Lasting approximately 8 seconds ...

, which won him a share of a 1995 Pulitzer Prize awarded to the staff of the ''Times'' for Breaking News Reporting. He became the first to notice, and publicly expose, several doctored or manipulated photographs in the 2006 Lebanon War photographs controversies. In 2007, he was honored by the Anti-Defamation League for advancing the ideals of the First Amendment.

Death

Rutten died in September 2022 after falling at his home in

Alhambra, California Alhambra (, , ; from "Alhambra") is a city located in the western San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, United States, approximately east from the downtown Los Angeles civic center. It was incorporated on July 11, 190 ...

at the age of 72.

In popular culture

Rutten was portrayed by Chris Bauer in ''Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders'' (2017) and by Michael Gladis in ''Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story'' (2024).

References

1950 births 2022 deaths American male journalists California State University, Los Angeles alumni People from San Bernardino, California Place of birth missing {{US-journalist-20thC-stub