Stupid layoffs

Yeah, I know, no layoffs are good. But today's layoffs at The State, including nine newsroom workers, included editorial page editor Brad Warthen.

File this under "stupid."

Warthen, love him or hate him -- and many people did both -- "got" the Web. He wasn't necessarily one of the first - the paper's toe-dipping online kept that from happening -- but once there he went at it hard, aggressively and with some innovation (incorporating video, etc.).

You sort of knew this was coming, however. The State, as have many papers, has severely trimmed its editorial section, some days running, in essence, just letters to the editor.

Among others reportedly cut: editorial cartoonist Robert Ariail (again, no surprise, but just as sad; it was a bit of a point of pride to live in a town with a paper with a cartoonist of his caliber) and metro editor Christi Shayne (though her husband, Andy, stays on for now running the business pages).

Other names surfacing:
Reporter Robin Nalepa
Reporter/arts critic: Jeffrey Day
Online editor: Tonyia McGirt
Assistant sports editor Mark Lawrence

South Carolina has long been referred to as "too small to be a state, to large to be an insane asylum." We all knew this was coming, but the sad part is that between these cuts and others around the state, the inmates are now much more likely to be able to run the asylum.