David Asper Johnson, Editor and Publisher of The Argonaut


By Carol Fondiller

David Asper Johnson, Editor and Publisher of The Argonaut died on May 17, 2006. I’ve had an interesting relationship with The Argonaut. Part hometown newspaper, part boosterism, the Argonaut was, for a long time, the only other newspaper in the area that had a point of view--that cared admit that it was run by a man with strong opinions.


David Asper Johnson was the Publisher and moving force behind the Weekly Argonaut. At one time, The Argonaut never never disagreed with anything that would benefit the Big Businesses that leased large tracts of land from the county. Whether the subject was economical or ecological, the paper always sided with commercial interests. The Argonaut’s desired readership was the inhabitants of the shiny new Marina Towers, and partons of, as the Chamber of Commerce used to say, “The many fine establishments in the Marina Del Rey.”

David Asper Johnson treated M.D.R. as his hometown but he also treated her as a country club for bright young things who were involved in yachting, free spending, dancing, dining drinking, (and drugging, a pastime that The Argonaut stoutly maintained stopped at the south side of Washington Street.)
But between the columns of advertisements, the columnists who always gave rave reviews about the restaurants who advertised in The Argonaut, and columns that reported on awards given by one business group to another business group. The Argonaut reported on local events.

The Venice Town Council was an easy target, as were those crazy environmentalists. Low income people didn’t have the right to live by the ocean -- you can’t stop progress. The Marina by the way, like Venice, was built on a dream. The dreamers being business interests and the County of Los Angeles.
Touted as a playground with access to boating for all economic classes, it was transmogrified into a high-end playground for the moneyed classes by their business interests, with a wink and a nod from the Board of L.A. County supervisors. The Argonaut, surviving on ads gleefully reported on the fun, fun, fun, the money, money, money and the Antiprogress spoilsports from that other artificially dredged dream.
But I happened to be witness to an act that changed my view on David Asper Johnson, from a condescending sneer to a deep respect for the man. The Los Angeles Department of the City Recreation and Parks was trying to put the kibosh on one of the Canal Festivals. I went as a observer with some people who represented the Canal Festival Committee. David Asper Johnson also was there to see the fun.

The L.A. City Rec and Park rep. lectured the canalites on responsibility and that they couldn’t consent to a festival if it had political content. Hey, this was the ‘70’s, man! Everything was political. The Canal Festival itself started as a political statement, held in spite of lack of permits from L.A. But the event had grown from a local happening to the gathering of the counterculture clan. Every political non-conformist rep. was there Anti-War, Anti-Nixon, Pro Choice, feminism, rock bands, etc. etc. When the rep from Rec and Parks stated that we could have free speech but we couldn’t have political content, we first sat there in, pardon the cliche, stunned silence.

David Asper Johnson was dressed in a navy blue jacket with gold buttons, his thin blond hair neatly smoothly groomed, it’s been years, but, remember a blue tie that nearly matched his eyes. Johnson, who’d been sitting quietly asked since when was free speech separate from politics. The Rec and Park man, flustered backed down. The Canal Festival went on with the condition we had portable toilets and internal security. In return, the police would work with the Canal Festival organizers to prevent violence by the festival participants OR the police.

David Asper Johnson was a true conservative - conserving the right to free speech. And he spoke on behalf of a group that he disagreed with. I continued to read The Argonaut with the same guilty pleasure that I get when I watch “The Dog Whisperer.”

The Argonaut’s editorial stand on certain things changed in the past years. No longer did The Argonaut rail against environmentalists. It actually agreed with some of them. David Asper Johnson’s columns became more skeptical of big business. Lately, he had questioned the wisdom of tearing down a now stable community consisting of people who came to the Marina in their twenties and thirties and are now still in their apartments thirty years later.

The powers that want to be started out first renovating Fisherman’s Village, that faux New England horror. Now they want to build up and out, obliterating the community to make room for a more affluent clientele than a bunch of grey haired residents. Though well off,-most of them, they are not as free spending as the Jimmy Choo Prada gourmet vegan set. I began to miss his take on local happenings, as he traveled around the world sending in his travelogue columns.

That’s fine, I whined but c’mon back, David, I want to read your acerbic comments on local goings on.
When I heard of his death, I was shocked. David Asper Johnson in the last ten years published news of Venice Poetry readings and local festivals whether or not these events were sponsored by Business interests. The Argonaut reviewed books by Venice writers and wrote non-condescending reports on political events and would surprise the hell out of me that we thought alike on some of the ballot initiatives and candidates.

I wish the present publisher, Carol Hector, well and may she display the same humour and integrity that David Asper Johnson did when he reported on his home town, Marina Del Rey.

Posted: Thu - June 1, 2006 at 02:03 PM          

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