The Times and the Union

The Los Angeles Times continues its series on the United Farm Workers. Today's installment explores how founder Cesar Chavez drove out longtime labor organizers in the late 1970s and early '80s:

Whether Chavez initiated the changes or responded defensively, the net result was the same. By 1982, he had driven out dissenting voices on the board, among the staff and in the fields. Key staff and architects of the union's early success were gone, along with the next generation of leaders in the fields. The UFW never regained the same momentum as a labor union for farmworkers.

How have Californians responded to the Times series? Here are a couple of LA Times letters to the editor about the stories. The blog LA Observed says the UFW saw the series coming. One journalist says the Times is simply following reporting by him and the Bakersfield Californian. And the blog LAist questions the timing of running a series maligning Chavez's legacy the week before Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

I'm curious, though: What does the Valley think of this story?