No more guest editorships at the L.A. Times op/ed section because publisher David Hiller has been spooked over the Brian Grazer/Andres Martinez/Kelly Mullens editorial-intimacy scandal and has decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

One should never make decisions about substantial matters out of fear or anger. Hiller is obviously being driven by the former — he’s running for the hills.

There’s nothing inherently corrupt about bringing in guest editors — the idea would obviously make things more nervy, exciting, lively. Nothing betokens death as much as a person or organization unwilling to take risks. As Charles Laughton‘s Graccus said to the Roman Senate in Spartacus, “I’ll take a little Republican corruption with a little Republican freedom…but I won’t take the dictatorship of Crassus, and no freedom at all!”