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A media critique... and then some! 8/31/01 - Friday Friday Letters are UP Coming Monday - A well known anchor defends former KNBC News Director  Nancy Bauer Gonzales. Links to Recent Issues 08-27-01 Monday's OTR 08-29-01 Wednesday's OTR 08-24-01 Friday's OTR If you like OTR and would like to help keep it going, feel free to send ten dollars to Ron Fineman PO Box 42364 Bakersfield, CA 93384    OR you can send $ electronically by clicking on the PayPay logo   My sincerest thanks to our latest contributors... Linda Nunez, Mike Daniels, and Chin  Thammasaengsri. A special tip of the hat to Chin who gave extra $$. Your help is very  much appreciated! Send your opinions to BRUIN74@aol.com.

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HEY NOW!

Among the groups I've generally felt sympathy toward is NOW. I respect their battle for equal rights, and you folks know, I am pro-choice. But, IF  I were a contributor of theirs, I wouldn't be anymore. The idea of supporting a defense fund for Andrea Yates, who's charged with murdering her five children, is enough to almost turn my stomach. I understand that her defense is postpartum psychosis, and NOW wants to bring attention the reality of postpartum depression. But surely, they could use this tragedy to get that attention, without directly helping her defense.

I also understand that we've not had a trial yet and so we haven't heard the evidence. The fact that she called the police after the killings suggests to me that she knew the wrongfulness of her crime. If you understand the gravity of what you're doing, then I would think you're not really in a psychotic state, are you? Isn't that one of the standards a court will use in determining if a person is truly insane?

When I saw a NOW spokesman interviewed by Bill O'Reilly, I found it very troubling how easily this person could support Yates, without really knowing what happened.  Think about it..... the "National Organization for Women" supports a woman accused of murdering her five children.  Maybe they can start a "Free Susan Smith" campaign too.  Obviously NOW can do what it pleases, but I would suggest they've made a major error in supporting this woman.  I wish I were a member, so I could resign in protest. As always, I welcome your opinions at BRUIN74@aol.com. 

WE SHOULD NEVER FORGET

When cops go bad, we often hear about it, as we should. But I just want to briefly state the obvious, which is the danger that all officer and deputies face when they put on that uniform. This morning, an LA County Sheriff's Deputy was shot to death while helping to serve a  search warrant. No doubt most times serving a warrant is uneventful.  But you never know when you'll run into a lunatic. By the nature of the job, police have to deal with the worst society has too offer. It is a tragedy that a deputy had to lose his life on which should've been a routine mission. But maybe the lesson here is that there are no routine missions.

YOU'VE GOT TO CATCH IT NEXT TIME

This week A&E has been running bios on pop music history. I really liked one I saw Tuesday Night, featuring some of America's greatest songwriters, including Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, and Gerry Goffin & Carol King. I've long known about many of the great songs they wrote, but I didn't realize how they and others worked in the same building, under Don Kirshner in New York.  Of all the songs from those days, I've always been especially impressed with On Broadway. It was sung by the Drifters, and written by Mann, Weil, Leiber and Stoller. It always seemed to me to capture the feel of New York City. So, I got a kick out of it when songwriter LaMont Doizer (who co-wrote most of the hits of The Supremes) commented how well that song and "Up On The Roof" captured the feel of New York.  

One of the parts that I found funny was writer Jeff Barry talking about "Sugar, Sugar." The song was a BIG hit in 1969, but it was pure bubble gum. People of more sophisticated taste liked to dismiss such music and it's popularity.  But Barry explained that the song was written for an Archies cartoon. It was intended for little kids. Apologetically he said "It's not my fault it became a big  hit."

FINAL PART OF OUR INTERVIEW WITH STEVE EDWARDS

(13) OTR - Do you ever tape the KTLA Morning News shows just to see what they're doing? 

Steve - "No. I personally don't think there's anything to be gained by watching somebody else. Their enormous success came from their own creative and individual approach to doing a show. it belongs to them and nobody else. Way back (before any of this gang was on GDLA) I think there was a conscious effort to replicate their show but I think that's a big mistake ; we had to let our own approach evolve. GDLA may not be a hotbed of intellectual ferment but it certainly is its' own idiosyncratic , frequently annoying but always loveable self.
I think the only time you can get something from another show is a breaking story that slipped past and that's it. I know others may not agree but on a personality driven show, it's the only way to go."

(14) OTR - Also, when you folks beat them for the first time and ran those promos, how did you feel about the promos?

Steve - "That they were ungenerous, small time, totally lacking in humility and class.
They were fun. "

(15) OTR - Readers tell me the Fox network is considering a national show patterned
after Good Day LA. Do you know anything about it, and what do you think
about it?

Steve - "Yes I've heard all about it. It isn't patterned after us, it is us. The thought of inflicting us on other areas of the country has been around for some time; there is a degree of development going on now but perhaps wiser heads will prevail."

(16) OTR - So GDLA would be run nationally? How serious are they about this? Would
you have stop making it an LA local show, or does Fox feel the whole country
would like you just the way you are?

Steve - "I really don't know what, if anything , will come of this; there have been lots of notions floated about in the last few years, but none of them involve changing GDLA as a local show in the morning. Having been though every type of development (mostly leading nowhere) I'm hesitant to make any kind of statement until there is something more tangible to talk about. Talk to Abbe Lowell."

(17) OTR - Tell me, have you been married 34 years and have you made mistakes?
 Oh never mind on that. On a different subject, do you ever miss doing a
radio talk show? 

Steve - "Too many mistakes. 
Yes I do miss talk radio. There are times, when doing talk radio is the most challenging experience: you're live, you're really your own producer (with help from others) , director, writer etc; It's you and the listeners and you can change things on a dime, get people all over the world on the phone and move from issue to issue and guest to guest with a minimum of fuss and effort. You're living by your wit and preparation and when it's good it's the most fun you can have in broadcasting. 
There are also times when you're repeating the same topic over and over again( the audience turns over, you don't), It's all about your passionate opinion and your bored with your passionate opinion, and the program director , desperately trying to figure out the generational and cultural changes in talk radio, is asking you to work body parts into your discussion of religion in America today. You really have to appreciate the people who do this day after day for three or four hours, week after week, month after month. 

(18) OTR - Would you do it again?

Steve - "Sure."

(19) OTR - While we're on radio for the moment, are you surprised the way KABC
has struggled with ratings in recent years and KFI has become the top dog?

Steve - "This is my overall reaction to that question; you could quibble over specifics but in the large strokes this is what I think happened.
It's not that recent. It's been a long slow slide and it's part of that generational and cultural shift that I just mentioned. When KABC was alone atop the heap for so many years it had the market to itself; to some extent whatever it did, worked, and a lot of it was very good. As the years went by the audience and it's interests got older and it was easy not to notice when there was no real competition. KFI stepped right into the picture, driven by Rush's rise to superstardom and a real understanding there is a large younger audience, not interested in their parent's station, who want Sex and the City talk, in -your- face hosts' and who never want to hear an interview with a Broadway star, a history professor or a good discussion about world war two. KABC was the home of reasoned discourse (read old) and KFI had lots of heat, passion and younger generation talk. There was a crucial period where it felt that KABC covered what people should be talking about and KFI (per their slogan), what people really were talking about.
Trying to adjust was difficult: doing the dance to get a younger audience and not antagonize the base audience was not and is not easy: there are good people there and I hear they just made some new changes, so ..you never know."


(20) OTR - Also, who are the LA talk show hosts you enjoy listening to most?

Steve - "So many, from Sam to Larry to Dennis, Conway and Steckler, Tom, Michael, John and Ken, Hugh and others , all for different reasons depending on the topics and how infantile or grownup I'm feeling. Let me also mention a guy who has done a great job for years, who doesn't get much heat, but deserves much praise: Larry Mantle at KPCC who does it with dignity and humility and is an enlightener amidst all the rabble rousers. And let me get one woman in here, Kitty Felde on Talk of The City. (okay,Glo too)."

(21) OTR - I should ask...what with Jillian getting more of a national profile,
has that had any effect on her or GDLA?

Steve - "She's handling it pretty well: she hasn't asked for her grapes to be peeled, and still drives her own car, but she is busy. Two days ago she did GDLA, we taped a show, she did a phone interview with someone from another country, then went to Fox Sports where she taped promos for Toughman and then to the old ABC studios to tape three of her , The Test, shows for EFX and there might have been a photo shoot in there. Her schedule wears me out. I have to take lots of naps because of it.

It certainly can't be hurting the show ; I would imagine it helps. Of course I'm going to ride her success for all it's worth. "

(22) OTR - I guess it's about time to wrap this up. My thanks for taking the time
to answer all of these questions. Finally, if you were made king, what
sort of changes would be made in LA TV news...in approach, content or anything
else? And if there is anything else you'd like to say to the OTR audience,
please feel free.

Steve - "First , thank you, I've enjoyed these 3 weeks with you. I've had shows that didn't last this long.

If I were made king I would order that, with all the channels available, there would be at least a few that would really cover local news that counts, not just shootings and scandals. Channels that would require some engagement and a reasonable span of attention for semi-complex stories that in the end have more real meaning for viewers than car chases and caught -on -tape 7-11 stickups.
I would mandate that 50 percent of stations could not run more than 10 Brittany-Madonna-Aguilera videos in a given month. That all newsreaders were actually interested in the news and not just in having t.v careers ; would have to read a real newspaper everyday and know who the LT. Gov is, without prompting, and could name all members of the U.S Supreme Court and know something about them beyond Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill.

I would rule that there be a couple of local news stations that didn't have to worry about ratings, just the quality of their product and could expend their energies and resources helping create an informed citizenry rather than just sweating overnights and hyping their product; that could be guided by news decisions, rather than programming ones.

I would have my subjects watch many of Bill Rosendahl's panels on Adelphia cable and listen to Doug McIntire in the middle of the night. 

I would make a rule, that in any 30 minute newscast(22 miins?) no more than 85 percent could be devoted to celebrity news. That if the there is a police pursuit and World War Three breaks out at the same time, the war must be mentioned once every 15 minutes , no matter what,.... and that the word, shocking, can't be used in more than eight teases and intros in any one newscast, and in the combination, shocking -video, more than four times.

I could keep going, but alas, I'm not the king, just another subject living in a big glass house , looking for ratings, demographics and Nielsen approval.

Happy Labor Day...everybody."

NEXT FRIDAY.....PART ONE WITH  KCBS REPORTER/ANCHOR DREW GRIFFIN.

49 - IT'S NOT BAD

Yep, today I hit the big 49. Hah. No one really calls it that, do they? 50...now that is big, so they say. The only bad part about 49 is that starting next year, I won't be a kid anymore. I'll be darn close to middle age. There are so many clichés about age. I guess "age being a state of mind" is as good as any. Anyway, sometimes you look back and wonder where the years have gone so quickly. But, all things considered, and you really do need to consider all of them...life is good.  And my thanks to you who read and support OTR, which certainly is an important part of my life. I'll be sure to toast to you this weekend.

OTR JOB LIST

I mentioned a while ago that I would like to start doing job listings. I figure I'll take free ones for a while, and then if it catches on, it could be a source of revenue. To kick it off...here's an opening at KFWB Radio in Los Angeles.

-----------------------------------

"I'm looking for a top-notch editor for KFWB, and thought there might be some
qualified candidates from the world of television news, as well as from
radio. If you can help me get out the word through your web site, I'd
really appreciate it!

KFWB editors are responsible for selecting news stories, producing news
lineups, assigning reporters and writers -- basically acting as the "air
traffic contoller" of the fast-paced all news format. Again, I'm looking
for a dynamic, experienced broadcast journalist to start right away!
Interested parties may call me at 323 871 4625 or email cquimby@kfwb.com."

Regards,
Crys Quimby
KFWB News 980
Director of Programming and News

BASEBALL TRIVIA 

Last week I asked who was the first pitcher to be named MVP of an All-Star game. Bob Pulone was the first (and only, if I remember correctly) person the name Juan Marichal as the correct answer.

OTR ONE YEAR AGO THIS WEEK 8-30-00

MUCH BIGGER THAN A BREAD BOX

On Monday, I mentioned how the part which fell out of the sky from the KLM jet was described as the size of a refrigerator and a washing machine in the same newscast. Don't worry, there're more appliances where those came from. Another newscast I watched Monday night said it was the size of a dishwasher.  Do I hear a "big screen TV?"

THAT'S ONE WAY TO SAY IT

With that fatal fire in Moscow's Ostankino TV tower, KCOP's Rick Chambers said the fire had "gutted the electronic bowels" of the tower.  If the producer was really thinking, a reminder about the need to have a colanoscopy was the only story which should've come next.

GOOD FOR GEORGE W

Bush stepped in to stop the Republican Party from running an ad in which Al Gore said something about Bill Clinton never lying. The quote was pre-Lewinsky, but apparently the ad didn't make that clear. It is refreshing to see a sense of fair play in this situation.  Of course maybe Bush knew the ad could come back to bite him, when voters realized what was going on.  And this situation was another example of how candidates really can control how soft money is spent on their behalf, even though they're not supposed to have input.  But whatever his reasoning, Bush did the right thing.  Obviously, he wasn't going to be taken "hostile" by an irresponsible ad.

TOP DOGS HIT THE AIRWAVES

You can't help but notice the commercials all over TV from the leaders of Ford and United Airlines. I find the president of Ford, Jacques Nasser, especially interesting. Here's a guy with a French first name,  what sounds like an Arabic last name, and an English accent who runs an American car company. If he could've ended his commercials with "gracias and sayonara" he'd have ALL the bases covered. When Kofi Annan moves on as UN Secretary General, this man can take over and hit the ground running.  Of course if he wants to hit the ground in one piece, he'd better stay away from those Explorers with the Firestone tires.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NEWSCAST?

KCOP does only one hour of news all day.  Yet, they nearly blew off their entire newscast last night to do a special on the Source Hip-Hop Awards!  This, after they had just aired the awards show itself. I can only assume that the station felt it could make more money on the post-awards show than on its normal newscast. Who cares about the news of the day, if you can make more money talking about rap music? They eventually got to the news of the day at about 10:40pm.   Once the station made the decision to abdicate its news responsibility, why in the world did they do this show from their news set, with their regular news anchors? I could see young Lauren Sanchez taking part, but Rick Chambers??? I can imagine the hope is to sell a new audience on your anchor team.  Rick's a trooper, but he seemed as out of place as Dr Dre would be rapping out the stock quotes on CNBC.

PICKY PICKY PICKY

Last week, an innocent young man was set free after serving time for a crime it turns out he did not commit. KCAL reporter Michelle Gile said that while he was behind bars, "he missed his high school graduation, and his 17th and 18th birthdays." Well, he may've missed that graduation, but as far as I know, whether you're in jail, Juvenile Hall or prison, all the barbed wire in the world can't keep out your birthdays.

ACTUALLY HEARD FROM A NEW DIRECTOR'S LIPS

This unnamed news director, in a small California TV market, was told that George Pataki was coming to town. He was happy to hear that, since he said it would be great to see the guy who played in Star Trek! 

Do you suppose prospective news directors, as well as reporters should be given a current events test before they're hired?  Maybe the problem with this particular guy is that his parents raised  him using the advice of that famous  but controversial baby doctor, Mr Spock.

ANOTHER PART OF THE STORY

Even people outside of LA may remember when an LA City Fire Department Helicopter crashed in 1998, killing three firefighters as well as an 11-year old little girl, who was being flown to Children's Hospital.  The girl's mother is suing the city, which is certainly no surprise. No doubt she'll get some money, but consider this.....

The city is suggesting the mother bares some responsibility for her daughter's death. Why?  Because of the car accident which put her in the chopper in the first place. This little girl was in the back seat of her mother's car, with 4 other kids. She was NOT wearing a seat belt. While her mother sat in the front passenger's seat, the car was driven by a 17-year old unlicensed driver.  The city says it was his negligence which caused the car to rear-end a trash truck.

However, an attorney for the mother says the 17-year was a safe driver, and that the sun blinded him in an area known to be a problem in the early morning. (In fact the truck he hit had stopped to help another trash truck which had just been rear-ended). The attorney says the city was at fault for letting trash trucks do their routes on that street at that time of the day. The plaintiff's lawyer also says seat belting the girl wouldn't have mattered. He says she wasn't seriously hurt as it was. He says firefighters made the decision to fly her to the hospital after the little girl fainted, after she saw blood all over her mother.  

If this case ever gets to a jury, they will have a LOT to think about. 

RACE WHERE IT DOESN'T MATTER (again)

This is an ongoing problem, and every once in a while it needs to be brought up, just like broadcasteze violations.  In one case,  while we're watching tape of two guys pulling off a robbery, KCAL's Andre Moreau felt it necessary to say "Two men, both black."  Like we couldn't see they were black? But much more importantly....their race was NOT relevant to the story.  If you want to do a story about the percentage of minorities who commit violent crimes in LA, which is a high percentage, then it makes sense. If you're giving a detailed description of suspects, then it makes sense. But I believe to just throw in race, without any context or reason, is wrong.

Then there was KCAL's Mia Lee who told us that the body of a "Hispanic Man" had been discovered. Once again, what was the point of telling us the victim's ethnicity? Was there any evidence to suggest a hate crime?  No.  Probably just another case of someone getting information from the police, and not understanding what is a relevant part of a news story, and what isn't.  If the cops had said the man was wearing blue socks, would Lee have reported that too?

YOUR OPINIONS

They are an important part of OTR. Please send them along to BRUIN74@aol.com. Unless you say otherwise, I'll assume it is for publication.

OTR IS PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY   Letters to the editor are updated Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Ron's disclaimer: Like all reporters I have opinions.  I do the best I can to make sure that nothing I say here has any effect on my objectivity in covering stories.