Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

A media critique... and then some!

12/21/01 - Friday

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CNN and ABC report that their own translators found new information in the Bin Laden tape. They say, among other things, that the tape tells us names of Saudi Clerics who supported the 9/11 attacks. How could the US Government miss that? Or did they? I'm speculating now, but you have to wonder if part of the delay in deciding to release the tape was what to do about the Saudi references. Our government still acts like Saudi Arabia is such a great ally, and possibly the Bush administration didn't want to embarrass either of the countries with that info. Also on the tape, a Saudi on there says he was smuggled into Afghanistan by the Saudi religious police. Let's face it, quite a bit of money that funds terrorism in the region comes from Saudi citizens. You have to wonder how long the corrupt monarchy which runs the country can hold onto its power.

As for the tape, as important as it was to the world, you have to question how significant information could be missed. Wasn't this too important to rush? Also, after this was broadcast worldwide, we heard some rather questionable rationalization from Muslims in foreign countries about how the US got it wrong. But isn't it interesting that none of those people came forward with the new information that the translators for CNN and ABC found.

I'm hopeful that this incident may foster more truth from our government about how unhelpful Saudi Arabia has been to the US in the war on terrorism. And since we wouldn't care about them if it were not for their oil, maybe now is the time to reconsider our energy policy. We should get far more serious about using less oil, whether it be buying fuel efficient cars, furthering the development of the electric/gas car, and increase domestic production where it can be environmentally safe. Sometimes it seems we are so complacent, when we need to look at the big picture. If and when the royal family loses power, the government which replaces it may force us to do, what we should be wise enough to accomplish on our own.

Proof that fighting back is not only necessary but can make a difference, Hamas, the group responsible for much of the recent murders of Israelis, says it will stop suicide attacks and mortar attacks against Israel. Assuming they aren't just trying to set up Israel the way Al Qaeda has worked their misdirection in Afghanistan, this shows that cracking down brings results. This pronouncement may also be evidence that Arafat is taking Israeli actions seriously, and that in turn, Hamas is giving that sort of respect to the Palestinian Authority, which may be genuine in its Hamas crackdown. It is ironic though, because a poll just came out which shows that 70 percent of the Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza Strip do NOT support Arafat's crackdown on Hamas. Obviously there is a long way to go for peace. For example, maybe Palestinian textbooks might try including Israel on their maps. And Hamas, which is popular among Palestinians, still calls for the destruction of Israel. But at least if the Palestinians will stop the violence, peace talks can resume. Arafat will be lucky if he can ever get the offer of statehood he turned down last year, but at least they may be headed back in right direction. We can hope.

Conan Nolan is veteran reporter with KNBC in Los Angeles who recently came back from Pakistan.

(1) OTR - Was that an assignment you volunteered for, or did your news director pick you. Just wondering how you got the assignment. Did you think twice before agreeing to go?

Conan - "I asked to go. This was one of the most important
news stories of my lifetime and I wanted to be part of
it. I never thought twice before agreeing to the
assignment but I did have concerns about safety. There
were lots of questions about the stability of the
Pakistani government. NBC required that we take a
flak jacket, a helmet and a bio-warfare suit just in
case."

(2) OTR - I think some of the nuts and bolts of this sort
of reporting would be a real eye-opener. What was the first thing you saw
when you got off the plane in Pakistan? And what was the first thing you did to
get situated? Did you have any sort of contacts in Pakistan before arriving?

Conan - "Security was so tight in Pakistan they sent your
luggage through a metal detector AFTER your flight had
arrived (apparently to make sure you weren't trying to
smuggle weapons). Military police at every street
corner. This seemed to be a nation a bit on edge. It
wasn't long before that many of us thought
pro-Taliban elements in the country might topple the
government.
Wendy Chamberlain, the US Ambassador to Pakistan,
argued that the US media had overblown the
popularity of the Taliban in Pakistan. Perhaps. But I
was to hear far more pro-Osama comments than
pro-Bush.

Pakistan impressed me as a country firmly rooted in
both the 21st.. and the 11th centuries. You would see
a man talking on a cell phone leaning up against his
fairly new Toyota while a family trotted by on an
unpaved road with everybody clinging to a two wheeled
ox cart. Lots of commerce, a lot of socializing.
Mostly men. Five times a day loudspeakers call the
faithful to prayer. And for all the talk of the
various tribes that make up central Asia, when it came
to "diversity".. we were it.

NBC News had a large operation working out of
Islamabad at the Marriott Hotel (which made an
absolute fortune on this war). Everybody was there. A
media encampment made up of reporters, photographers,
producers and the like, all interested in getting into
Afghanistan but also appreciative that they could
cover at least part of the war with room service.

(3) OTR - Did all of these pro-Osama Pakistanis also
support the attacks on theWorld Trade Center and the Pentagon? I believe I
heard you report that some of them actually believe that Israel did it. Were
you surprised to hear that?

Conan - "Yes. Most surprising was how many professionals
believed Israel was behind the attacks. Businessmen,
teachers, engineers.. many educated in the US.. simply
weren't convinced Osama Bin Laden could pull it off.
They were however sure however that the "Jews" had
orchestrated the entire affair to pit the US against
Islam. I never heard one person say OBL was the
culprit. I knew the videotape of OBL admitting his
responsibility would be viewed with great skepticism.

And its not just Pakistan. There is an article in the
journal of the Islamic Center of Southern California
that suggests Israeli pilots were at the controls of
the hijacked planes.

We didn't find many people who supported the
terrorist attacks but there were plenty who would
equate them with Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip
or the West Bank. And there were lots of fans of Osama
Bin Laden. The armed guard stationed at our live shot
location said he considered Osama a "hero."

(4) OTR - If there is such an article in a local Islamic
newspaper, do you feel that local TV news media have not been vigilant in
reporting that that sort feeling exists among local Muslims?

Conan - "I don't think we've done a story on it and I
haven't seen or read it anywhere else."

(5) OTR - In your opinion, why would reporters ignore this?
Are they afraid of appearing politically incorrect?

Conan - "The idea is so absurd it simply may have been off
our radar."

WE 'LL HAVE PART TWO WITH CONAN NOLAN NEXT FRIDAY

You have answered the call. We've had quite a few emails now with nominees for best LA Radio talk show host. We'll begin the poll with our Monday Edition.

Is it a curse, or what? No sooner was I bragging about beating The Amazing Christina five weeks in a row, and mentioning that was how Bo Belinksi started with the Angels, than I've found myself losing to her three weeks in a row now. She went .500 last week, while I only picked one right. I am now below .500 for the year. So at this rate, I could end up with a worse percentage than TAC. If I were in another culture in another time, I'd have to fall on my sword. But being in modern America, I get to live with the humiliation. Of course that is IF. I'm still confident of victory on both fronts.

Is there some reason that a football highlight show can't just cover football? Must there be some busty babe to make it "legit?" On KCBS, apparently that's the case. They've now got their third successive dark haired beautiful woman in the field, who is about as useful as a hood ornament. Typically, these women go to sports bars and interview customers. But on Sunday's show, we got a little skit that would be rejected by most high schools.

Tanya Memme is their latest reporterette. In some sports bar, she held a contest to see who could sing the best Christmas song. You'll never guess what first prize was. Yes, first prize was a kiss from Tanya! Quite a credibility boost for the old news team, huh? She announced that the loser would get a visit from "Psycho Santa." After we were forced to hear some mostly mediocre singing, as if we all just love to listen to people trying to sing, we got to watch Tanya lay a long kiss on some guy's cheek. Then we saw the appearance of Psycho Santa. This Santa looked like it might've been Tanya or some other woman wearing a Santa beard, but I couldn't really tell. Psycho Santa's contribution to this amateur hour bit was doing karate kicks. It was embarrassingly bad. Though it did make a great case for TV warning labels. How about a COPA.... Crap On Public Airwaves.

When Memme was finishing her live shot, she was surround by a crowd which included some good looking women. One of them apparently asked for sports anchor Jim Hill's phone number, or wanted to give him her number. To no one's surprise, he took a little kidding on the set from the others. But a couple of minutes later, it looked like newsroom sports anchor Brett Lewis made one too many jokes about Hill's popularity with the women. Finally Hill said in an exasperated and serious tone something like ' I want Brett Lewis to know and everyone else that Tanya put her up to it!' It was clear that Jim had enough.

And so this really brings me full circle. While other sports anchors might've enjoyed the joking more than Hill did, why did this need to happen in the first place? Why must there be female 'reporter' in a bar somewhere taking away from the point of the show? Maybe, just maybe, all Jim Hill wants to do is a football highlights show. And maybe that's what the viewers want too.

I must say that KTLA's Tony Hernandez is really stretching it with his verbs. Since my first job in the biz was writing sports scores, I know about trying to vary the verbs so you don't have to say 'beat' or 'defeated' every single time. When I was at KMPC, we would routinely say downed, whipped, nipped, clipped and others. Though I remember Executive Sports Producer Steve Bailey asked us not to says "clobbered." He didn't like the sound of that one. (Looking back, I suppose we were engaging in some sports broadcasteze).

After a while, I would try to get creative when I wrote scores for some of the disc jockeys to read. Sometimes I'd pick college games just based on their comedic possibilities. I'd thrown in Colgate, just to say that some team had 'brushed past' them. In fact I remember one night Marvin Hamlish was a guest of DJ Sonny Melendrez. He actually got such a kick out of some of the scores I wrote, he asked me to autograph the script I typed them on. You won't be surprised to know he was the first and last celebrity to ever ask me for an autograph. In fact, there haven't been too many non-celebrities either...but now I really do digress.

Anyway...maybe after being in the business for so many years, Tony has gotten bored with reading scores. I can understand that, but I think maybe he's gotten a little carried away. Just the other night, in giving a hockey score, he said some team had "Tontoed" the "Lone Rangers." I dunno....

This ad in the LA Times, which was pointed out to me by an OTR reader, features testimonials by two TV anchors for a local eye surgeon. (You might want to check his email in the Letters section).

In the ad is KABC anchor David Ono, and former KCBS anchor Michael Tuck (though the ad doesn't say 'former.') I just don't know how you can be a well known journalist, and then use that fame to endorse a product.

Suppose this eye surgeon became part of a news story? Could Ono and Tuck read such a story with credibility?

I believe this is a line that should not be crossed. What do you think?

I was covering a dinner last week in which a non-profit education group called Inner City Arts was honoring three people. Among them was the producer of Everybody Loves Raymond, Phil Rosenthal. When I asked Phil what he had done to be honored, he told me he had done nothing. This was a fundraising dinner. So he explained to me that the group saw him as a pipeline to his TV show, CBS, HBO and other groups. So Phil's presence did help fill some seats, and it got Ray Romano there to introduce Phil to the audience. Yes, there was certainly a 'method to the madness.'

But before he would agree to take part, he went to check out Inner City Arts...a group which teaches music and the arts to inner city kids. Rosenthal came away very impressed, and now plans to be an active supporter.

I can't tell you how refreshing I found his honesty. Earlier, I had interviewed a board member about the honorees, and he certainly gave me no clue about how Rosenthal was picked. I always knew that groups need some sort of drawing card to their fundraising dinners, but I never realized an organization would just pick a guy with no connection to their group and then honor him. It probably happens more than most of us realize. My thanks to Phil for answering an honest question with an honest answer.

When I see something questionable on a local news, I sometimes I ask myself...would Rather, Jennings or Brokaw do that on the news? Yes network and local news are very different, but I still think of them as a good standard of general behavior on the air. Sooo... this week on KCOP there was a story about good looking guys who'd posed for a calendar. When the story ended, Lauren Sanchez was on camera fanning herself, pretending to be overheated from the excitement. I thought to myself...could I imagine Peter Jennings doing that on air after coming back from a swimsuit calendar story? Or even on a local level, could I imagine Kelly Mack doing that? Well yeah, I guess I could. But....would you see Laura Diaz or Gretchen Carr doing that? Highly unlikely.

Better print this one out...it may be the first and last time I'll do this! KTLA entertainment reporter Mindy Burbano was telling a story about Jennifer Lopez appearing on the London TV show "Top of the Pops." She was there to lip sync just two songs, but reportedly demanded three personal chefs, ten dressing rooms and 11 interior designers. As a transition to an interview with Smokey Robinson, she said "Maybe Ms Lopez can use a few lessons in tour etiquette from a Motown legend...."

I must say Lopez' demands sound as ridiculous as other stories we've all heard about demand of other stars. (I remember one which said that Fleetwood Mac demanded that all brown M&Ms be removed from M&Ms in their dressing room). True or not, I was glad to hear Burbano take something of a stand against celebrity excess. I never expect any substance from her. It was nice to see.

I am still looking for practical jokes you've seen or have been part of for our Friday issues. Please send along your story to BRUIN74@aol.com.

Stop the presses! KTLA reported that OJ Simpson's girlfriend, Christie Prodie, has been arrested for driving with a suspended license. I can understand why many of the events involving Simpson are news. But his girl friend driving with a suspended license? I wonder if anyone stopped and thought about that one for a minute, before putting it on the news.

Since my OTR NFL picking has been nothing to write to Vegas about this season, I must balance my tarnished image. For the second time this year, I won a weekly office pool I've been taking part in at a local TV station. That Tampa Bay win on Monday Night put me over the top. Three cheers for Shaun King and Warrick Dunn!!! What a game! Considering that I just got an energy bill of more than 200 dollars, it comes at a good time. Yes, the energy problems in California are serious. Nothing like a bill like that to get you to turn down the old thermostat.

They are an important part of OTR. Please send them along to BRUIN74@aol.com. Please remember to include your first and last name. 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.