Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

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Barbara Walters not only embarrassed herself, but all TV journalists with her softball interview of Jermaine Jackson last Friday night. How she could have been so ill-prepared for such a high profile story is beyond me. Jermaine told at least one big fat lie, and Walters didn't even call him on it. Jermaine claimed that his brother Michael never has had kids in his bed. Yet, Michael himself said otherwise during that well known February interview on ABC. Michael said how Macaulay Culkin along with Macaulay's brother and sister joined him, "jammed" in the bed together. How could Walters not be aware of that?

And then of course Jermaine cried racism against the authorities in Santa Barbara. Sure, they decided to get Michael Jackson because he's black. Anyone seriously believe that? Well maybe Walters does. Because she never asked Jermaine Jackson for one bit of evidence to back up his serious accusation. Can you accuse anybody of anything, and she won't even question it? What kind of journalist is Barbara Walters anyway? Based on this interview, I'd say she's pretty worthless.

On their 4pm newscast on Friday, KABC's Kimberly Plummer reported "The big question right now, where is Michael Jackson?"

Big question according to who? Who in LA really cares about what hotel Jackson is staying? At 11pm, Plummer asked some people-on-the-street if they knew where Michael Jackson was. I think that was an attempt to be cute. By then everyone knew where he was staying in Henderson. On KCOP Gigi Graciette tried to play it up, as if there was some real mystery about where he was. And she said Michael Jackson sightings had been reported up and down the Vegas strip. Yet curiously, she never interviewed one person who'd made such a sighting.

After Jackson arrived in the Vegas area, he drove around for about three hours. On Friday, KNBC's Doug Kriegel said that was now being called a 'victory lap.' According to who? He didn't say. Maybe the same anonymous people making those Michael Jackson sightings.

Some reporters, including Kimberly Plummer, interviewed people at Jackson's hotel who commented about how much security there was now with Jackson being there. I found that somewhat interesting. But I couldn't find a good reason for any LA station to have a reporter there, just looking for any morsel of information they could find about Jackson. Once again, we have a situation where LA TV stations cannot distinguish between a legitimate story (Jackson's arrest), and following him around as if Jackson would be leading reporters to some buried treasure.

Last Friday, I told you about KCOP's Lauren Sanchez laughing during a story about a woman's amputation. Apparently Sanchez had tripped while reading it, which caused her to laugh. Obviously, it doesn't say much for her professionalism. Below is the audio from the story.

SWEEPS AND BREASTS

It's been bad enough as TV stations rely on T&A in effort to boost their ratings during sweeps periods. But when anchorettes get into the act, that's really bad.

Granted KCAL's Mia Lee has long at the reputation for showing off her implants. But I had noticed less of that recently, until the rating period started. Then it was once again cleavage time.

It's been a long time since KCOP's Lauren Sanchez dressed like a professional news anchor, often showing cleavage - as if it were part of the uniform. But one night recently, she added another direction, showing off her nipples. Was it just for sweeps? I don't know. But either way, her family must be proud.

NEEDING DIRECTION

In describing an area where a criminal had been striking, KTLA's Ted Garcia came up with some weird boundaries. He had Mansfield as a northern boundary and Stearns as a southern boundary. The problem is, those streets run north & south. Yet, his eastern and western boundaries did make sense. To make it more strange, there was a map on the screen so that all viewers could see something was not right.

CLOSE ENOUGH FOR LA TV NEWS

We all know that most live shots are useless, generally just window dressing. But at least, reporters should be where the anchor says they are. However, that little goal was missed by KABC last week. Anchor Michelle Tuzee said that Miriam Hernandez was reporting live from Michael Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But right way, Hernandez tells us that Jackson's star is "way across the street." Obviously, KABC was not able to set up in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, which is where Jackson's star is. You can't blame them for that. And I appreciate that Hernandez didn't try to fake her location. It just would have been nice if the lead-in was correct in the first place, though I would not be surprised if the writer was never told that Hernandez was across the street.

HOW DO YOU SPELL HIS NAME?

This is the same newsroom that misspelled Linda Breakstone's last name. It just seems to me that it can't help your credibility when you get the spelling wrong on one of your own people. Like David Sheehan.

CONFUSION ON BREAKING NEWS

KCBS went to "breaking news" as Aaron Fitzgerald reported that police had a tip that suspected cop killer David Garcia was seen in a parking structure on Rossmore. Right after that report, they went to Paul Dandridge who was covering the funeral for the officer who was murdered. Dandridge said he was getting official word from the LAPD that they were looking for associates of Garcia on Rossmore, not for Garcia. Why his info was different from Fitzgerald, I don't know. But it didn't look good, to have one reporter correct another one's report. Though Dandridge did add "it may be they are looking for him as well," saying that Fitzgerald had some good information. Confused?

Then when they went back to Rossmore a little later, Harold Greene said their information is that police are "seeking" David Garcia. Laura Diaz then pointed out that no, according to Dandridge, it was associates of Garcia who they were looking for. She said that Dandrige said that police didn't believe Garcia was there. Greene, sounding like he'd never heard Dandridge's report, said to Diaz " So you're saying this (Rossmore scene) isn't David Garcia?"

First we have a KCBS reporter contradict another one, and then we have one anchor correcting another one, based on the same reports. What a mess. And guess what? Police never found anyone there.

LOSING A GREAT ONE

The left-hander with the most wins in baseball history (363), Warren Spahn died today. He won 20 games 13 times. He pitched for the Braves for 20 seasons, and spent his last season with the Mets and Giants. As it happens, while going through my old stuff recently ( and I have a LOT of old stuff), I found a "how to pitch" pamphlet by Warren Spahn. He is one of the all time greats. When he and Johnny Sain would be pitching a double-header, there was a saying...."Spahn and Sain, pray for rain." Warren Spahn was 82 years old.

TAKING THE DAY OFF

I'm going to take the day after Thanksgiving off. Btw, I'll be having my first post-surgery colonoscopy tomorrow morning. I feel fine, it's just precautionary. Hopefully I'll have good news to report on it next Monday. Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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