Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

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KTLA reporter Warren Wilson has hired attorney Melanie Lomax to get KTLA to give him a new contract (his old one ran out), and he is claiming it's about racial discrimination. This is according to an article at www.wavenewspapers.com. (Which I pulled from LAObserved.com).

This is absolutely ridiculous. Wilson is easily one of the worst reporters in Los Angeles. I have written about his editorializing time and again. He is lucky to still have a job in LA. And to complain about making 135 thousand dollars a year, with his ability? UNBELIEVABLE!

I have talked with a couple of KTLA newsroom insiders about this. And I will tell you what they have to say in our Monday edition of Inside LA TV. I think you'll find it worth the wait.

Allow me now to reprint one of my OTR stories about his biggest screw-up that I've seen. This came from last year:

"This has to be some of the worst reporting you'll ever see. Alright, let's pretend you're the reporter. You find out that a 45-year old crime - the murder of two El Segundo police officers - has been solved. They hold a news conference for this most unusual story. You tell me, what do you feel is the most important information to learn for your viewers? In fact, just as a normal person with normal curiosity, what is the first thing you'd want to know? If your answer is "I'd want to know how this 45-year old crime was suddenly solved," then you may have the basic curiosity and common sense to be a reporter. Unfortunately, KTLA reporter Warren Wilson managed to "cover" this story without answering that question!

I watched his coverage three times to make sure I did not miss something. I didn't. But he sure did.

Wilson spent the entire time explaining the crime, and no doubt some of that was important to tell. But nowhere, NOWHERE did he address how they came to solve this old crime from 1958.

Turns out that recently, the El Segundo Police got a false lead on this double murder. But with interest renewed in the case, LA County Sheriff's detectives were able to match an old finger print with a national data base. It was only in February 2002 when the Sheriff's department became connected to the data base. Pretty interesting, huh? I got that from the LA Times. The same night that Wilson botched the story, I did see a short version on KNBC, which at least told viewers that it was an old finger print which made the case.

Besides pointing to the fact that is may be time for Wilson to pack it in, this also shows a very flawed system within the KTLA newsroom. Didn't someone in newsroom management look at this script ahead of time? And if they did, how could they not say, "I think we missed the story here." Someone over there should be asking some questions."

The article about Wilson hiring a civil rights attorney refers to an incident which I reported on several weeks ago, but with a rather different interpretation. Here is what I wrote back in March:

"According to an inside source at KTLA, reporter Warren Wilson was pretty ticked at news director Jeff Wald last week. It seems that after Wilson had left for the day last Wednesday, it became necessary to re-edit his story, because of some change in the circumstances of the story. I'm told he was not pleased with the way that was done, and went into Wald's office on Thursday to tell him about it. My source was not an eyewitness, but assures me that it got to the point where Wald felt it was necessary to bring his boss, Tribune Group VP John Reardon, into his office to settle things. Before it was over, Reardon told Wilson to go home. Wilson, I am told, will be back to work on Monday.

Now, if only Wald or Reardon would talk to Wilson about editorializing in his stories. Seriously, as long as they were having some sort of confrontation, it would have been nice if they had dealt with another issue which should be fixed."

Here is what is says in the article: "Lomax said Wilson complained of discrimination on March 18 to news director Jeff Wald, and as a consequence was suspended for three days and threatened with termination. Lomax said the disciplinary action came about after Wilson told Wald the station has engaged in a pattern and practice of treating current and past African-American reporters and employees — both in front of and behind the camera — differently and disparately."

So does anyone really believe that Wilson was suspended because he complained about alleged racial discrimination? I don't doubt Wilson made that complaint, but there was obviously more to it than that.

Here is what I think. While Wilson has hired a civil right attorney, I don't think he'll sue. It would just be too easy to show that Wilson is NOT a good reporter and his complaints have no basis. This supposed racist station has a black GM. And according to the article, Wilson says he should have been promoted like Hal Fishman or Stan Chambers. Huh? Chambers has been a reporter there for ages. They don't even call him "senior correspondent," a title which apparently Wilson would like for himself. And Fishman? Well, he is the anchor! The article does say Wilson would like to be weekend anchor or a commentator. But if he were a weekend anchor (assuming he'd be a good anchor), he'd have to replace Larry McCormick, who is black, or maybe McCormick's fill-in, Walter Richards, who is black.

I don't know Wilson, but he strikes me as the old-fashioned black victicrat; a man with a chip in his shoulder. His problems are not his fault; he's the victim of an unfair and racist system. And given Wilson's age, 69 years old, I'm sure he's seen the real thing in his lifetime. But times are different now and he just hasn't adjusted. Frankly, I feel sorry for him.

And one person suggested to me, if he's so good, why doesn't he just go to work at another station? I know OTR is read in all newsrooms in LA and some others around the country, too. We know he's not under contract. Anyone think their station would like to hire Warren Wilson?

Melanie Lomax did not return my call, and KTLA VP John Reardon also did not respond to my email.

As I was watching CNN this week, there he was. KCBS reporter and former anchor Drew Griffin was now anchoring for CNN, filling in yesterday and today for Kyra Phillips. Obviously, Griffin has left KCBS and gone to work for his former boss, Princell Hair. Hair runs CNN these days and used to be news director at KCBS.

Interesting that after a very good rating on the 6pm news with Griffin and Gretchen Carr in November, KCBS got rid of Carr entirely and took Griffin off of anchoring. (This was to make room for Harold Greene who was making room for Paul Magers). When KCAL and KCBS merged, they also dumped Hair, in favor of Nancy Bauer Gonzales. Now you've got Hair running CNN, Griffin anchoring there...and the KCBS 6pm ratings back to their former low levels.

KABC ran a rather deceptive story last Friday. First let me tell you what the story said: "Former Compton Mayor Omar Bradley and former Compton City Manager John Johnson were both sentenced to three years in prison from stealing from one of the poorest cities in LA County. Bradley and two other former city officials were convicted in February of using city credit cards and travel vouchers for personal reasons. The defense claims Bradley reimbursed the city. Before his sentencing, he spoke briefly to the court, trying to explain his actions. (Bradley sound bite) Former City Councilman Amed Rahh was also sentenced to time served and three years probation, plus 250 hours of community service."

The problem is, Bradley was sentenced the day before. The sound bite they ran was also one day old! Yet neither the script nor the screen let viewers know that. It was Johnson and Rahh who were sentenced on Friday. The story manages to totally avoid any time element. That is very poor news reporting. So I wonder not only how someone could write that story, but who checks scripts before they air?

I asked KABC about it, and after talking to news director Cheryl Fair, here is what station spokesman Bill Burton told OTR:

Not including a time element for the sound bite was indeed an error that has been addressed. Producers and/or news managers check scripts. The lack of a time reference was not caught on this one sound bite."

This was the story about the mother hawk attacking people in a parking lot, because they apparently got to close to her nest of babies. One tease on KCBS said "the early bird catches the book worm...a hawk creates some Hitchcock moments at a local library."

Rick Chambers, the reporter on the story, said the joke out there was that there was a new pecking order in Thousand Oaks. I like it. In words of Steve Allen, "schmok, schmok!"

It is just a blatant commercial for the Oprah Winfrey show; how can you run this as a news story???? But there it was on the 4pm news. Kathy Vara interviewing Oprah via satellite. The "story" was described by anchor Michelle Tuzee as previewing "a week full of extraordinary shows." Ohhhh! Of course, they're extraordinary...that's different.

Among the things we learned in this commercial within a newscast, was that you should not wear another color with black pants, because it cheapens the color. Got that ladies? If an "expert" tells that to Oprah, and she tells it to you, you better listen. Oprah also spent a whole day living like it was 400 years ago; no showers, underwear or stoves. Extraordinary. Oprah goes a day without underwear...read all about it!

Of course we know this is not a scientific poll. And I can't guarantee that some Kerry supporters didn't horn in on this. But IF this actually represents voters across the country, Bush is in deep trouble. 15 percent of his supporters turning against him would be a campaign killer, not to mention six percent who've become undecided.

There were many stories and discussion this last week on the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. A pretty medicore job was done by KNBC's Kim Baldonado. The lead-in from anchor Michele Ruiz said in part...."so how far have we come in half a century? Some say not very far at all."

Well, the decision said that government could no longer keep black children in separate black schools. That has vanished from America; the government no longer separates students by race. So just who says we haven't come "very far at all?" Baldonado interviewed two people in her story; the head of the Pasadena School District and a parent. I didn't hear either of them say what the lead-in suggested.

The school official talked about how many white parents took their children out of public schools once they were faced with bussing. Baldonado pointed out that there are twice as many private schools as public schools in Pasadena, and that the public schools are disproportionately minority. Maybe that is supposed to add up to things not having come "very far at all."

The parent she interviewed was Brence Culp, a white woman who said there is an unfair negative reputation of Pasadena's public schools. This woman is part of a group of parents who share emails and organize visits to public schools to see what is going on there.

At the end of the story, Baldonado says the school district's elementary school test scores are rising, but middle and high schools are lagging far behind. The district admits much must be done to reverse the three-decade old trend.

So I'm left trying to figure what the point of this story really was. Was it "white flight?" If so, she seemed to veer off into another direction; not even interviewing a parent who prefers the private schools. At the end Baldonado talks about low test scores in the public school. Yes, we know that is a problem in many places...but what does that have to do with the de-segregation decision of 50 years ago? Maybe she just needed more time, but this story struck me as a number of facts thrown together without any clear point.

Fictional TV shows have told us for years, "this is no time to panic." Yet, never do they tell when it is time to panic. Now leave it to KCBS to tell us panic happened, which never really took place.

According to Paul Magers, "The man who panicked the city with his threats to blow up an LA shopping mall......" I realize that malls on the Westside lost a lot of business. People were being cautious. But I doubt very many believed anything would happen, and I never heard of anything that would come close to "panic."

Unfortunately, too often, we can expect TV news to sensationalize the truth.

What: "We will keep following that breaking news in the Athens area of LA, the Southland school on lockdown tonight."

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