Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

AUGUST UPDATE: USC now says Sanchez never owed them money after leaving the university. The listing of a "loan hold" was a mistake by their loan officer. However it is correct that she does not have a degree.

EVIDENCE INDICATES FALSE CLAIM OF COLLEGE DEGREE FOR LAUREN SANCHEZ -AND SHE STILL OWES USC MONEY - NO RESPONSE FROM SANCHEZ OR HER BOSS

Despite a claim on her KTTV web site bio, OTR has found that Lauren Sanchez did not graduate from USC, and still owes the university money, after last attending classes there eleven years ago. Since I began asking questions last month, Sanchez's bio was altered to eliminate the claim of a bachelor's degree in communications.

I started checking on this after Sanchez claimed on both KTTV and KCOP that she was not yet born in 1975 (She was born in 1969). At first, I was looking into her graduation date in order to better figure out her real age. But I also wondered, if she would lie about her age, what else she might be less than honest about? I checked her KTTV bio on June 15th and found this sentence to start the last paragraph: "Sanchez graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications."

Given that she doesn't seem very smart, I felt like that might be something worth pursuing. So between June 14th and June 16th, I began asking questions of people at USC, but they were not able to help me. Josh Larsen, who works at the Annenberg School of Communications sent me the following note on June 24th, after I had talked with him on the phone:

"As I mentioned on the telephone I had not yet spoken with my colleagues about sharing Lauren's information with you when we talked. I later did so and was told that University policy prohibits me from sharing any of Lauren's information, including her graduation date with you. I do apologize for the confusion, but I am sure you can understand that the University takes great care in protecting the privacy of our students and alumni."

Last week I checked her KTTV bio again, which according to the web site, had been updated on June 17th, right after I began asking questions Now it said: "Sanchez majored in Communications at the University of Southern California ." The reference to the degree was gone.

Given the timing, it appears that someone at USC tipped off Sanchez. Larsen says it was not him, and certainly others, including people in the registrar's office became aware of my inquiry. I do wonder if someone at USC committed an ethical violation if in fact they notified her.

After Larsen had sent me the above note, I emailed back, asking if he could at least tell me whether she graduated or not. On June 30th, he wrote back, telling me that while he could give me no information, there is a method to check with USC on whether a person has a degree. He pointed to a web site, degreecheck.com, which works with a number of colleges and universities including USC.

I paid them to do a data base check, and they came back with the following information:

Since they came up empty, they said they would submit the information to the registrar for more research, meaning a manual check, just to make sure they didn't miss anything. At this point, given their data base check, and the change already made on the KTTV bio, I felt it was pretty clear that Lauren Sanchez did not have a degree. But when I checked for their final answer, their manual search found something I had not expected:

Because this individual has an outstanding obligation to University of Southern California, we are prevented by school policy from responding to your request. Please have the individual contact the school in order to have information released.

I have no idea how much money Lauren Sanchez owes to USC or why she would not have paid them after all these years. It becomes a little more curious when you realize that in an interview with Oye Magazine she said that after attending a junior college for two years, she got a "full ride scholarship" to USC. Whether she really got a scholarship, I don't know. I've seen no information on that one way or the other, other than her word. As I understand it, such a scholarship might not cover all expenses. In that same article, she avoided saying she had graduated. Here is the quote: "My family couldn’t afford to send me to college so I attended a community college in Torrance, California. After two years on the dean’s list, I received a full-ride scholarship to U.S.C. where I studied communications."

I asked a former KCOPer if they remember Sanchez talking about it. They said "I believe she told me she went there, but never graduated. Then again, it's been a long time -- but I don't think she did graduate from there."

It seems very unlikely that Sanchez was not aware of the false claim to a degree. People at KTTV who I've checked with, say they okayed their bio's before being posted. As one Bundy Drive insider said about Sanchez: "I can't imagine they put her bio in there without her looking at it - can't imagine how - she is absolutely a stickler about what is said about her."

I did try to get an answer on all this. I emailed Sanchez and left her a voice message, but she has not responded. I emailed news director Jose Rios, explaining the information I'd found, but he also has not responded. I was told by the KTTV promotions department that the bio writing is put together by the KTTV Programming department. So, I called KTTV Director of Programming John Frenzel. I left two phone messages for him, but neither were returned.

According to the KTTV web site, of the 30 bio's listed, Sanchez is among five people who do not have a college degree. In that group of five, Ed Laskos is the only one listed with no mention of any time in college. So it's not as if they've never run up against a reporter or anchor who attended college but didn't graduate.

Where did they get the idea that Sanchez had a degree from USC if not from Sanchez? Why did they suddenly delete the reference to a degree? Does this make the other bio's on KTTV's web site any less credible? No answers are coming from KTTV.

While checking the internet, I found another reference to Sanchez allegedly graduating from USC. This goes back to September 18th, 2003. In this story, Sanchez and KCOP co-anchor Rick Garcia were hosting a benefit for the Minorities in Broadcasting Training Program. The article from "marketwire" said: "Sanchez is a University of Southern California (USC) graduate and a well-known personality in Los Angeles-area broadcasting."

I contacted the writer of the article. While he didn't really have any particular memory of writing it, he says he must've gotten information from a web site or her publicity people. Whether Sanchez was listed on the KTTV web site back then, I don't know. And the KCOP web site has always been pretty bare bones. I don't recall ever seeing anyone's bio on there. Regardless of where it originated, this does show that this misinformation about a college degree has been around at least two years.

To get some in-the-business management opinions on this, I felt like I would need to go outside of Los Angeles. So, I explained the basics of this story to KPIX San Francisco news director Dan Rosenheim, an out of Los Angeles major market General Manager (who preferred to remain anonymous) and to USC Journalism Professor Joe Saltzman. Saltzman is of course highly respected, and has been a teacher for many people working in LA TV news today.

According to Saltzman: "No one -- in or out of the media -- should ever lie about their achievements or lack of achievements on a resume. People work very hard to get a degree from USC Annenberg, for example. It is a distinguished part of any resume because it signifies a certain degree of knowledge and accomplishment. For someone who did not get that degree to boast in writing that they did get that degree is unfair. It's like plagiarism -- taking credit for something you didn't do. In journalism, plagiarism is the worst possible offense. It's lying, and lying should never be tolerated. The lesson to everyone is: Only put on your resume what you have achieved. Not what you hope to achieve, or wanted to achieve or felt cheated out of achieving, or didn't achieve on what you believe is a technicality (nonpayment of loans, two units shy of a degree, a teacher who gave you an F you didn't deserve, etc.). Only what you actually did achieve. It is the only fair and decent way to behave."

Joe Saltzman, Professor of Journalism and Director,
Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC, a project of the Norman Lear Center, USC Annenberg)

I don't know the details off this situation, but in general it's difficult to ask people to have confidence in journalists who are dishonest about their own credentials. Credibility is the most important thing we have. So, I'd take a very dim view of any employee who lied on his or her resume.

Vice President News, CBS 5 in San Francisco

The out-of-LA major market GM said this:

"What I would generally say is that lying about one's resume is not good for anyone - if you attended a school but never earned the degree than you should never claim to have one, not verbally and certainly not in writing. It goes to character, it goes to integrity and if you cannot be honest about your own accomplishments (or lack thereof), how can you expect the public to trust what you report on. I would submit that under certain circumstances, this could be a fireable offense but I would not go there with Lauren since I don't feel I have all the facts."

The fact that her bio claimed the degree is beyond dispute. The fact that this was changed after I began asking questions is also beyond question. And the search done of the USC data base through degreecheck.com is very convincing evidence that she does not have a degree. The appearance of lying about a degree should be very serious. Whether she actually has ever claimed a degree on a resume for a job application, I don't know. Though arguably, a web site bio is a resume for all the world to see, and should certainly be accurate.

I think the fact that neither Sanchez nor her boss will comment, explain or deny any of this is very telling. You might think she would at least want to explain why she still owes USC money. And if there is some extenuating circumstance around the debt, she certainly could step up and tell me. I suppose they hope this blows over after a couple of days, and that will be the end of it.

I am well aware that we are talking about the lightest of the lightweights when it comes to anchors. No one considers Lauren Sanchez a journalist, I realize that. But the fact is, she IS a Los Angeles Television Anchor. In the news release sent out by Fox entertainment for the dance show which she is hosting, they call her an "Emmy winner" (KCOP won for best hour newscast several years back). And they say she does entertainment for KTTV and is a news anchor for KCOP. So whether people like it or not, she represents LA TV news on this show.

But forget the dance show. We still have an LA TV anchor who appears to be party to a false claim of a college degree. Does it matter? Do we have different standards for the anchors we find less credible? If so, where or with whom do you draw the line? When will good journalists of Los Angeles stand up and say enough is enough? I believe that deception about a college degree is a serious offense, no matter what your line of work. At this point, I see no evidence that KTTV management has that same standard. Their silence is loud.

You'd think Kenny Rogers' apology would be seem more sincere, if he didn't invite his posse along for moral support. According to Rogers, "Bluto was of course a boyhood idol. I've always tried to embody his take-no-prisoners spirit. Nelson is the boy I always wanted to be, and wish that I could have as a son, to follow in my footsteps. And you know how he always says Ha It shows that it's all really in fun. Why can't everyone take a joke? Like Nelson and Bluto, I feel I've been misunderstood."

I can certainly understand the urge to do a word play with a Kenny Rogers song, while doing the story on the violent outburst of the Texas Rangers pitcher with the same name. But whoever wrote the following for KTLA, proves that you can reach too far. As read by Leila Feinstein: "Well, Kenny Rogers the singer said Ruby don’t take your love to town. Kenny Rogers the pitcher had to take himself to a podium…."

Leila Feinstein said "Today a Lancaster judge found a 13-year old boy guilty of killing his 15-year old classmate with a baseball bat. The fatal attack happened in Palmdale on April 12^th in front of other ballplayers and their parents. The defendant, whose name was not released because of his age, testified that Jeremy Rourke had teased him and his friends for losing to the worst team in the league. When he thought Rourke was going to beat him up, the defendant says he hit him with a bat……"

What's wrong with it? First how can a 13-year old and a 15-year old be classmates? I wouldn't think they'd even be in the same school. The second sentence says it happened in front of other ballplayers, without ever establishing that this happened after a Pony League baseball game. Especially with the classmate reference, one might think this happened at school. The third sentences refers to losing to the worst team in the league. What league? Again, the story still hasn't established where this happened.

This speaks to a problem I've mentioned time and again. It's bad enough that the writer made some mistakes. But why didn't Feinstein catch them while pre-reading her scripts? Or might she have been too busy working on tonight's hair-do. With as often as she changes it, I believe she may be among the most hair obsessed anchors since Sharon Tay. Of course Tay used to change her hair during the newscast. That much self-involvement is hard to beat.

Now that Zorianna Kit is gone from KTLA, Ross King is doing the entertainment at night. And he's not just reading the stories; he's also out in the field. Below, he is interviewing Tom Arnold for the movie Happy Endings.

In a sound bite used by King, Arnold said to him "now you're the entertainment guy." So it sure looks like King is the guy. If so, will they replace him in the weather chair as I previously suggested would happen, or are they cheap enough to make him do double-duty on a long term basis?

Yes it is time to take your nominations for our annual best field reporter poll. Last year, Dave Lopez won, the first time Patrick Healy didn't win the poll. So let's do it again. Nominations are now open. Feel free to nominate up to three field reporters. Please send put "best reporter" in the subject line, and send your nominees to Bruin74@aol.com.

Too often I see opinions of reporters stated as fact. Here's another such example, this one coming from KABC's John Gregory. While covering a pro-choice demonstration related to the Supreme Court opening, Gregory said "pro choice or pro life, no question divides the country more."

That is not only an opinion but I think it's demonstrably false. The latest poll shows 63 percent of Americans support Roe vs. Wade. If you look at the polls on Iraq, you'll find them much closer to 50/50 on whether Bush did the right thing. I realize that would take away a nice little line for Gregory which makes his story more profound than it is. While I guess we all expect abortion to be a big issue during the confirmation hearing, possibly the biggest, that still doesn't make it the most divisive question America faces.

Yes, he is a backward bowler. And before you write him off as a joke...I can remember another unorthodox athlete who people laughed at. I remember the first time I saw him doing his thing, on Jim Healy's sportscast on KABC. His name was Dick Fosbury, and he actually did the high jump backward! How weird. I remember Healy playing some goofy music underneath the film of him doing his strange high jumping. Now of course, that is the only way they high jump.

Am I saying that backward bowling will become the new standard? No. But you could just have a guy who is as good backyard as the best bowlers are forward. Yeah, it seems crazy. But then, so did Dick Fosbury.

KCBS anchor Harold Greene called Ben Affleck, Ben "Enflack." Sure Greene knows better; it was just a slip of the tongue, basically switching the "a" and the "e." He didn't bother to correct himself, and it seems like he is more prone these days to make other verbal slips. Maybe Greene is just not quite as focused as he used to be. Or maybe he's just so exciting about anchoring on KCAL in September that he just can't concentrate.