Ron Fineman's OTR * The Latest Letters

Reminder: Please send your letters using upper AND lower case, and remember to include your first and last name. Also please SPELL CHECK before sending. ONE MORE THING - please call me Ron, NOT Mr Fineman.-Tnx

Ron,
Manny Medrano's coverage of the Winona Ryder trial for Channel 4 has a new
wrinkle. Tonight at 5:00 PM Paul Moyer intros Manny at the Beverly Hills
Court and Manny does a fast, one-sentence recap of the day's proceedings
abruptly ending it by saying, "Paul & Colleen?" At that point Paul & Colleen
begin asking Manny questions about the trial to get more details on the
story. Manny answers each one, ending again with the awkward, "Paul &
Colleen?"
This form of "news coverage" is really contrived and obviously uncomfortable
for the participants - not to mention us viewers.
Hey, Channel 4, you've got Manny Medrano, a lawyer, covering a shop-lifting
trial. Let him do thirty-seconds on the story and if Paul & Colleen have to
ask any questions at all, have them ask the one all of us at home are
asking: why is the DA making such a federal case out of something that
isn't?

John Leader
Northridge

(She is accused of felony shoplifting. I, for one, applaud the DA for bringing this to trial, rather than giving her the 'star' treatment they gave to Halle Barry. I certainly welcome other opinions.-Ron)

Ron:

In reading your response to Viki Reed who complained "where were the local news outlets last week?", I was genuinely surprised in the monocular focus of your reply. Nary a mention of the AM radio dial? Where are people supposed to go for real news from real newscasters?

Brian Humphrey
Simi Valley, CA

Ron--
An addendum to Alison Shaw's reply to Vicki Reed - she could also have
called her favorite news station, which would result in one of two things
(at least if she called a shop like mine). Either they would tell her what
they knew about the incident, or thank her very much for the tip and check
it out.

Yes, we do miss things on scanners occasionally. Newsrooms are very busy
places, Vicki, and they are more thinly staffed than ever. And it is also
true that not everything that looks like it might be newsworthy, really is.
But just like the police, we appreciate tips.

But I suppose with all the self-promotion we do, we shouldn't be surprised
when listeners or viewers assume we are omniscient and that if we don't
report something, it's because we have some ulterior motive.

Mark Howell
News Director, KUZZ AM/FM, KCWR (FM)
Bakersfield

Dear Ron,

With all due respect to Viki Reed's "peace of mind", why would she write to you and complain about helicopter activity in Studio City? As far as I know, I don't think you are in the running for "Chief of Police"!!

She said that when she realized that they were NOT News Helicopters, she watched the local news stations. A News Helicopter has no reason to orbit (circle) for hours as they aren't looking for a suspect, they are just getting an Aerial shot for their stations. In her area it would no doubt be a law enforcement helicopter. The reason she didn't see it on the news is that local news stations have no need to film a law enforcement helicopter in the process of "Searching For a Suspect".
Could you please just let her know that for the LAPD station in her area she should call......818 623 4016. They will be happy to tell her what exactly is going on in her neighbourhood. I just dialed that number and they explained to me that if a helicopter is in the air for such a long time, they can explain what is going on. They are only up up in the air doing their job which is to protect and keep her and her family safe!

If the noise is that much of a problem for her, living in the center of Los Angeles will not help matters! Personally, if I had that much helicopter activity over my building I know that I would feel VERY, VERY SAFE!!!

Sincerely,
Victoria Redstall.
West Hollywood.

It's never bothered me when the news folks tell us who among them has had a
baby, yet I did sneer when the management company of a local shopping center
liked to use one of their large marquees not for "30% OFF SALE AT KOVAC'S
JEWELERS" but for "CONGRATULATIONS STEVE AND JENNIFER ON THE BIRTH OF YOUR
BABY FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT WEST VENTURE DEVELOPMENT CO."
I do have one question-- if, say, Kimberly Plummer gave birth at the side of a
freeway with the help of a CHP officer, would that qualify as news? (Now
THAT'S the kind of story I think has been done to death.)
Scott Pitzer
Norwalk

Ron,

During the Yes on A commercial for a bill that would allow for retrofitting old
public building that were built before present earthquake codes, this
commentator is saying the Natural History Museum was "built over a hundred
years ago". Meanwhile they are showing a montage of photographs of the
building, and as he said those words, the shot was of the corner stone and in
big chiseled numbers was 1910. Gee, for months now I have been under the
misapprehension that this was the year 2002, not 2010. What was I thinking?

Mike Casey
Pasadena

To Vicki Reed,

Next time a police chopper is overhead for 6 hours call the police department and ask for the watch commander. Tell him/her who you are, where you live and ask them what is going on. The police will cooperate as long as you are calm and treat them with respect.

I have to agree with Ron (dare I say it) about your situation not being on the news. I had a similar situation happen to me last year. Police and finally swat teams were in my neighborhood from 1pm until 11pm and had a chopper flying overhead the majority of that time. I called the watch commander and was politely informed that they were looking for a man who shot into his girlfriends window that morning. Even though it was quite a scene and we were eventually evacuated when the swat teams rolled in, there wasn't a single mention in the news.

It's amazing how many incidents the police and fire departments deal with every day. If you listened to a scanner just one day you would be astounded at the amount of calls these agencies go on. Luckily, you don't have to wait to find out from TV or radio. Just call the cops. Believe me, they DO listen to everyone that calls...even a housewife.

Alison Shaw

Just looking at the photo us from KMPC Night at Anaheim Stadium. That brought back a lot of memories. I don't miss the leisure suit, but I do miss the camaraderie we all enjoyed. It was great to see the Angels finally win the World Series. Cheering the "Halos" up here in "Giant-land" was almost a life threatening experience at times, but worth it.

Ron,
I must admit, I enjoy watching Good Day LA off the Dish here in Austin, TX. I like Jillian and Steve and Dorothy. Of course I can start watching at 9AM (time delay) and hear what's going on at 7am in L.A. Anyway, I noticed that on Halloween at 7:40am, Jillian was at the weather wall telling us that New York got their first dose of the "White Stuff" recently. I know that is a broadcasteze on OTR, and from past readings, it appears that the GDLA crew reads OTR because they mention your site on air at times...(it has been printed here).

So I was waiting to hear a comment from Steve or Dorothy after Jillian's weather segment where the broadcasteze was said and they didn't say a word....perhaps the others didn't catch it, or perhaps didn't consider that phrase a big deal. I think it is over used too, but the point of my writing is that you would think they would entertain trying to avoid well known cliche's..But hey, if she doesn't see anything wrong with it, then its not really a big deal to her.

Just an observer
Jimmy Maddox
Producer
Austin, TX

Being a bad sport Bay Area Supporter where Pac Bell has been sold out for
the last 4 years, and in Anaheim they COULD NOT give tickets away at
Disneyland or the Big Ed, please see Page A24 of the Times for 10/29, where
ALL you fair weather Angel fans can go out and buy a Waterford Crystal
Angel's Batting Cap WITH LAST YEARS SYMBOL ON IT!! Only 1500 pieces, better
jump on them!! And remember one thing, when Jeff Kent signs with the
Dodgers, LA WILL bleed Blue again and the Red will disappear.

Doug Ely
Los Alamitos

(I could be wrong, but I think the police would've told you what they were looking for. I imagine there are many times police search for criminals or possible criminals with a chopper....but, that doesn't make it newsworthy, even though it sure feels that way when you're there.-Ron)

Ron:

John Malvo's immigration status has received considerable attention here in the Great Northwest.

The station that I work for, KIRO-TV, reported extensively on the pair's odyssey from Jamaica to Florida to the Seattle area. We reported on Malvo and his mother's immigration arrests as well as the local immigration rights group which obtained their release. Both mother and son have open deportation cases with a hearing set for Nov 20.

The most amusing incident regarding the sniper coverage occured this past Friday. One of our competitors was reporting "live" from the gun-shop under investigation in Tacoma. This station used giant red "exclusive" banners all over their coverage. They must not have seen that our live truck and reporter were stationed not more than 25 feet away also reporting the story. Oh well.

Doug Culver
Seattle

(It is good to know you folks are not letting what I believe is systemic bias get in your way. Sometimes what we see in LA and the networks too, are not representative of what other more objective journalists are doing.-Ron)

Dear Ron,
With the latest news breaker on the snipers arrest and
clean upof the situation, I happened to catch KNBc
NewsJoke4 at 5pm. 10/25(Fri). As they talked of the
last victim of the sniper and how people gathered for
the CA. remembrance ceremony, they ran filmed footage
of Oct.11 and stating with such a straight faceby
Chuck Henry-"HERE IS FOOTAGE OF THE GAS STATION
WHERE...(name)...was shot." What Nubs KNBC must have
to let this be used to accompany the story...When you
hear of a terrible incident from weeks ago, don't YOU
just ask yourself..."will they show a gas station with
police tape around it, that has no bearing to the
honor of a story about a memorial service in Ca.?"
Just as if they said an airline pilot was sent to
jail..will they next run a picture of a plane from
that pilots company? What has news footage like this
have to do with anything??
Jack Dawson Los Angeles, CA.

Hi Ron,
Coming out of exile for this big news reporting on the
"sniper" attacks...caught Ch.4 KNBC 5pm Thurs. doing
the breaking story on the Police chief conference with
all the info that applied to what went down, very
short and sweet and a BIG LEAD for news at
5...live..The Chief Moose stated what he felt should
satify the media on info of the suspects and
especially pointed out:"As the second
accomplice/suspect is under age(17),I WILl NOT reveal
his name." Conference over, ch.4 news continues with
their coverage...What do they do?...The second suspect
is..(NAME REVEALED) HE WENT TO SCHOOL(REVEALED),etc.,
etc. Thanks NEWSCLOWNS KNBC 4...Where was your
guidelines for ALL other minors involved in crimes and
the "secrecy" ...???
Now back to my exile, refusing to watch L.A. local
news but will sleep knowing KNBC continues their
Buffoonery with their news presentations!
Wil Johns Santa Monica, CA.

I don't watch KABC news very often, so I don't care about their staff members' giving birth. But for those stations I do watch, and the folks on them who are a part of my day, I DO want to know. Life cycle events of people who are regular "guests" in their homes are news. For example, I'm still trying to figure out if Jillian is divorced from the bullpenner! I assumed so because I haven't heard her mention him in a long time, and when she did a feature on her home, it didn't look like a baseball player lived there! When Ms Alpert of KABC was nearly fatally electrocuted, that was news. When Paul Moyer had a heart attack, it was news. Why isn't the birth of a baby?

Bill Raabe

(The way I see it...babies are born every day, nothing unusual about it. The routine personal lives of reporters and anchors are not news, because they should NOT be the story. Certainly, if a well known anchor has a heart attack (I didn't know about Moyer ever having a heart attack), that is news. Obviously, the near electrocution of Adrienne Alpert was news. I think when TV stations try to make their reporters and anchors the news for having a baby, they are also being disingenuous. Often, in those cases, they'll refer to their station as a "family," which is pure BS. You don't fire members of your family, and pretend they never existed, which happens routinely at TV stations. So to me, suggesting that a reporter who has a baby is a story, even a 10-second one, flies in the face of basic good journalism...which many people will tell you, has been long gone from TV news.-Ron)

Dear Ron,

It seems to be a common gripe in the last batch of letters that one cannot get news on the local airwaves. From my earliest recollections, I was a reader of a newspaper. That is where news is reported. The radio, the TV, and now the internet, just do not have the time or the audience to be able to do a news article. Maybe 60 minutes or some other news magazines have the time and resources to do a "story". A news program has maybe 60 or 120 seconds to let you know what is happening in the world. Give me a break.

I was fortunate enough to have Marla Dickerson of the Los Angeles Times interview me a few months ago for a series she was doing about run away manufacturing and the problems American manufacturers are facing in the competition from China. First a telephone interview. Then a face to face meeting and then another telephone interview a week before the article was published.

Last Sunday the Times started with a three page article about what they were trying to report. On Monday the second article appeared with about 4 or 5 paragraphs devoted to me and my company. On Tuesday the last of the articles appeared. This is reporting. The series the Times did on Enrique's Journey a few weeks ago; a two or three year project, is what I would consider a Herculean project. From this type of reporting one can gain information, insight and appreciation for what is transpiring in the world around us. If one really wants in-depth news, one goes outside every morning and picks up the paper that is laying in the driveway, opens the emails from the half dozen or so great papers in this great nation and reads what is happening. Then at six in the evening or eleven in the evening, one sits down on the sofa, pushes the remote and brings up the entertainment program that unfortunately passes for the news that most people use to guide their lives.

The down side of this? An ill informed public, making ill informed decisions, allowing a mediocre government to continue to govern, because not many people know the difference.

Respectfully,

Bill Mann

South Pasadena.

I thought Fox's coverage of the World Series was awful. You'd be watching
the game, then all of sudden they'd give you a replay of something that
happened 5 minutes ago. You didn't know if what you were watching was live
or the replay! It was awful. Then of course there was the game when they
put the camera on Robin Williams for 3 minutes while the game is going on
and we're missing it! Didn't we tune it to watch the game? I can rent a
movie to see Robin Williams. And who is the lady reporter? Tell me... does
she draw from her "personal experience" with Major League Baseball? I'm
sorry, the women reporters for football and baseball bug me. I don't want
to see Tommy Lasorda giving me the blow by blow on Women's Gymnastics and I
don't want a women who has no baseball experience giving me the report on
the World Series. Give me a past player, give me Tommy Lasorda, give me
Steve Garvey, or Steve Sax. All I can say is Fox really needs to work on
their sports coverage.

Jeannie Salcido

As you know for 22 years when I was on the air before and after the Angel games, my line was "Tomorrow is another day" well it took another 20 years but today was that day we all waited for. The "cowboy" is all smiles.

Roger Carroll

These aren't local, but still...
The intro to Thursday night's Connie Chung program (male narrator) included
the phase, "deadly killing spree".
Wolf Blitzer, when the bus driver's death was linked to the other sniper
cases, said, "our worst fears have been confirmed." What, it would have been
better if the bus driver had been killed by a copycat, or a disgruntled
passenger, or a little boy who got into Daddy's gun cabinet?
A radio report Friday said, "The white van mentioned during the shooting spree
may never have existed." I'd say it EXISTED, or many of them existed, even if
none of them have anything to do with the snipers!
Finally, I thought it was Tritia (with two T's) Toyota. You changed it to
Tricia with a C. (It shows up both ways on the web.)
Scott Pitzer
Norwalk

(That's okay on the the non-local stuff. We deal with national news here too.-Ron)

Considering most of the people I've met in the media biz who live in LA are from parts of the country that experience REAL weather, it blows my mind that such a huge stink is made when it drizzles in our around LA. It's RAIN. Not 12 inches of white powder. Not hail. Not hurricaine force winds. Not thunder and lightning. Rain. Barely rain: it's drizzle with gloomy light. It's less than pristine LA weather. Big deal. They don't make the tires in LA, nor are roads constructed so differently in LA than anywhere else in the nation. So why is it that huge traffic disasters occur every time the sky spits on Southern California?

Why does the world grind to a halt?

There is the real story. The way people think and drive and figure themselves, their lives and their needs more important than anything or anyone else out in the world. When you take a culture that speeds, talks on cel phones, eats, puts on make up, blasts music, says a huge F-U to every other driver at every point of roadway challenge; in a city that sports overly paved roads in rich neighborhoods and bombshell style streets in areas were renters and poor live, a city that relies on instant premium services provided by poor h ourly workers, a state of living that says that enormous SUV's are vital to lifestyle, a city that favors wealthy home owners (over renters and service working individuals) for reasonable sensible safe conditions for: crosswalks, public transportation, parking, street signs, speed bumps, road design/engineering, DWP and city works construction, and traffic lights ...it's only natural that a spit level of rain would throw the city into chaos. Maybe the real story is not and never was about the tiny bit of rain that LA is lucky to get. Maybe, just perhaps the real story is why it's such a big deal.

Viki Reed

Ron,

Friday morning on GDLA, while showing the video of the Inglewood policeman
violently assaulting a youth, punching and choking him while the kid was
handcuffed, described the policeman as "allegedly" slamming the young man onto
the trunk of a police car… ALLEGEDLY? In other words, we cannot trust our
eyes or the video. We must be hallucinating the whole thing, is that it?

Now I am not blaming Mr. Williams for this as he must just be reading what
someone else has written and put onto the Teleprompter. But, come on! This is
ridiculous. Some writer needs a reality check. The use of the term allegedly
is at least in this case patently absurd. How Tony could read something so
preposterous and yet maintain a serious demeanor is beyond me.

It is growing increasingly obvious that the presentation of local news in the
LA market has lost touch with reality and is of absolutely no use at all to the
average television viewer. If it is true that most people get their news from
television, then they are getting a twisted and unreal view of what
is "allegedly" going on in the world around them.

Alleged writers, news producers, directors and consultants are the ones
hallucinating as far as I can see.

Mike Casey
Pasadena

Is that the coolest name or what?
I remember when she was introduced on a KNBC newscast and Jess Marlow made the
innocent but politically incorrect statement,
"We'll see if it's true what they say-- Get Your Hands On A Toyota And You'll
Never Let Go."

Scott Pitzer
Norwalk