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7/07/06 - Friday Thursday Letter is up Inside LA TV - interesting insider thoughts from the two duopolies in town. Check out Recent Issues 6-27-06 Tuesday's OTR 6-30-06 Friday's OTR          Send your opinions to BRUIN74@aol.com.

If you'd like to know when each issue is ready, and receive email news updates which occur between issues...  email to Bruin74@aol.com

DANDRIDGE SHOWS HOW IT SHOULD BE DONE

For your average reporter, it would just have been another 4th of July parade. Not Paul Dandridge.  Maybe KCAL/KCBS sent him to cover this parade because they knew the Minutemen were part it.  Either way, the way he handled it shows what you get when you have a reporter who is not afraid to challenge those who they interview.

Here is how it went as Dandridge questioned a young woman who favors illegal immigration. She was part of a group of about 20 people who were there to counter the presence of the Minutemen.

Woman:  ...really they’re just killing people.

Dandridge: They’re killing people?

Woman:  Yeah, they’re killing people. Beating them down, you know for no reason. 

Dandridge: When did they kill somebody? 

Woman:  When do they kill people? When they see 'em trying to cross the border.  

Dandridge: Do you have a date or some time when that  happened?  

Woman:  It happens like daily. Constantly.  

Dandridge:  Really?  Minuteman are killing people every day? 

Woman:  Yeah.    

Speaking to the viewers, Dandridge then said  "The rhetoric here is strong, and certainly unsubstantiated."

Honestly, how many local TV reporters can you imagine confronting such nonsense?  Could you see Stacey Butler doing it? How about Suraya Fadel or Greg Mills? Yes, I could keep going for a while on that. What we don't know is whether this young woman believes what she was saying or if she knew it was just propaganda.

My guess is, she believes it.  And all the more reason to expose some of the lies out there.  And check out the sign which says "Get Out Of Aztlan." Southern California is part of what the college group MEChA considers Aztlan, an area which they believe rightly belongs to the Mexicans.  

Also, Dandridge interviewed  Mayor Villaraigosa who said how the Minutemen have every right to be heard but said “I find their views objectionable.” I wish Dandridge would have asked what  view of theirs that he does not like. Might have got the mayor to actually admit he supports open borders. Naw. I think Villairagosa is too smart for that. But it would have been interesting.

SHOULD WE BE SURPRISED?

KTLA anchor Michaela Pereira, the anchor who accepted ten thousand dollars worth of furniture for her home in exchange for a story which never aired, seemed to support Barbara Walters lying to the public about the firing of Star Jones. And it seems Carlos Amezcua was with her on this.

According to Pereira:  "People are talking about Barbara Walters credibility. That’s sort of a, a common practice in the business."  Amezcua:  "She’s just trying to protect a colleague."  Pereira:  "People know that their contract is gonna to run out three months from now and they’re not going to be renewed. We can’t all be told that we’re lying to the public, ya know?"

For one thing, I think Amezcua is being naive. I think Walters was mostly protecting herself and the network, hoping to avoid the truth that Jones was fired and did not quit.  And Pereira appeared to be saying  that TV people always lie about why they leave their jobs, and what's wrong with that?

Say, do they ever have ethics seminars over at KTLA? I know, they'd probably have to hire an outsider to give it.

Btw, Pereira did reportedly give back or pay for the furniture she kept, after the LA Times exposed the arrangement, which was arranged by The Morning News.  To the best of my knowledge Pereira has never publicly addressed it.

For some views on the Walters/Jones situation which I would suggest are far more enlightened than that of Pereira and Amezcua, you should check a piece written by Robin Abcarian for the LA Times, and one written by Phil Rosenthal for the Chicago Tribune.    Interesting, all of the above work for the same company.

JOHN BEARD - TOP KTTV ANCHOR - MOVES INTO SECOND PLACE

John Beard improved upon his GPA from last year, enough so that he is certain to come in second place in this year's grading by OTR readers, by passing Pat Harvey and Colleen Williams. (We only have KCOP left). In fact, with the exception of Susan Hirasuna, every KTTV anchor improved from last year.  While still coming in last, early morning anchor Jean Martirez made the biggest gain, almost a quarter point. Hirasuna lost more than a third of a point.

Three Most Popular So Far

1) Marc Brown (KABC) - 3.69

2) John Beard (KTTV) - 3.43

3) Pat Harvey (KCAL) - 3.4

3) Colleen Williams (KNBC) - 3.4

Three Least Popular So Far

1) Mia Lee (KCAL) - 1.02

2) Cher Calvin (KTLA) -  1.44

3) Micah Ohlman (KABC) - 1.55

SPEAKING OF NOT CHALLENGING SUBJECTS

I generally do like the feature writing and reporting of Bill Smith.  But I imagine hard news may not be for him.  He covered the story when bulldozers came in to clear the  urban farm land in South LA.  One woman complained that private security had stole their tools and hardware that had been left behind and sold it. 

"They also were cutting our crops and they were selling it. And they were putting that money in their pockets. It was cash."

So how about asking this woman what gave them the right to grow crops on land which belongs to someone else.  They were knowingly squatting on someone else’s land and would not leave until evicted.  It's not like they were paying rent for use of the land.  If Smith wanted to do a sob story, he could at least have tried a little bit of balance.  I do wonder what rights the squatters had to their tools and equipment after they were kicked out. Why didn't their lawyer get a court order to get it back? Or did they lose their rights to it?  Be nice if Smith had checked that out.

Besides Smith not being a confrontational report, it could be he might have found it hard to take issue with a "victim." That would not be PC, would it? And I would say with the exception of often identifying criminals by race and ethnicity, LA TV news is usually politically correct.

SPEAKING OF POLITICALLY CORRECT

I understand that on one LA TV station, from now on....illegal fireworks must be referred to as "undocumented fireworks."

Yes, I'm only kidding.

ELSA RAMON CHECKS IN

To refresh your memory, in our last issue I quoted a reader:

Elsa Ramon, doing a story on six flags, says (paraphrasing) "although the park has
been here 45 years" ...not so.  She said that because she saw the banner on the park that reads "45th anniversary"...that's for the entire company Six Flags
and not the Magic Mtn. park itself.  the Valencia park was built around 1973."

Ramon wrote in to say: 

OOPS

On KNBC  during a tease to open the 6pm news, Ana Garcia said "It may be a first of its kind smoking lawsuit. Tonight a Woodland Hills father blames his daughter’s asthma on second hand smoke."

Then when Kim Baldonado began her story she said "Kelly, I just want to clarify what Ana mentioned at the top of the story, he is ah…at the top of the show…he’s not blaming second hand smoke on his daughter’s asthma.  Not saying that it's causing asthma, just say that it's making it worse."

TIME TO VOTE FOR KCOP ANCHORS

As always please vote only for the anchors you are familiar with. Please click on the appropriate link and then hit "send." Thanks much.  We did have a couple of readers vote too late this time, so please do take note:  the voting closes Thursday Night at 6pm.

Lauren Sanchez

Sanchez - A

Sanchez - B

Sanchez - C

Sanchez - D

Sanchez - F

Rick Garcia

Garcia - A

Garcia - B

Garcia - C

Garcia - D

Garcia - F

Michael Brownlee

Brownlee - A

Brownlee - B

Brownlee - C

Brownlee - D

Brownlee - F

Maria Quiban

Quiban - A

Quiban - B

Quiban - C

Quiban - D

Quiban - F

OOPS PART TWO

The man above is actually Richard Icaza. I suppose he must have said he was Rick Icaza, which turned into what you see above.  And KABC made the same mistake.

GOOD STORY 

It's always nice when the interests of us baby boomers are remembered on the news. With the latest Superman movie coming out, KNBC's Cary Berglund did a feature story on Noel Neill.  

She was actually Lois Lane in Superman serials, which came before the TV show.  Neill was also Lois Lane in the 50s TV show. (Though Berglund didn't mention that Phyllis Coates was Lois Lane during the show's first season).

It was great to see that Neill is alive and seemingly well. And she said she has a small part in the new movie.

What next? Maybe a Q&A with Professor Pepperwinkle?   Yes,  it would take one of the professor's wild inventions to be able to reach the actor who portrayed him.  Phil Tead died in 1974.

SPEAKING OF BABY BOOMER TV

Len Weinrib died last week. While he was better known for his cartoon voices, he also appeared in a few Dick Van Dyke episodes. In the pic above, he was the guy who played a practical joke on Rob by getting him to try to fix a non-existent problem with his telephone. I always thought that episode was among the funniest from the show.

REDUNDANCY

KABC's Bill Thomas said that a motorcycle was "totally destroyed."

LETTERS TO OTR

If you want a letter published, please be sure to include your first and last name.  Also, it helps me if you can  write "LETTERS" in the subject line. Thanks!

WHO ARE YOU?  

I invite all you to write in and tell your fellow readers a little about yourself. What you do for a living, why you are interested in TV news and anything else you'd like to include about yourself.  You can email to Bruin74@aol.com .