Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

If there were not a remote connection to the TV show CSI New York, I can't imagine KCAL/KCBS spending any time on this one. The actual story is, a man was found dead in his downtown loft and there is no reason to believe there was any foul play. His body had been there for weeks if not months. Officials say he was being treated as just another "John Doe."

So why did such an item merit a package by reporter Paul Dandridge? Because CSI was filming in the same building where the body was found. Of course CSI is a crime drama, and there was no evidence of a crime here. But that didn't stop Paul Dandridge from stretching the truth, by calling it a "mystery that's been brewing." To make it more ridiculous, the lead-in for the story called it a case of "life imitating art." What? Suddenly "art" has the first say on a dead body, as if they are not normally part of life. Once again, we have a case of a TV "news" operation blowing a non-story out of proportion, just to promote their own network.

I should add that I saw a small story on this in yesterday's LA Times. They also went with the CSI angle, but also indicated that there was no sign of foul play. Must've been a slow news day on the local desk at The Times.

It's Eric Spillman and Patrick Healy in the finals for OTR's Best LA TV field reporter for 2006.

Remember, this poll is for subscribers only. And please use the email address you used to sign up for OTR. This poll closes Monday night at 6pm. Please keep that in mind. For this first round, I got three votes which came in after the deadline, so I could not count them.

KCBS led their 5pm newscast one day last week with the story of Macy's take-over on the Robinson's May stores. It could have been a good story. But instead KCBS and Stacey Butler took the lazy way out. Butler went to a local Robinson's May, where she got nostalgic sound bites from shoppers.

For example, Butler said "But for shoppers like Shirley Moricz, a 30-year habit will die hard." The shopper said "It’s kind of hard to see it go. You know, it was mainstay here. It was the THE store. I’ll shop here, but I’ll miss the old ways."

And Butler failed to mention that Robinson's May is a combination of the old Robinson's and May Company. According to what I found on Wikipedia, they didn't combine into one store until 1993. To do this story right, I think you need to make that information part of it. Many of us who grew up in LA remember the various department stores. We remember the May Company at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax. Why not show an old photo of that?

And this is also not the first time a big department store name disappeared. How about The Broadway? Isn't that worth a mention too? I'm not against a historical nostalgic perspective, but you have to do more than Butler did. She did tell viewers where Macy's was coming and what other chains around the country were going.

Butler closed by saying "Now economists I spoke to say this was a natural consolidation with specialty stores like Best Buy and Circuit City , and low end retail stores, like Target, Coles and Wal-Mart. Well, in some ways they say, this was inevitable. It’s certainly still nostalgic for a lot of folks out here tonight."

Exploring that angle would have been more interesting that what Butler gave us. But since this was the story coming right out of the Dr. Phil show, KCBS may've felt that would be less interesting to their female audience. I'm sorry that KCBS and Butler took the simple way out.

As you know, I've complained about local TV stations using an obviously outdated photo of the governor.

Yes, KABC is sticking with the young Arnold. But have a look at what some of the others did with him.

On KTTV, regarding the Schwarzenegger tape, John Schwada said "Now state investigators working with computer forensic experts are trying to figure out if whatever happened here was a crime or just a political prank."

I don't see where "political prank" is an option. The audio tape was legit, no one is denying that. And in retelling the story, Schwada said that Arnold called Bonnie Garcia "very hot because, as he put it, ‘of her black and Latino blood." He never clarified that the tape indicates he was talking about temperament. I think that is a serious piece of information to leave out, especially when we are talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It seems to me that the key issue here is whether the audio was downloaded legally. The question almost implies that it was downloaded illegally. And so far, I don't think the evidence lies in that direction.

The son of singer Sista Soulja was recently murdered here in LA. Soulja told KABC's Leo Stallworth "The mayor, they need to call on the National Guard. They don’t need the LAPD. They need to call the National Guard to come out and take over these communities and get some control."

I think she has a valid point, though Stallworth didn't follow up on it. (No surprise there). Why not question public officials, and find out just how bad does crime have to be before you call out the National Guard? And I have to ask, if such a murder rate hit an affluent area of Los Angeles, might the talk of National Guard get some traction?

With illegal immigration still out of control, the House yesterday voted to build a fence along the Mexican border. Whether you are concerned about terrorists, common criminals, taxpayer burden or just people taking jobs from Americans at low wages, it is obviously a problem. Yet Mayor Villaraigosa told the LA Times yesterday that "I think a bill that only addresses security and does in the punitive way that the House does is absolutely unacceptable. It's un-American."

Un-American? I would suggest that the shoe is on the other foot. Don't you think the mayor might like more and more Mexicans entering California, as he eyes the governor's office? Seems like the local mainstream media have given him a fairly free ride on the immigration issue. And sure, I believe that it out of political correctness as well as sympathy with his position. Still, suggesting that those who want to control our southern border are un-American? I think that is outrageous.

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