Ron Fineman's ON THE RECORD

You might say you didn't even know she was still there. But OTR has learned that Lisa Joyner is out at KCBS/KCAL. And with her departure, I am told, is a savings of 150 thousand dollars.

In hindsight, this looks like a case where GM Don Corsini's eye for the good looking babes turned out to be a bust. After leaving KTTV, Joyner was made weather anchor for the KCBS early morning show. But that didn't work out, and she was replaced by John Elliot. Joyner told OTR when she started that they had plans to have her host a new morning show on KCAL, but obviously that never came to pass.

She eventually did co-host "9 On The Town," but that was cancelled. She also had been doing features for the news called "Lisa's It List." They must have decided the It List wasn't worth 150 grand a year.

Back in 2002, Joyner told me that when she quit KTTV, she planned to co-host a syndicated show which she would be producing. And when she took the job at KCBS/KCAL some months later, she told OTR: They are providing me an incredible opportunity. A great salary, fewer hours (so I can move forward with Joy Productions) a generous amount of freedom to produce and host other projects and being part of a company (Viacom) that is aggressively looking for new innovative programming. I
have been so blessed to get amazing opportunities and this is the next
step. KCAL/KCBS is quite ambitious with regards to development. I have
talked with them in the past about working on other projects. They are
working on bringing new formats to television and I am excited to be
included in that."

Btw...I am hearing word of someone else being let go at KCBS/KCAL. At this point I believe it is true, but I need to make sure before I tell you.

Mr. KABC announced Thursday Night that a man named Ramon Flores has been arrested on suspicious of attacking reporter Sandy Wells. The man has been positively identified by Wells as the man who attacked him, when Wells was reporting on the controversial charter school, Academia Semillas del Pueblo.

Kudos to the LAPD for not forgetting about this and sticking with it. Wells told Mr. KABC that they were "outstanding detectives" working on the case. Well done.

As you may've heard, there was considerable controversy over the LA County Human Relations Commission giving a Humanitarian Award to local Muslim leader Maher Hathout. However, if you only saw the coverage from KNBC's Laurel Erickson, you would have a rather distorted view of reality. I think it was pretty clear where Erickson stood on the issue.

Erickson made it sound like there were objections to Hathout merely because he had criticized Israel. She also made it appear as if the clear majority of people at the hearing were in support of Hathout. Both are not true.

She told viewers "critics complain he didn’t deserve the award because he criticized Israel in 2000. Hahtout’s comments came at a time when Israel was criticized by human rights groups for alleged violence against Palestinians." That was followed by a brief audio clip of a Hathout speech in 2000 in which he said "Butchers do what butcher do."

I don't think the "butchers" audio clip adequately showed Hathout's contempt for Israel, and that is assuming that viewers understood what he was saying in such a short sound bite. For example, Erickson did NOT tell us that he also accused Israel of being an apartheid state, which is a lie. Arab citizens have full rights in Israel, other than being asked to served in the armed forces. In fact there is an Arab on the Israeli Supreme Court. He also falsely claimed Israel is a theocracy. Oh, he also said Israel was 'racist'. He also called Hezbollah "freedom fighters." Yeah, that Hathout is a real humanitarian, isn't he? Really brings people together.

And notice how when Erickson dismissed the objection to Hathout as coming "at a time when Israel was criticized by human rights groups for alleged violence against Palestinians." Apparently that was to further justify Hathout's rhetoric. She didn't say what specific "alleged violence" she was referring to. As we know from the "Jenin massacre" which never happened, such objections don't necessarily have credence.

The only critical sound bite that Erickson used against Hathout was a woman who said that "he has personally hurt me." Yet, she summed up Hathout's supporters by saying "Other speakers including Jewish residents, Rabbis, constitutional lawyers, Christian priests and Muslims supported Hathout." That was followed by a sound bite from a man who said that Hathout was only one of two non-family members to speak at his father's funeral. The clear impression from Erickson's story was that the crowd was overwhelming in support of Hathout. However, one observer tells me that was not the case. In fact you got a different impression if you watched John Schwada's coverage on KTTV.

KTTV's John Schwada used this clip from Hathout's 2000 speech: "Atrocities committed by the apartheid brutal state of Israel . Because butcher do what butchers do."

At least that gave viewers a better idea of what people find so objectionable, compared to what Erickson gave us. However, I also think Schwada should be have been more clear when leading into the sound bite. Schwada said "Hathout’s nomination ran into trouble because he’s complained about Israel ’s treatment of Palestinians." As with Erickson, I think the intro into the clip should have referenced something like "Hathout's harsh views..." His views may be mainstream in Europe or in Arab countries, but not in America, and I think that should have been acknowledged in some form. Schwada did say that Hathout now regrets those harsh words.

Schwada ran one anti-Hathout bite, but it was much more harsh that the one run by Erickson. In this one, a woman said "He has never condemned suicide bombing against Israeli citizens." Frankly, I find it hard to believe that he has not done so by now. Even if that condemnation would come with the old "...but you know it's really their fault in the first place." Nevertheless, I don't think it was fair to use that sound bite unless Schwada was able to confirm it.

Both Schwada and Erickson used bites from Hathout defending himself. And both reported that there were only four votes in favor of Hathout, with five abstentions, and five people absent. However, Schwada used a sound bite from Chairman Adrian Dove saying "If there is four votes for, and five votes abstain…you could hardly call that a ringing endorsement."

When the Commission initially voted to give Hathout this award, I don't think they were aware of the depth of his hatred of Israel. And considering that most Jews support the world's only Jewish state, they can take it personally. And for good reason. Every country is certainly subject to criticism. Among Israel's biggest critics are its own citizens. But when you realize that some people hold Israel to a different standard than all other countries, that is when you realize who particularly doesn't like Jews. This "honor" given by the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission is certainly a blot on their credibility which I don't think will soon be forgotten.

As you know, readers voted Eric Spillman as Best LA TV Reporter (38-35) over Patrick Healy. Healy has won our annual poll all but two times. I let Patrick know that Spillman won this time, and Patrick wrote back:

Alas, since we work opposite ends of the clock, our paths virtually never cross anymore."

And I think we could also say that Patrick is class act.

IS ANYBODY LISTENING AT KCAL?

Last night, the KCAL 9pm news ran a 14-second sound bite from Mahmoud Abbas. He spoke in Arabic, so a translation was run at the same time. The problem is, Abbas was louder than the translation! It was 14 seconds of a waste of time. Wouldn't you think that someone at KCAL would listen to the sound bites before they air them?

GIVE ME FACE TIME!

There was Josh Rubenstein doing the weather, when all of the sudden....

reporter Lisa Sigell magically appeared on the screen. Luckily they went back to his map after a couple of seconds.

I DON'T THINK THAT WORKS

I can appreciate the desire to makes the news more understandable or relatable. For example, in telling viewers about the Day Fire, anchor Marc Brown said that it has burned more than 98 thousand acres. Hmm. Just how much is that anyway? According to Brown, "That is roughly the size of the city of Philadelphia ."

And so? Sorry, but I have no idea how big Philadelphia is, do you? Seems to me it would make far more sense to use a marker that most viewers can relate to. Why not use the city of LA instead?

If you went to school in the LA Unified School District, does the following look familiar to you?

I couldn't help but notice what looks like the same dictionary that I used when I went to John Burroughs Junior High. I don't know if that dictionary is really 40 years old, but if it is....I'd say LAUSD definitely is in need of a bigger books budget.

As you may recall, I have objected here to KABC calling Denise Dador a "health specialist." She has no more training or education in health than you or I do. But if there were any doubt, that was dispelled this week when I heard Dador mispronounce the word "coagulation." Dador called it "coagalation."

Laura Diaz read: "A daughter and her boyfriend were just arrested for the savage murder of an Orange County mother. It was a deadly discovery."

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 .

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