Kevin Roderick of LA Observed came to speak to my USC class Wednesday night. He described, among other things, how and why he launched LA Observed, the early moments he thinks put him on the map, and what he’s learned from seven years of blogging.
He first broke through, he said, when an LA Times staffer leaked to him a now infamous memo written by the newspapers then editor, Jon Carroll, in which Carroll publicly castigated a reporter for a perceived liberal bias on abortion-related story. The LAO memo leak story was linked all over the country.
After that the floodgates opened and Roderick received a semi-constant stream of leaked LA Times memos and insider news. (Hilariously, the internal memos began being written far better, Roderick says, and thoroughly spell-checked—now that management realized their private missives would all likely wind up being bannered on Roderick’s site.) As a result, the tumultuous and often disastrous changes in a major American newspaper were documented, chapter by chapter, on the cyber pages of LA Observed.
Class members asked a stream of other questions about digital entrepreneurship, about what makes a blog successful, about what stories Kevin thinks are being missed.
(The answer to the last was advice to look at the multitude of communities in LA County that are not being covered—that they are loaded with stories.)
The class ran overtime and no one wanted to leave even then. Roderick told me afterward that he came away from the night feeling upbeat about journalism’s future. “Listening to them, how can you not be optimistic?”
Yep, that’s what I think.
I’d fire anyone who leaked private internal company memos to outsiders, especially those memos that hurt the image of the company and to the people who want to destroy its crediblity. And, if I couldn’t isolate the disloyal individuals, I’d clean house and start over. One bad apple spoils the entire lot. Blame those individuals for everyone getting fired.
Roderick: “Listening to them, how can you not be optimistic?â€
For what? A knife in your back? I’m surprised that you applaud actions of betrayal to an organization that provides paychecks to those who are disloyal.
Maybe your students could learn more from someone who teaches ethics and loyalty. Roderick is a terrible role model.
What in the world are you talking about, Woody? Roderick was optimistic meeting the Annenberg grad students.
Please actually read the post before ranting. (NOTE: Glancing is not reading.)
And if you don’t like the leaks take it up with the LA Times folks who liberally did the leaking, not with the journalist who covered the leaks. (Do you have any idea how much of journalism, right, left and center, is the result of someone leaking information? This honestly is the silliest tirade yet.)
Celeste, please actually read my comment rather than just glance at it.
Roderick condones disloyalty in others as long as it helps him.
Sometimes people want me to “stretch things” on their taxes, but I don’t permit it and tell them that there are legal ways to accomplish the same result. A journalist who condones lying and cheating and is so dependent upon leaks is being lazy and dishonest himself.
Class members asked a stream of other questions about digital entrepreneurship.
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Did they ask if he actually make any money blogging?
Reg and Woody must be making a fortune from digital entrepreneurship known as blogging.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by californiaBNN, Celeste Fremon. Celeste Fremon said: @LAObserved came to my #asjc class & talked future of journalism & moments that 1st put LAO on the map. http://bit.ly/b7Gy8B […]
Roderick’s blog is great. Must reading.