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Can this paper last a full term?
*Who cares? Move on!
I’m not one to obsess over the recent past in the local journalism world. For me, the main problem is figuring out a viable model for an online news site that would inform Los Angeles residents about the top issues of the day, and hold public officials accountable.
Such a site would advocate for what people need: Better public schools, better public transportation, cleaner air free of those microscopic particles that are sickening and killing more people than L.A.’s worst smog of the 1950s. It would regularly take D.A. Steve Cooley to task for not ridding Southeast L.A. cities of public corruption, and keep the heat on him to announce whether he will ever bring pedophile protector Cardinal Roger Mahony to justice.
This news site would initially alarm people who believe in the fiction of objectivity and so-called fairness; in time, even the skeptics would be won over by the divergent voices that would appear along the way to taming unmanageable Los Angeles and California. This news site would play an activist role.
Right now, it would mobilize parent-student groups around the state to storm the offices of Republican legislators who refuse to raise taxes to keep public schools from losing billions of dollars. It would be full of local news: stories about L.A. City Council meetings, committee meetings. Every week, public schools that work and don’t work would be featured. There would be listings every year for the 100 worst lawyers in town; the 10 best and worst judges.
Every legislator in the state would be interviewed and pressed to fix Proposition 13, the 1978 property-tax-slashing measure that devastated the state’s commitment to providing public services. The key players who run Los Angeles behind the scenes, like the DWP’s union boss Brian D’Arcy, would be exposed. Too bad we wouldn’t have subpoena power to force every member of the City Council to disclose their dealings with him.
Oh, I almost forgot to say a word about the CityBeat piece. All of this is more important than righting a few wrongs. But really, it should have said that L.A. Weekly’s star investigative reporter Jeff Anderson left the paper voluntarily in 2007. And if CityBeat wants to blast the L.A. Weekly for canning theater critic Steven Leigh Morris and film critic Ella Taylor, then it should also disclose in the same piece that this week CityBeat dumped its own legend, the inimitable movie reviewer and office scholar and comedian Andy Klein. The article amounts to propaganda; otherwise, it would have told you that similar cuts and carnage render CityBeat’s own future uncertain and bleak.
And, yes, this news site will have room for all three critics!
Photo credit: Ted Soqui
A tear just trickled down my cheek imagining this.
Love the category you assigned to this post, Alan. However, you need to clarify between City Beat and the Weekly which is the alligator and which is the bear.
Gotta say, if you figure out that model, you want to trademark it, patent it, register it, or do something which would pay you royalties. Lots of folks would like that model. Advertising is one route, of course. Although some of the advertising I encounter online makes my experience of the site less than appealing.
So far, I’ve appreciated most those sites I want to visit frequently (at least once a day) offering me a variable subscription rate which will get me out of “some” advertising, or “all” advertising. If the site is worth its salt, I pay the higher rate and opt for no advertising every time.
Straight to the jugular, Alan. I’m proud to see somebody get it right, that is, about an online local news source that sits on no one’s lap and informs. Let me know if you get the formula right before I do. This is only the beginning. Peace. J.I.
If as goes California, so eventually goes everyone else, this is not good news.
When do we begin, boss?
According to liberals, we could eliminate major problems if we doubled taxes, despite majority votes not to do so and the fact that we have doubled taxes over and over in the past, with still no end for the liberal feel of entitlement for others’ money and their lack of accomplishments with it. The problem isn’t with how much money is available but with the stewardship of it.
Go, go go!
Waiting to hear from Celeste in the trenches of DC — what’s it like freezing out there with millions of hoi polloi, or did you get some invites to some receptions where you get to chase around a platter or two of mini-egg rolls and shrimp? Do tell.
As for the battle of the weeklies, I don’t agree with Marc Cooper on much, but he seems correct in his take on what Jill Stewart’s done to the Weekly, dumping real investigative reporting for “fast and dirty hit pieces” on city hall, even using people with no reporting or writing skills whatsoever like homeless blogger/ public comment gadly zumadogg, who disrupts meetings and then “writes” an expose on land use issues and is featured, more recently, on its story about the demise of public access in L A. (The result of state, not local, legislation, by the way.)
I will miss Steven Leigh Morris especially, who did recent, very solid stories (definitely not butt-kissing officials but sans the biased vitriol favored by Jill Stewart and her current faves) about the CRA etc. And yes, also Andy Klein, who like Alan did his time at both papers and is one of the best. Guess it’s an unfortunate byproduct of the mushrooming of so many online reviewing sites that people don’t think the opinions of people trained to think critically, and who bring a wealth of years of viewing and writing about movies (or theatre or books) to the table, really matter much more than the opinion of anyone with access to a keyboard.
Off topic, but here’s a link to Bettye Lavette dueting with Jon Bon Jovi at the Lincoln Memorial event. I knew Obama was pretty hip, but picking Bettye Lavette for this concert really impressed me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r2vjPrky60
Also Pete Seeger got to sing the “censored” verse of “This Land” about the “Private Property” sign. That should drive the nerds over at National Review Online completely nutz. This concert event was awesome – great performances, choirs, military bands – something for everyone. The “Lincoln Portrait” motif of reprising words of great Presidents and other historical figures was wonderful. You can still see the whole thing on HBO-dot-com.
No rap bands? Is Obama racist?