Who the Hell is Betty Pleasant?
Betty Pleasant is a longtime "writer" for the "independent" South Los Angeles based "newspaper" The Wave. Betty completely aghast that a federal investigation of shady dealings of the campaign of Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has decided the tack to take is to completely slime Ridley-Thomas' former opponent, Councilmember Bernie Parks.
Rather than honestly report on the serious investigation - which has even potentially extended to include Chief Bratton - as opposed to Patrick Range McDonald in the LA Weekly - Betty decides to go after Parks. Pleasant calls parks "one of the worst and most vicious officials" LA has ever had. She even goes further to call Parks a "sore loser." To continue the looniness Betty even digs up the ghost of long ago LAPD Chief Willie Williams who has never met a free Vegas hotel room or buffet that he didn't like. Great journalism Betty!
But when you dig deeper you may find the true source of Betty's motivation. First off, county records show that Ridley-Thomas spent extensively on campaign advertising in the paper while Parks spent nothing. An independent expenditure by an SEIU backed independent expenditure committee placed $180,000 in advertising for Ridley-Thomas in the paper. Is The Wave pay for play? We don't know but at least one political consultant has confidentially told us Wave management allegedly said that lack of positive coverage was tied to a lack of advertising in the paper.
The bottom line is that Pleasant's screed is a sign that Ridley-Thomas supporters are desperate to deflect attention from a very real federal investigation. But we need not give Pleasant much credit. This deep thinker has also opined that the recent conversion from analog to digital television was a conspiracy similar to the much ballyhooed but totally false notion the oil companies hunkered down to rid Los Angeles of streetcars. Looks like we've found another loon.
Labels: bernard parks, betty pleasant, chief william bratton, los angeles wave, Maria Elena Durazo, Mark Ridley Thomas, willie williams
Posted by Michael Higby @ 9/30/2009 02:00:00 AM
26 Comments:
Pleasant is a slimy, sleazy, rude, arrogant, vicious, ignoramus posing as a journalist. All she writes is unsubstantiated, biased trash. Nothing new, as the pay to play. It`s a time honored arrangement.
Multiple business leaders in LA from that era admitted that the auto industry made a deal with the City Council to get rid of the red line. Where do you get off claiming it never happened? As for the analog conversion comment, do you know one way or the other. You might have asked MRT what would make him say something like that and if he had any reason beyond what was in public records for his opinion, but certainly if that had happened it would have been no stranger than many of the other shady deals that have become public knowledge after the fact concerning LA City Hall. As for pay to play advertising, it's possible, but you certainly don't offer a lot of evidence. Betty Pleasant herself is a well known South LA activist and the Wave is a well known community paper and I am sure that if Parks had as much money as Ridley Thomas, he would have advertised in it. Parks has always been a lot more conservative than most African Americans. He is clearly a Republican who can't register that way because of political realities. Nothing wrong with that choice, but why be surprised when he gets attacked by residents who were sold by the Maxine Waters of the world that they were getting a very liberal elected official that Maxine once said was more progressive than Jessie Jackson.
Pleasant is a kook, but watch in the coming days what the LA Weekly has discovered about the LA Times coverage of this story and Paul Pringle.
Betty Pleasant has often shown far more restraint than this blog has. For instance, she ran a half-page photo of Jamiel Shaw's open casket at the same time that you were hyping that story--but she made her point and moved on. She never went so far as to bring Althea Shaw on board to blog about how the City Clerk threw out Jamiel's Law signatures. I'd be careful about whose journalistic acumen I'm criticizing.
As for teeing off on organizations that don't buy ads, some day just watch what happens to a classical music ensemble at a publication the week they stop an ad buy. This is fairly common now and this kind of thing does indeed deserve more scrutiny.
Mailander clearly jealous of this and other blogs finds himself once again in a cerebral masturbation session.
What's the trouble with the Jamiel Shaw case? Word, the perp was Hispanic. That's not supposed to happen and white people are not allowed to discuss it. That's the alternate universe Mailander inhabits. So Mr. Higby allowed the Shaw family to blog their personal story? I clearly remember he afforded you the same privilege Mailander.
I don't know much about Betty Pleasant but upon consuming her work I'll be glad to surmise she's a kook. More egregious is if the newspaper does indeed slant their coverage based on mega-money ad buys. That should see some sunshine regardless of whether this is a crappy blog or not.
Mailander your personal animosities are getting a tad weary. We'd enjoy them more if they weren't posted.
"...the "independent" South Los Angeles based "newspaper" The Wave."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Stop it, yer KILLIN' me!
This is a weird hit piece on a writer who is far, far more objective than this blog has ever been. This blog's treatmnet of certain people on a daily basis has been disgusting, while conversely Higby's shilling for those he likes is appalling.
And NO Patrick Range McDonald is NOT remotely, not even a tad, more objective or right, so it's dumb to hold him up as some sort of ideal pleasant should follow.
McDonald like Stewart writes hit pieces on Bratton and there is NO connection between Bratton and MRT except that he may be allegedly - accoridng to McDonald, based on his sheer speculation - be called just to say he knows nothing about MRT's connections to SEIU. PERIOd.
It was explained to me some time ago that if you advertize in a paper they know who pays the bills so you don't kill the proverbial golden goose. If you don't advertize then you are fair game. Similar to the monthly rag in sleepy Los Feliz. Anyone with half a brain knows the Los Feliz Liar, oops Ledger is a tool of certain members of the city council. Don't confuse these rags with award winning journalism like the LA Times that is completely separate from our esteemed Mayor 11%. Why is the LA Weekly the only print media that actually goes after a story and roots out evil?
Most of the scab-like little local papers in L.A. are the vanity rags for one person's political agenda. You don't have to go much past page 1 to know who's camp they're in, especially around election time.
Don't get me started on the nasty little bags of puss that pose as weeklies in CD14.
Please. McDonald and the rest at the LA Weekly are professional, educated journalists.
Betty Pleasant is a housewife with an agenda. Does she even have a high school diploma?
Here's a upcoming story for those "weaklies" - TORN (as they saw on "Law 'n Order" promos), from the headlines following yesterday's City Council meeting. . .
Apro-Poe . . . (that word's for Red Sput; it means "in the same vain as") -- and in keeping with the Council's decision to fine property owners who sign an anti-grafitti contract, become victims of taggers, but don't cover it up themselves within a week.
Several Council members believe they can take this "make the victim pay" philosophy a LOT further -- and maybe help make up some budget shortfalls in the wake.(It also plays into their planned hiring freeze, and eventually furloughs, for cops).
So, they're also going to unveil a "crime follow-up covenant" with L.A. citizens.
Goes something like this . . . any victims (who are still alive) after a robbery, assault, murder, etc. (OKAY, maybe not a murder -- the next of kin will have to pitch in) will have a week to identify and catch the criminal involved, and, preferably, bring him or her to the nearest LAPD station for booking.
If you're unable to find and arrest the "perp" within 7 days, you'll be fined $500 (murder victims may carry heavier fines, they're still working the numbers out).
Police will help with arrest and incarceration, assuming enough are on duty. If not, you're on your own -- lock them in the trunk of your car until you can find a cop who's not busy.
And everyone that signs the covenant will be issued plastic gloves and evidence bags, to help with trials that may come later.
You can also avoid the penalties by adding steel bars to all your windows, wearing bullet-proof vests, hiring your own personal armed guards, selling off all your personal effects worth stealing, etc. Installing burglar alarms won't count, though, (geez, who's going to respond to them . . . YOU?)
Anything to "deter" crime, right?
OH, and no fair cheating. If you've been the victim of identity theft, you can't "catch" yourself and surrender to the police and hope they don't notice.
Tony V's promised me he'll sign this one. If the program works, we could be down to less than 1,000 cops in L.A. and barely notice the difference.
Joseph, just go away already. Due to a recent conversation we had, I have come to the conclusion you are a spoiled, crybaby and not that smart to boot. (Joe has some conspiracy theory on why Frank Sheftel ran for council, other than he wanted to win and become council member, and Joe is too much of a sensitive baby.
JOE MAILANDER IS NO WHERE IN MY BOOK. I used to think he had some insights, but after getting to know him better, I have no problem saying, "Joe, you are a clown of a crybaby and a conspriatorial wacko. YOU, are the problem with activism, my friend, and you are too jealous to be objective on anything. Your career failures cloud and shape everything for you. Adios, nut. Go weigh in on anything and everything.
Betty will be moderating the debate over the half-off initiative to cut city councilmembers' pay in half, at Saturday's Neighborhood Council Action Summit at LACC.
http://ncactionsummit.wetpaint.com
Higby, regarding streetcars (since you continue to rewrite history to match your distorted view of the world)
http://www.lovearth.net/gmdeliberatelydestroyed.htm
"Who the Hell is Betty Pleasant?
And, for that matter:
"Who the Hell is Michael Higby?"
(Who the hell is anyone who posts here - including me?)
If we were "anyone" we'd be somewhere else!
I disagree with you on this one Michael. I think everything she says about Parks is true. So if she and the Wave backed a different shady politician, it's because she chose the worst of the two, not because she loves Ridley-Thomas.
Parks is a sore loser. You gotta admit that.
Thank you Mr. Mailander, you just proved my point.
Many of us love Jill Stewart too, and if someone really loves one journalist, politician, rock star, actor, etc., doesn't it make sense that you would not like the opposite kind of journalist, or the politician of another party, or a different kind of music writer?
You're being very harsh on a long-time activist who has been around the block a few times and she was spot on about Bernard Parks, so I like her now!
Schulberg nailed it:
"Mailander clearly jealous of this and other blogs finds himself once again in a cerebral masturbation session."
Excellent observation.
Pleasant's veracity on Parks is completely disabled by the fact her paper took $180,000 from his opponent.
Indeed I too am waiting for Mailander to show some restraint himself.
9:07 AM who calls himself Schulberg -
What a pompous ass. Don't read the bloggers that you don't like. You have a delete key; use it. You can also learn to scroll past the names of the bloggers you don't want to read. Instead you are willing to bash a journalist that you never met or even read just because you read here that she was she was whatever the first poster at 2:20 in the morning is babbling about.
You want to know the trouble with the Jamiel Shaw case? It wasn't in the jurisdiction of the City of LA. Pretty simple.
The real Parke Skelton would never confuse the word vain and vein.
The issue snobs have with the Shaws is that they aligned themselves with Walter Moore.
Limousine liberals do not like it when their darkies leave the plantation.
Zuma Dogg said today unless he got some PayPals he would delete his blog. Anyone know if that joyous event happened yet?
s→Ridley Thomas, Mark
Furor Caused by Bernardi Remark to Ridley-Thomas - City Hall: White councilman calls black colleague 'curly.' He apologizes and says intent was not racist.
By LOUIS SAHAGUN, TIMES STAFF WRITER|August 13, 1991
As a Los Angeles City Council committee debated Christopher Commission proposals for ridding the Police Department of racism and brutality, a black councilman accused a white colleague Monday of making a racially derogatory remark.
Councilman Ernani Bernardi, the senior council member with 30 years on the panel, was discussing at length proposals for selecting a new chief of police when newly elected Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas interrupted him. "Are we talking about term limits of the chief?" he asked.
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"Wait just a minute, will you curly?" Bernardi, 79, replied angrily.
Ridley-Thomas, shifting in his seat, responded loudly: "My name is Mark Ridley-Thomas . . . and what you said just now has very serious implications.
"Don't ever say that again," said Ridley-Thomas, the former local head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the only African-American on the council committee.
8:12 p.m.
Take a little lesson in satire from "Parque," would ya?
He was delivering an aside to the deliriously illiterate Red Spot, and in the same sentence as vain/vein, he also spelled "apropos" as "apro-Poe"
But then if you didn't catch the first joke, trying the explain the second one to you is probably a "vane" effort, in any case.
(Just how f-ing uptight and full of yourself do you have to be to spell-check jokes, anyway? I'll bet you mark up love notes from your significant other with a red pen and hand them back for correction.)
Betty Pleasant seems to be a person with a personal agenda: to make something out of nothing. Rarely are her facts objective and she often only reports from one side. She never calls the other source who is being blamed or accused to get their side and just present the facts. Instead, she gets some gossip from a "bitter" source and illuminates them into a story that brings her some undeserved recognition. What I would really prefer to read is all of the facts, not some closed minded, publicity-seeking, self-rightous point of view. This is not true journalism, which is to seek the truth.
I have watched her attack one of our ministers (Ward)- and many others- and only PRESENT biased assumptions. Well, Betty Pleasant, turn about is fair play. You will get yours one day.
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