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Friday, November 20, 2009

Friday Evening Wrap Up and Thoughts on Journalistic Malpractice and other News

Los Angeles Times Media Columnist James Rainey

"Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street"

"ACORN with local political supporters"
This happens when you replace "fact-driven reporting" with "outcome-based, agenda journalism", but then agenda journalism is "par for the course" at the "Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street" these days.
It started with this "agenda missive" on Andrew Breitbart's biggovernment.com video expose of ACORN, via the keyboard of Los Angeles Times Media Columnist James Rainey, as noted by veteran LA Times observer "Patterico" at Patterico's Pontifications.
The following passage below was cause to take notice, in the eyes of Patterico, whether Rainey was stating fact or "had likely been suckered and would end up with egg on his face".
[V]isits to other ACORN offices have gone almost entirely unmentioned. Lavelle Stewart, a fair-housing coordinator in the group’s Los Angeles office, told me this week that she tried to get the “prostitute,” who claimed she had been beaten by her pimp, to go to a women’s center.
“The fact she was not taking the help I offered her made me think something was not right,” Stewart said. “It raised a red flag.”
Then yesterday, Andrew Breitbart's biggoverment.com "dropped this load of crow into Rainey's lap for his consumption", in form of the latest ACORN video, featuring none other than..........., Levelle Steward. Thus, Patterico's keen instints on all things LA Times, expose the "Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street's" insular agenda for all to deconstruct.
But while Rainey mulls whether to add some BBQ to his crow, where is the outrage on this breach of journalistic ethics? Where are the former Times scribes "Westside White Guy", LA Observed blogger Kevin Roderick and "Westside White Guy 2", LA Observed contributor Bill Boyarski, in calling for an in-house investigation?
One should note that Rainey, was the lead newsroom agitator in outing former Opinion Editor Andres Martinez's relationship with ex. girlfriend Kelly Mullens. This initiating what became known as "Grazergate". as reported on "Deadline Hollywood".
I understand it was the Times' own media reporter, Jim Rainey, who just recently got wind of the editor-flack romance and first raised the red flag about it internally this week. My sources say Rainey began asking people who worked for Martinez about his personal life before approaching the editor directly. Martinez became livid and hurriedly called a staff meeting. But because of the LA Times' troubled relationship with its parent Tribune Co., Rainey is accustomed to threading the ethical needle on difficult stories involving his newspaper. (Though I've taken issue here and here with his coverage, or lack of it, of some related stories.) It's no secret there has been tension and resentment between the LA Times newsroom and the paper's editorial/opinion pages.
"WWG" and "WWG2" went into "cyber overdrive" in reporting this egregious assault on the "sacred style book of journalistic ethics". Boyarsky had this missive which he called for "an investigation of the tainted Times" and guess which reporter he wanted to lead the in-house "quest for journalistic justice"?
A beefed up team of top reporters should join media reporter Jim Rainey in examining past Current sections and editorials to see whether they have been influenced by publicist Allen Mayer and his associate, Kelly Mullens, who has been dating Martinez.
But in hindsight, maybe Roderick and Boyarski, both ex. LA Times scribes, were part of the "inside, outside cabal" of current and ex. Times reporters, who's efforts to purge Martinez, were driven by an ideological urge to blend news with opinion, as Martinez opined.
I think the desire to blend opinion with news is the far bigger breach, but I’m guessing the Henry Weinsteins and Tim Ruttens of the world will continue to conjure up the magical words “Staples Center” to wail against any innovation at the paper, and confusing the hundreds of thousands of readers of the LAT who don’t read LA Observed – sorry, Kevin -­ into believing that Grazergate somehow implied an improper blending of the newspaper’s business side and editorial judgment, which it patently did not.
So maybe this is why there are no "Raineygate" posts, with in-house gossip, currently at LA Observed? Who would Boyarsky find among the shrinking ranks of "objective reporters" to investigate this latest breach of journalistic ethics? Or maybe in the eyes of ex.Times scribes like Roderick and Boyarsky, their cohort in "outcome based, agenda journalism" was simply following the dictates of what passes for journalism at the "Old Gray Westside Hag on Spring Street".
In closing, Boyarsky, who also served a stint on the City of Los Angeles Ethics Commission, may have a good reason for remaining silent in regards to "Raineygate". Maybe it has to do with his own past comments on ACORN. Then there was this "appearance" at a "Project ACORN" event.
The Project Acorn event was at the headquarters of Local 721 of the Service Employees Union. It hadn�t started so I walked around the Virgil Avenue neighborhood, a few miles west of downtown. It�s a neighborhood of apartments, probably affordable for working families (if they double up) but they will be out of range if building ever resumes. At the union hall, I ran into Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas, and interviewed him on the closed Martin Luther King Jr. hospital for a story I plan to do for LA Observed on his race with Los Angeles City Councilman Bernard Parks. Then I introduced both Mama Hill and a short video about her and about how she faced foreclosure.
Thus, don't hold your breathe, in waiting for the latest on "Raineygate" from LA Observed but we did find this piece of "outcome-based, agenda blogging" from the "WWG".
* Andrew Breitbart doesn't want to talk about his business deal to carry Reuters news and links. Soundbitten
* The L.A. Times corrects some of an Op-Ed regarding the liberal group ACORN, but not all. Patterico
OTHER NEWS:
** Is the private sector version of IBEW's "Boss D'Arcy", getting close to snaping?
The head of L.A. Live challenged City Attorney Carmen Trutanich on Thursday to either file criminal charges over the Michael Jackson memorial service or apologize for hinting the company may have broken the law.
"Prove it or drop it," AEG President Tim Leiweke said during an interview. "We can't resolve this until he declares we have done nothing wrong or apologizes — I'll take either.
** Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa picks a former top official of the Chicago Housing Authority, Douglas Guthrie to become the new general manager of the city’s Housing Department. One want to bet that Guthrie has some past business with ACORN in Chicago?
The newest appointee to a Los Angeles pension board has withdrawn her nomination after a city councilman voiced concern about her refusal to name her legal clients, city officials said today.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had named attorney Angela Reddock to the Fire and Police Pensions system, an agency whose board members have come under scrutiny in recent months regarding the potential for conflicts of interest.
Although council members were scheduled to vote to confirm Reddock today, Councilman Bernard C. Parks raised questions after reading correspondence between Reddock and the city Ethics Commission, which is charged with identifying potential conflicts of interest for new city commissioners. Reddock told the commission in an e-mail that she did not plan to name any client that had paid her more than $10,000, citing attorney-client privilege.
** This is for "Parque Esqueleto".
Former CD 14 City Councilman Nick Pacheco, has been named "temporarily City Administrator" in the City of Montebello.
Many in the audience gasped as long-time Montebello City Administrator Richard Torres announced the $15,000-a-month salary of his temporary replacement, Nick Pacheco. The city council action to appoint Pacheco was among several made in a closed session meeting on Monday.
Enjoy "CD 14 East" before the latest shake up in Montebello.
Your thoughts.......

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9 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Mark Ridley-Thomas supported Angela Reddocks in her unsuccessful Community College election. No wonder Parks was out to get her.

November 20, 2009 9:35 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Antonio is reaching at the bottom of the barrel for his appointments. What sorry state of affairs!

November 20, 2009 10:01 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Both the Patterico report and this one are nearly impossible to follow. If you have an accusation to make, make an accusation that is clear-cut ("Things that make you go HMMMM" is not an accusation, it's a teabagger cue), and show the facts that support it.

Patterico and you have both been bashing ACORN for over a year. Are you really any more reliable than Jim Rainey? Innuendo keeps the GOP echo chamber thrilled, but isn't of much use to the rest of us.

November 21, 2009 3:52 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Journalistic malpractice is defined by Jill Stewart and her minions at the Weakly - so irrelevant "it's not even funny" to quote one of their heroes, Cooley the Fooley. Who they wrote a piece about "Cooley's a Cool Customer" for recruiting and trying to pull toward respectability the "fixer from Long Beach" while writing slam on slam on Chief Bratton for NOT falling fool to the Nooch and the rightwing Machine.

Patrick Range McDonald is one of her favorite hacks - Ron Kaye her favorite "source." David Zahniser is one of her trainees doing her biased work at the Slimes, helping them maintain their name for the Nooch and Essel. As is this blog with Red Spot, talking about journalistic malpractice. Using the word journalist too loosely.

Dennis Romero is one of her latest biased hacks whoi writes "articles" as editorials - Celeste Fremon over at WitnessLA takes him apart and good.

His latest on 11/19 claiming falsely and shamefully that the medical pot community boasts it owns Reyes and the Council 0 reader comments appropriately weigh in about how transparently biased Romero's article is supporting Trutanich- the Nooch his Pooch.

Of course the hacks attack Rainey, Red Spoof included.

November 21, 2009 7:24 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Who in sane mind can understand any of this bizarre ramblings from this obvious deranged lunatic who's only explanation for these incomprehensible rantings is that he's on drugs? Someone needs to convince this person to seek rehab.

November 21, 2009 7:39 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Reddock was part of the Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees. Her actions and those of the rest of the Board are currently under investigation in many quarters. The feeling is that this Board has and is making illegal expenditures of voter approved bond funds as part of its multi-billion dollar building program.

The Chancellor of the District, in an effort to "spin control" what is expected to be severe damage, has acknowledged that the Los Angeles Times is preparing a multi-story series on the District's bond program and the District's WASTE OF TAXPAYER FUNDS on risky "green" strategies and unproven technologies that risk bankrupting the District.

Has anyone noticed that every time someone questions what the Board of Trustees are doing, President Mona Fields starts changing the subject to how "green" their new building is? Reddock, Field and the entire Board seems to have forgotten that their purpose is rolling out adult education and retraining programs for adults -- not building green buildings just for the sake of attracting attention to themselves.

November 21, 2009 7:54 AM  

Blogger Unknown said:

Good commentary, Michael. Apparently Breitbart has several other videos that he will release when the time is right. Let's see if our AG in California does the right thing and conducts a full-out serious investigation, or brings out the broom to sweep it under the rug.

November 21, 2009 9:16 AM  

Anonymous Sr, Don Q said:

The Red Spotted Burro is guilty of Grammar Malpractice.

November 22, 2009 8:04 AM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

ACORN is walking the district for Essel. But not surprisingly the person I talked to doesn't know anything about the issues, they're just doing what they're paid to.

November 23, 2009 10:55 AM  

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