Tired of bad press, city of Vernon buys the good kind*

To ensure a long and lucrative life in political office, city officials Vernon reportedly handpicked their constituents. So, it comes as no surprise that these same officials, faced with mounting scrutiny over alleged self-dealing and outrageous salaries, would feel justified in handpicking their news coverage.

Which is what happened when former state attorney general John Van de Kamp was asked by Vernon City Administrator Mark Whitworth to talk to a local newspaper about proposed city reforms. Van de Kamp, who was hired by the city to improve its image, later discovered the reporter wasn't a reporter and the story wasn't a story. It was an "advertorial," better known as a paid advertisement.

The ad, which can be seen here, is made-up to look like a news story, complete with photos, columns and a byline. The ad ran in several Los Angeles Newspaper Group (LANG) publications, including the Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Daily News, and Long Beach Press-Telegram.

From the LA Times:

Van de Kamp said the city arranged for him to be interviewed by a reporter. But officials did not tell him it was for a large, full-color advertisement touting the virtues of the embattled city. He said he didn't know about the ad until he saw it in Pasadena Star-News on Thursday morning. 

"I'm not here to…flak for the city," Van de Kamp said. "We're out here trying to do a straightforward, objective job. So that format is a problem for me."

This isn't a case where a government agency bought space from the paper and then created its own promotional ad. Instead, the newspaper's advertising department hired a writer to "report" on Vernon's supposed reform agenda and then ran the fake story in a way that misleads readers into thinking it went through the normal editorial process. Adding to the confusion, the byline belongs to Edward Barrera, a former editor and reporter in the LANG chain.

Asked about the confusion over the ad, Barrera told the Times that he never identified himself as a reporter to Van de Kamp. He elaborated in an email to me:

I get why the Times asked the question. Someone should have told Van de Kamp (including, probably, me). But it was a simple mistake. This was a generic and transparent promotional Q and A. It's why my name is on it.

Why would a newspaper even consider such an ethically fraught service? The money cannot be worth the negative publicity and newsroom hair pulling. And if Vernon is truly on the path of reform, a real reporter could do a real story about that. Thus far, LANG's newsrooms have done little reporting of any kind about Vernon, save an uncritical Star-News column about a state plan to disband the city.

(Full disclosure: I worked for the Star-News as a reporter and later served as an editor in the San Gabriel Valley alongside Edward Barrera.)

*I should note that this isn't my first experience with a LANG advertorial. In the early 2000s, while working at the Claremont Courier, I broke a story about mismanagement at the Three Valleys Municipal Water District. The Los Angeles Times followed up on the story and ended up funding a public records lawsuit. The LANG chain, represented by the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, largely ignored the story, even though a reporter there had the goods. However, Three Valleys did buy several promotional ads in LANG papers for tens of thousands of dollars.