Warren Olney gets an award

Warren Olney, host of KCRW's "Which Way, LA?" and "To The Point" will be one of three honorees on Tuesday to receive the inaugural Bill Stout Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. KPCC's Larry Mantle and Patt Morrison will also receive the award.

Rupert Murdoch has a way with news

Carl Bernstein, investigative reporter of Watergate fame, and Roger Cohen of the New York Times debate the media legacy of Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the News of the World implosion. Bernstein begins ...
 Has Rupert Murdoch changed the news of the world? by KCRW

Our man in Bangkok

Todd Ruiz, former Pasadena Star-News City Hall reporter, lives in Thailand, where he samples real street food on a daily basis - not the kind that comes in a fancy truck, but the kind that comes from someone who pays a monthly bribes to keep his gutter-side restaurant open.

From the post:

So I noticed foodie Evan Kleiman of KCRW in that other City of Angels has unilaterally declared May 1st Global Street Food day. Good to see America tasting some of its much-celebrated diversity. Although the hipster horde of Los Angeles may have recently discovered catering trucks serving up lengua and all-things con carne, the joys of street food are largely absent from the American diet. I'm sure health codes and dysentery dissonance are factors.

But while Americans focus on 'square' meals in carefully scheduled nutrient-consumption rituals, much of the world cruises through life grazing from stalls, booths, mobile kitchens and gutter-kettles tended by stooped oldsters.

My influence is profound

Washington Post staff writer Ezra Klein asked readers of his Wonkbook blog to come up with a name for his daily list of five headlines published every morning. I suggested "Five in the morning," a recommendation that proves my creativity is limited to plagiarizing myself* and adding one. From Klein:

Housekeeping: “High Five” and “Fab Five” were definitely the most popular suggestions to replace “Top Stories.” I also liked “Starting Five” and “Gang of Five.” But the winner, from Gary Scott, managed to flatter the odd hours Dylan, Michelle and I keep to bring Wonkbook out. So, introducing:

Five in the morning

*I haven't yet decided whether to retire my occasional "four in the morning/afternoon" list. I probably should, and take the opportunity to "innovate" on my own blog.

Oh, and since I'm self-promoting - today is my first day as supervising producer at KCRW. Here's the note Warren Olney sent to staff:

Gary Scott has been promoted to the new job of Supervising Producer for "To the Point" and "Which Way, LA?"  He'll be in charge of editorial issues and centralized planning, including development of our New Media activities and their integration with what we do on the air. His duties will also extend to KCRW's other news operations on "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered."  Karen Radziner will continue to be our Managing Producer. 

The "other news operations" he refers to are the local news reports that run in the breaks of Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

House votes to end NPR funding

The House of Representatives today voted 228-192 to end funding for NPR and its affiliate stations. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., is likely to stall in the Senate, but is likely to be used as pressure to carve out public broadcasting funds in a larger budget bill.

Meantime, Meghan Daum at the LA Times tells NPR to get a backbone.

(Disclosure: I work for KCRW, an NPR-affiliate station.)

House targets NPR funds in divide-and-conquer move

House Republicans wanted to end funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which stakes public radio and television stations around the country, in addition to giving funds directly to NPR and PBS (two-thirds of CPB money goes to public television).

The slow grind of the budget process and resistance from the Democratically controlled Senate have thus far made a complete gutting of CPB impossible. So, the GOP has a new strategy, with Republicans in the House planning an "emergency" vote to cut only the funds that go to NPR and its affiliate stations (this includes KCRW, of which I am an employee). The bill must first go through Rep. David Dreier's Rules Committee. That vote is scheduled for today.

The James O'Keefe heavily edited sting video of Ron Schiller is the impetus for the new strategy. By stripping PBS out of the fight, Republicans hope to peel off the more powerful public broadcasting lobby in Washington. It will be interesting to see whether public television folks will continue to stand with NPR given the embarrassing foot shooting NPR execs have done in recent months.

All of which puts an even uglier spin on David Carr's recent story noting the successes of NPR in a world of shrinking news:

According to the State of the Media report, NPR’s overall audience grew 3 percent in 2010, to 27.2 million weekly listeners, up 58 percent overall since 2000. In the last year, total staff grew 8 percent, and its Web site, npr.org, drew an average of 15.7 million unique monthly visitors, up more than five million visitors. Its foreign bureaus and global footprint continue to grow while other broadcasters slink home. 

And while NPR receives a small portion of its operating budget through government money, millions of people also think that its journalism is worthy enough to pay for through contributions, a trick that the rest of news media have had trouble figuring out, to say the least. 

Trouble is, NPR has often been better at breaking news than running a news outlet. The current problems started five months ago when Juan Williams, a longtime NPR commentator, was hastily fired for remarks he made about Muslims making him fearful in airports. Then in January, Ellen Weiss, senior vice president for news, resigned after a report to the board found her management of the affair wanting.

Say what?

KCRW General Manager Jennifer Ferro talked to the Los Angeles Times about the threat to the station if Congress ends federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her doomsday scenario hits kind of close to home.

If the station loses that government support and can’t raise the money elsewhere, it would likely have to cut its most costly operations—local news and information gathering, Ferro said. A couple of producers hired in November to create more local news stories would have to go, she said, as might some staffers who help create talk shows like “To the Point” and “Which Way, L.A.?” both popular mainstays, hosted by veteran newsman Warren Olney.

We are all urban homesteaders now

The Dervaes family has garnered a good deal of favorable press for their family farm in Northwest Pasadena. But in 2006, the family farm, and its sustainable-living model, became The Dervaes Institute, and the "presiding officer," father Jules Dervaes, got trademark happy. Now the family is garnering bad press for the legal threat letters sent to anyone who uses "urban homestead" or "urban homesteading" without adding a registered trademark symbol - the circled R - and acknowledging the phrases are the institute's intellectual property.

Which is a bizarre tactic for a non-profit that wants good attention. Nevertheless, the institute has sent out 16 such letters, according to its own press release. Here's a key paragraphs from the letter sent to KCRW's Evan Kleiman, host of Good Food:

We realize that your use of Dervaes published words and/or trademarks may have been inadvertent. We are generally able to resolve any such uses without involving our legal counsel. This would require that you update your ____[webpage]____ to properly cite our works. For example, the writings of Jules Dervaes about sustainable living are original protected works in which Dervaes owns exclusive rights. Content from the Dervaes websites, including text and photographs, are also protected works.

To threaten a public radio show - a fellow nonprofit - for using the term "urban homestead" in a blog post promoting a free event seems, frankly, dumb (Good Food did comply and deleted the phrase). Dervaes has argued that these aren't cease and desist letters, but mentioning the possibility of legal action makes them so.

Of course, a Facebook page has sprung up to protest the attempt at word control.

I learned something from Patch

The Santa Monica Patch reports that KCRW is starting a paid-internship program. Who knew?

Four today

1. Michael Pollan ("The Omnivore's Dilemma") and Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") will join KCRW's Evan Kleiman on February 9 at USC to talk about the way we feed ourselves. LA Weekly

2. KOCE has rebranded itself PBS SoCal and plans to expand its staff in Los Angeles as it becomes the main PBS affiliate in Southern California, taking over from the PBS divorcee KCET. Franklin Avenue (via LA Observed)

3. When ordered to turn over information about several users in connection with the federal investigation of Wikipedia, Twitter successfully challenged the court's gag order and told the subjects of the investigation what had happened. Wired

4. Media organizations need to update their codes of ethics to keep up with the times. Poynter

Facebook and private conversations

Facebook users will now be able to create closed groups within their social networks that should allow them to share information that is too private, political, racy, or whatever for the group as a whole. The change gets at a problem raised yesterday by Judith Donath on "To The Point" about the inability of people on social networks to create nuanced relationships for different contexts - how does one share information with a close friend without offending or "oversharing" with a professional acquaintance? Is a political or religious discussion appropriate to have in front of everyone on your friends' list? What if you want to share party photos with a small group without letting someone who wasn't invited to the party know you attended? Etc. There is an interesting tension here with the idea of being your honest self with everyone, an idea some social media proponents would prefer we pursue - to blow up things like cliques, exclusivity and class hierarchy.

The social and the anti-social networks

Why go to an entertaining movie when you can listen to an informative radio program? On today's "To The Point," we discuss the rise of online social networks, starting with Facebook, and consider the ways our logged-on lives are changing society and culture. With Judith Donath of Harvard's Berkman Center, Walker Smith of The Futures Company, Fred Vogelstein of Wired, and Michael Kaiser of the National Cyber Security Alliance. Listen to the show here.

Public radio and film reviews

Roger Ebert is reviving "At The Movies" and has selected Elvis Mitchell, who hosts KCRW's "The Treatment," and Christy Lemire of the Associated Press as co-hosts.

Do young people still become old people?

In an interview with the Economist, New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen explains the dilemma all newspaper face as succinctly as I've ever heard :

The cost of changing settled routines seems too high, but the cost of not changing is, in the long term, even higher. A good example is the predicament of the newspaper press: the print edition provides most of the revenues, but it cannot provide a future. I know of no evidence to show that young people are picking up the print habit. So if the cost of abandoning print is too high, the cost of sticking with it may be even higher, though slower to reveal itself. That's a problem.

Currently, old people keep print alive. Yet, young people inevitably turn into older people. I wonder if there is any evidence to show young will pick up the print habit when they gray? Or has too much changed? Perhaps our massive technological revolution has made it impossible to predict what younger generations will do. Maybe we'll return to print as a way to ground ourselves in the tangible; or maybe print is simply too inflexible to carry the news in way we'll want to ingest it.

On another note, Rosen is asked to list media outlets that are practicing journalism the right way. Here's his answer:

Particularly good at what they do: Advertising Age. Gawker. Wired. Voice of San Diego. The New Yorker. The Economist. (Disclosure: You're The Economist!) Rachel Maddow. Frontline. The New York Times. West Seattle Blog. Texas Tribune (Disclosure: I'm an advisor there). "To the Point" with Warren Olney. The Atlantic. "This American Life". The Guardian. Jon Stewart. There are probably some regional newspapers doing a great job that I simply don't read, but fewer than before.

Wedged in between the Texas Tribune and The Atlantic... annoyed to follow Rachel Maddow, gratified to proceed "This American Life."

It's all about giving

Only one day left in KCRW's semi-annual pledge drive. If you haven't given yet, here's some motivation.

Maywood's mysterious city manager

As Assistant City Manager in the city of Bell, Angela Spaccia made $376,000 a year. She also serves as interim city manager for the neighboring city of Maywood and was integral in the deal last month that turned over city administrative services to Bell after Maywood collapsed under the weight of its excessive financial obligations.

Last week, Spaccia was forced to resign her post in Bell, along with the city manager and police chief, over public outrage at the insanely high salaries the three administrators were pulling down.

Spaccia, however, continues to work as interim city manager for Maywood. In fact, the Maywood City Council seems quite pleased with her, according to the city spokeswoman. And because Spaccia's resignation from Bell does not become effective until September, she is expected to continue on as Maywood interim manager. But who will be paying her salary?

Also, is the Maywood City Council concerned at all the top administrators of the town that's taken over Maywood's services were forced out amid scandal?

Apparently not. The Maywood City Council is scheduled to have a meeting on Monday when these subjects could come up. The city agenda I saw online mentions nothing about her job, however.

Bell and the Brown Act

It's unlikely that anyone in the city of Bell wants to see the City Council reconsider its decision slash the exorbitant salaries of its four highest paid members by 90 percent. But someone probably could.

That's because the Bell City Council almost certainly violated the state's open-meetings law at least twice - and probably three times - in the course of Monday's raucous meeting (hear more about the meeting here).

First, the council headed into closed session to discuss several potential lawsuits stemming from the salary scandal without first allowing the public to speak. Then, the council voted to make the salary cuts without first letting the public speak. Finally, agenda item that was supposed to alert the public that council salaries might be slashed made no mention that a vote would be taken.

 All of these are potential violations of the state's open-meetings law, known as the Brown Act, which requires, among other things, that the public be allowed to speak before any final decision is made. Bell's own agenda spells this out (the .pdf version is here): "Pursuant to the Ralph M. Brown Act, public comments may be received on these items prior to the time action is taken by the City Council."

Even a court agreed the violations occurred, the punishment would hardly fit the crime: A judge would probably be forced to rescind the vote and restore the salaries until the council acted in the right way.

But even technical violations of the law should be pointed out to ensure the public learns it's rights. Also, it was clear the hundreds of people who attended Monday's meeting wanted the council members to hear their displeasure before any action was taken. Indeed, most speakers wanted the council members to resign.

Is anyone going to sue to force the council to redo the vote? Doubtful. But this does serve as evidence that the council, whatever it is paid, still doesn't understand it's role as a representative government.

The Bell City Council and me

Might as well self-promote...

Bell's City Council voted to cut its pay by 90 percent last night, but residents still want heads to roll. As a recall effort gets underway, state and local prosecutors are investigating possible crimes and local officials are calling for an outside audit. On tonight's "Which Way, LA?" we talk to Bell residents, a representative of the police officers' union and political expert Raphe Sonenshein. Your blogger (and the show's producer) makes an appearance, too. Shudder. Here's the link.

How to create talking points for right-wing media critics

The moment then-American Spectator writer Ezra Klein created the semi-private Journolist listserv for liberal journalists and thinkers, a ticking political time bomb was created. No matter what the rationale for this closed online discussion group, no matter that contributors were mostly columnists and bloggers who self-identified as liberal commentators, the contents were bound to become fodder for those who claim the mainstream media holds a liberal bias. And so it came to pass, when the Daily Caller, an online outfit started by conservative-pundit Tucker Carlson, began publishing comments made to the list during the 2008 presidential campaign. The fact that liberal opinion-makers expressed liberal opinions doesn't seem all that newsworthy, but to those news operations that wish to blend opinion and news, this incident should serve as a cautionary tale.

On that note, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that today's Daily Caller post mentions KCRW. Since I work for the station, I'll hand it off to LA Observed to lay out what happened, which you can read here.

Of mosques and salary abuses

On tonight's "Which Way, LA?" we'll talk about the dust-up over a planned mosque in the Temecula Valley, with Pastor Bill Rench and Salam al-Marayati of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, and the political conditions that led to the city of Bell's salary scandal, with Cristina Garcia of the Bell Association to Stop the Abuse and Bob Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies. Program starts at 7 p.m. on 89.9 KCRW, or stream it at kcrw.com/whichwayla.