LA Weekly finds unremarkable Patch journalism remarkable

It should not be surprising that the Echo Park Patch did a solid story about a Christmas Day murder in Echo Park; the kind of thing many good cops reporters would do following a holiday shooting on their beat.

But the LA Weekly was surprised anyway because it had such low expectations. Here's part of the Weekly's blog post:

Here's one thing AOL Patch could be great for, and certainly was in Echo Park this Christmas: documenting the countless gang-related murders that fly under the radar of mainstream media while the homicides of white-collar (and just plain white) victims like celebrity publicist Ronni Chasen get all the airtime. We're often guilty of the same.

-snip-

Here's to you, WalMart of news, for a job well done. And on Christmas Day, no less.

First, why resurrect the wrongheaded "WalMart of news" name calling? AOL has planted Patch sites mostly in smaller, leafy communities that are either affluent or rapidly gentrifying. These are not the places WalMarts generally locate. WalMarts are hub stores that serve their sameness on a regional level, as many newspaper chains do.

(The Weekly does repeat a righteous criticism of AOL for its failure to launch Patch in poor communities - the ones that often need watchdogs the most.)

Second, newspapers sometimes have policies against publishing front-page stories about gang murders. The soundness of these policies is debatable (especially in the era of local blogs), but it's not always a matter of oversight.

Third, why treat Patch as if it were a loopy grandmother who miraculously remembered your name? The sites shouldn't be graded on a curve.

The point here is that local news matters to local readers and Patch, for all its faults, is filling a void left by consolidations at the Weekly, the LA Times, LANG and Freedom. Some sites in the Patch network will do a good job, some won't. The cheap model AOL has used almost guarantees patchy quality. Nevertheless, Patch editors earn more than most LANG reporters and all unemployed former Weekly and Times reporters, so there is a talent pool to tap into.

Also, we should not forget that another website, The Eastsider LA, written by former LA Times reporter Jesus Sanchez, has been keeping an eye on Echo Park and surrounding neighborhoods since 2008.

Black ops around downtown*

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean no one's out to get you...

Stealth helicopters have been circling above L.A. neighborhoods as part of a joint military exercise coordinated with the Los Angeles Police Department, the Eastsider LA blog discovered. An earlier effort to photograph one of these black helicopters as it flew by at night was somewhat less than successful.

(h/t LA Observed)

*Updated: Looks like the military maneuvers have spread farther and wider than just the neighborhoods around downtown. Larry Altman at the Daily Breeze reports sightings of helicopters over San Pedro and Rancho Palos Verdes.

From the local blogs

A homeless man was found beaten to death early Saturday outside a business in Echo Park. Police are asking for information. (ABC7 via Eastsider LA)

Watershed News continues to track the progress of Nicholas Rice, the Hermosa Beach climber attempting to summit Manaslu in the Nepalese Himalaya. Rice recently assisted two exhausted climbers down from the mountain. One later died, the other recovered. Rice plans to make a summit attempt Tuesday. Watershed News

ShopEatSleep got invited to "brinner" at Le Grande Orange in Pasadena. ShopEatSleep

Four in the evening

1. A memorable lede. New York Magazine

2. California's April tax receipts are underwhelming (i.e., budget trouble ahead). California's Capitol

3. Warren Buffet saw trouble for newspapers in 1992. It's a franchise thing. Slate

4. As newspapers shrink, someone at least is reporting neighborhood crime in Los Angeles. Eastsider LA

Found around the Internets

Jonathan Veitch, a literature professor at the New School of Liberal Arts in New York takes over as president of Occidental College in Eagle Rock.

The city of Claremont (trees, PhDs and all that) is contending with a $3.5 million budget shortfall.

Should newspapers follow the college endowment model? If they do, would they still be able to opine about pending legislation? (via Romenesk0)

Eastside musings

Via LA Observed: Former Timesman Jesus Sanchez launches the Eastsider LA blog, which will keep an eye on "Echo Park and beyond":

Defining the Eastside can be a touchy and heated topic. For the purposes of this blog, and practical reasons, The Eastsider LA will focus on Echo Park, where I live, and other neighborhoods in the northeast section of the City of Los Angeles.