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

Journalists ordered out of Libya*

*While talking to Warren Olney on today's "To The Point," New York Times reporter David Kirkpatrick, who's in Tripoli, received word that he and some 25 other journalists are being ordered out of Libya. A message slipped under Kirkpatrick's door informed him that he must be out of the country by tomorrow morning. He and the other journalists are "staying" at the Rixos Hotel in Libya's capital city. The entire interview can be heard here.

Here's a clip of Kirkpatrick's report:

  Western journalists ordered to leave Libya by KCRW

*Update: NPR has received the same report from its reporter in Tripoli, Lourdes-Garcia Navarro. "Things are subject to change," NPR added, "Some reporters have been told in the recent past that they were being expelled, only to later be allowed to stay."

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.

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."

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.

Greatest tennis match ever?

The longest tennis match in history, between John Isner of the United States and Nicolas Mahut of France, ended today, after 11 hours and 5 minutes of play, with Isner winning 70 games to 68.

Was it the greatest match in Wimbledon history? Who knows? But the greatest tennis report, with Guardian editor Xan Brooks, about the longest match ever can be heard on today's "To The Point." The interview, which can be downloaded here, starts at about the 45 minute mark.

Brooks live-blogged yesterday's portion of the match. Scroll down to about 2:45 p.m., when he starts to take notice of the marathon session taking shape on Court 18.

Escalante's legacy*

On tonight's "Which Way, LA?", Warren Olney talks about Jaime Escalante's impact on teaching in Los Angeles with Washington Post education columnist Jay Mathews, who wrote "Escalante: The Best Teacher in America"; decorated elementary school teacher Rafe Esquith, and two of Escalante's former students, East Los Angeles attorney Sandra Munoz and Garfield High School administrator Javier Gonzalez. Escalante died Tuesday at age 79.

The shows runs at 7:30 p.m. tonight on KCRW 89.9 FM and can be streamed or podcast at www.kcrw.com/whichwayla.

*Update: A memorial for Escalante will be held at Garfield High School, 5101 E. Sixth St., on Thursday, April 1, at 7 p.m.

News on the lack of news

On Tuesday's "Which Way, LA?," host Warren Olney talks with Martin Kaplan, head of USC's Norman Lear Center, and Stacy Woelfel, chairman of the Radio, Television and Digital New Association, about last week's "Local TV News in the Los Angeles Media Market" report, which found very little news, local or otherwise, on local television news broadcasts. Here's a link to the segment, which begins about the :28 minute mark.

(Coincidentally, LA Times media critic James Rainey weighs in on the report here.)

Hear Jerry run

California Attorney General Jerry Brown talks about his race for governor on "Which Way, LA?" with Warren Olney. The interview starts at the 27 minute mark.

Four today

1. The future's so bright, I don't need to get paid: Arianna Huffington spoke to the students at Ithaca College and told them she is absolutely positively optimistic and upbeat about the future of journalism and is, in fact, saving it. Ithacan Online

2. Time to cut: Time magazine will layoff around 12 editorial employees as part of Time Inc.'s mandate to cut 500 jobs company wide. Fortune magazine looks to be hit hardest, with 24 newsroom layoffs out of a staff of about 80. New York Post

3. Google and the media: Nieman's Zachary Seward talked to Google CEO Eric Schmitt about his love for newspapers, his definition of blog, and the coming Google Wave. Nieman Journalism Lab

4. Obama's brain: Warren Olney will interview Obama's campaign architect David Plouffe about his new book, "The Audacity to Win," and Tuesday's election results on today's "To The Point." Listen live at 12:45 p.m. Pacific here or download is later here.

Rep. Harman allegedly caught in wiretap*, **

A National Security Administration wiretap caught Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, allegedly making a quid pro quo deal with a "suspected Israeli spy" while she was trying to get appointed chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee (the position would go to Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas). From CQ Politics:

Rep. Jane Harman, the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Of course, this raises many question - not the least of which is: How did it come about that an NSA writetap was recording a phone call to a member of Congress? (h/t Talking Points Memo)

*Update: The Capital J questions the timing of these leaks.

**Updated, two: Jeff Stein joined Warren Olney on "Which Way, LA?" today to talk about his story. You can hear the interview tonight at 7:30 p.m. on KCRW 89.9 FM, or download it here.

Villaraigosa on "Which Way, LA?"

Warren Olney asks Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa about water rationing, city budget cuts, and the upcoming election on tonight's "Which Way, LA?" at 7:30 p.m. on 89.9 FM. Other guests are Andy Lipkis, founder and president of TreePeople, who discusses ways to conserve water in California, and Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione, who talks about what counties are gonna do with those IOUs the state is handing out instead of money.

WWLA? on Times cuts

LA Observed's Kevin Roderick joins Warren Olney on tonight's "Which Way, LA?" to talk about the latest newsroom cuts at the Los Angeles Times. Also on the show, the Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters to talk about the Legislature's lame-duck session and Matthew Garrahan's series on Los Angeles in the Financial Times. The show begins at 7 p.m. on 89.9 FM.

Radio in pictures

This picture earned me my first, and probably my last, photo credit in the New York Times. It was taken to accompany a story about the gadget in fellow "To The Point" producer Frances Anderton's hand.

It took a bullwhip to convince Warren and David Corn of Mother Jones to sit down for a chat. They'd just finished a 40-minute interview for the real show and wanted to go eat. So did I, but our Web people were desperate for a shot of one of us using the Nokia camera phone to capture an interview. So, I stood up on a chair and this is the magic that resulted.

Unfortunately, the Times got the caption wrong. We weren't in our Santa Monica studio, but inside our makeshift broadcast booth in Denver on the final day of the Democratic National Convention. If you want to watch the interview, click here.

Get your goat

I'm embarrassed I didn't post this first.

The economy and you

Want to know more about the housing crisis everyone's talking about? Then list to my show.