Archive by Month
March 31, 2004
Lonewacko is looking for co-bloggers for a new project: "We occasionally listen to Air America so you don't ever have to."... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Rosanna Mah at the L.A. Independent discovers (and clearly adores) Tiffany Stone. The headline calls her "Princess Tiffany: Bridget Jones of the Blogs" and a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Wednesday was a travel day so I was late to notice that Michelangelo Signorile at the New York Press has read a lot into LAT... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 30, 2004
The baseball season just began today and the Dodgers can't even lose their first game until Monday. But Sports by Brooks reports that Long Beach... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Democrat George Smith tells the tale in the Village Voice of how he came to be, for a one-week media cycle, what he calls "an... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Mediabistro hangs out at last weekend's overdue launch party for Wonkette.com in Washington (graced by bi-coasting Venetian Mickey Kaus) and sits down to find out... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Sack had also been a producer for Channel 2 here, a screenwriter, an actor and a writer for the TV show "That's Incredible." But he... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Today's front page story on Gov. Schwarzenegger and his bulldog lawyer Martin Singer getting tough with improper uses of Arnold's likeness is the first L.A.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The American Reporter's San Pedro-based media correspondent, Robert Gelfand, praises recent L.A. Times stories on Ford's defense tactics in liability cases (by Myron Levin) and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Mariane Pearl, the wife of slain WSJ reporter Daniel Pearl, wants a payment from the 9-11 victims fund for herself and the Pearls' son Adam.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Subscribers to Ron Fineman's On the Record are voting on the best TV news anchor team in Los Angeles. The field has narrowed to two... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Juxtaposition actually expends bandwidth, intellectual and digital, suggesting that I offer an official L.A. Observed coffee mug. Hmm, maybe someday. [Just do it. Accepting... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 29, 2004
George Butler, the filmmaker who gave Arnold Schwarzenegger's career a jump start with Pumping Iron, has lately been hanging out with his old pal John... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
After 13 years of litigation, an L.A. judge threw out a lawsuit seeking royalties on Winnie the Pooh after ruling that the plaintiffs' investigator broke... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Local author Steve Oney's And The Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan & the Lynching of Leo Frank didn't quite win the $10,000... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Comments and new postings were blocked for most of today (Monday) by my web hosting service, Lunarpages. They are back on now. Lunarpages is unhappy... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
U.S. forces padlocked the doors and shut down a Baghdad newspaper sponsored by a popular anti-American Shiite cleric, accusing it of printing lies that incited... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
One of the changes under consideration by NPR to replace Bob Edwards, the longtime host of the cornerstone news show "Morning Edition" who was dumped... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Here's another way that Bill Bratton is unlike any previous Los Angeles police chief. Last week, writes Rick Orlov in the Daily News, Bratton and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Mayor Hahn's chief of staff Tim McOsker played a part in last week's resignations by three deputy mayors and is seeing his authority grow, the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Unlike me, the Business Journal follows up my Feb. 19 report on Wall Street Journal L.A. bureau chief Jonathan Friedland leaving town with some actual... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 28, 2004
In Saturday's L.A. Times, Tim Rutten summarizes ex-NYT Editor Howell Raines' 21,000-word disgorgement in The Atlantic as "a devastating appraisal of his former newspaper and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Jonah at LABlogs.com arranged an open gathering of Los Angeles bloggers last night at Farmers Market and reports on the good-sized turnout here. He links... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 26, 2004
Mark Robichaux takes over as executive editor of news for Broadcast & Cable, Variety reports today. He had spent 13 years at the Wall Street... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Last night's crowded (and reportedly under-catered) LA.com party was not the final event to be held in the once-grand, but long-abandoned Perino's after all. Collage... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Former network news anchor and reporter Linda Ellerbee writes on the LAT op-ed page that NPR's removal of Bob Edwards after 25 years is more... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
That happy and by now very rich (we hope) writing couple, Faye and Jonathan Kellerman, have finally done a book together. Double Homicide, out in... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 25, 2004
L.A. Times feature writer Roy Rivenburg's involvement with the World Journalism Institute, whose mission is "training a cadre of Christian journalists to enter the mainstream... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The L.A. chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists is bringing together the top editors of La Opinión and Hoy next week for a panel... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Oops, I missed this earlier in the week. Mayor Hahn has chosen Lauren Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit as this year's One Book, One City selection. Hahn's previous... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The April issue of Los Angeles with Shaq on the cover (not yet online) has an on-balance unfavorable review by Tom Carson of Peter Biskind's... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
LARadio.com reports today that KKJZ, the Long Beach jazz station at 88.1 FM, has dumped its entire five-person news staff. The station will instead air... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Deputy mayor Troy Edwards had been Jim Hahn's connection to the airports and harbor commissions, where questions have been raised about a link between campaign... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Deposed police chief, now councilman, Bernard Parks and his probable run for mayor are examined in a nicely done profile by Robert Greene in the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Rick Orlov of the Daily News is called the dean of L.A. City Hall reporters in Cathy Seipp's "Media Circus" column in today's CityBeat --... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 24, 2004
In a settlement with the U.S. Department of Labor, the Writers Guild has set an election for president a year early on September 20. The... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Santa Monica City Council voted 4-2 Tuesday night to ban smoking on the beach, at bus stops and within the pier's open-air amusement park.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Michael Schneider reports in Variety that Tony Hernandez has been let go by Channel 5. His last day is April 16, if he makes it... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Mack Reed at LAVoice.org has some fun with celebrity campaign contributions via the database at fundrace.org, which lets you search Federal Elections Commission records by... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Numerous updates have been posted to yesterday's entry on the KCRW-Sandra Tsing Loh (now KPCC) situation. Go there.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Times columnist Steve Lopez took the bus from home in Silver Lake to the office for the first time since he lost his driver's license... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
With seven days left in the month, March has already set a new traffic record for L.A. Observed. For the month so far, there have... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
JPL's Mars rover Opportunity has found rocks that formed in a standing body of salt water. Possibly an ocean. It's the "strongest evidence yet" of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The L.A. Times' Michael Cieply profiles Disney communications chief Zenia B. Mucha, a former aide to New York Gov. George Pataki nicknamed the "Director of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Laurie Burrows Grad, the L.A.-based food writer who also stages the annual Dinner at Sardi's benefit to raise money for Alzheimer's research, had a 35-minute... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 23, 2004
Danny Bakewell, president of the Brotherhood Crusade and a longtime activist in the L.A. African American community, has formally taken control of the Los Angeles... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Jayson Blair is scheduled to appear and sign his book on April 2 at 7 p.m. at Eso Won Books on South La Brea.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
And you thought the Sandra Tsing Loh episode was fading away. KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour has apparently had enough of being bashed by Loh... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
For the first time, more people in California buy The New Yorker than in New York, writes Cynthia Cotts in the Village Voice. The score... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
NBC's anchor-in-waiting Brian Williams was not stripped and body-cavity searched recently at the San Diego airport. Broadcasting and Cable magazine regrets misinterpreting the joke Williams... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Sandra Tsing Loh is taking her axed KCRW commentary across town to rival NPR outlet KPCC. She'll be doing a weekly gig starting in June.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Last night's KTLA "News at Ten" found time to report on the L.A. Times annual in-house editorial awards dinner, held over the weekend at the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Al Martinez' column (subscribers only) in the L.A. Times Calendar section Monday visits with the other Michael Jackson, the longtime local radio host who has... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 22, 2004
Last week's plane crash and house fire on Mar Vista Hill -- a few blocks from the L.A. Observed bunker, in a neighborhood that's home... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Mark Sarvas' blog The Elegant Variation has a report from the launch party for Black Clock, the new literary journal from CalArts edited by Steve... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The bow-tied pundit drops into South L.A. for a ride-along with LAPD Sgt. Sean Colomey. Hard to tell if they ever got out of the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Robert Tagorda adds some perspective to the Claremont McKenna College hate crime/hoax episode as an alumnus of the tight-knit school. Meanwhile, Tagorda announced last week... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
In his column at TV Week, Alex Ben Block rips Entertainment Weekly's ranking of the "25.5 funniest people in America." In fact, he calls it... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The football field and track at L.A. City College on Vermont Avenue (the original home of UCLA) is now a parking lot. But the grandstand... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Four L.A. city firefighters made $200,000 in salary and overtime last year and dozens of others got more than $150K, the Daily News' James Nash... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Miller is the Hollywood stuntwoman who came forward just before the recall election last fall to publicly allege that Arnold Schwarznegger groped her, then was... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
New York's tabloids still think L.A. police chief William Bratton is pretty hot stuff when he returns to his old haunt. He turned up in... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
L.A. Times Managing Editor Dean Baquet shows up in a New York Times story Monday on the rash of newspaper fabrication and plagiarism discovered since... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 21, 2004
Distinction magazine has undergone a makeover and been moved further away from the L.A. Times within the Tribune company's structure "to allay any concerns about... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The L.A. Business Journal front page has stories on Hahn fundraiser Ted Stein and ex-commissioner Leland Wong retaining criminal-law attorneys, the Wolfgang Puck empire and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 19, 2004
Jonathan Friedland has headed up the Los Angeles bureau of the Wall Street Journal since April 2000. He just confirmed to L.A. Observed by email... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
He's now posting fulltime as Political Animal at the Washington Monthly site. The old Calpundit locale will be used only occasionally for personal items, he... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
An L.A. Times piece today by Stuart Silverstein reports on USC's recent academic hiring binge. Among the new professors is respected L.A. historian William Deverell,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Santa Monica photog David Hume Kennerly, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1972 for Vietnam coverage and a contributing editor at Newsweek, is on the short... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Steve Julian had been the NPR's station's local host during "Morning Edition" until leaving in January for Chicago. But he's coming back to his old... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
R. Scott Moxley writes in the OC Weekly that the Times broke the news of the Orange County screw-up involving 7,000 primary ballots and that... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Last month, you might remember, Daily News op-ed columnist Mariel Garza vowed to no longer call Fleishman-Hillard because of the cost to taxpayers when the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
A team of L.A. Times headline writers won the top prize for 2003 from The American Copy Editors Society. The judges had this to say... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 18, 2004
The Writers Guild's embattled stand-in president Charles Holland resigned today. The email to WGA members follows, forwarded from several members while I've been out and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Cathy Seipp goes to bat for Sandra Tsing Loh in her fight with KCRW one more time in today's CityBeat. The problem at KCRW wasn’t... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Jay Rosen, chairman of the NYU journalism department, has a piece up at his Press Think blog giving credit to anti-LAT blogger Patterico for pushing... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Remember that hate crime directed against a Claremont Colleges professor who speaks out against racism? Police now suspect that Kerri Dunn slashed her own tires,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 17, 2004
William T. Vollmann’s Rising Up and Rising Down runs seven volumes and 3,000 pages and costs $120 from McSweeney's. David L. Ulin confesses in tomorrow's... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Walter Chaw lives in Littleton, Colorado, likes movies and reviews a ton of them for Film Freak Central.net and Rotten Tomatoes. To his surprise, Chaw... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Back in November, Eric Umansky in the New Republic savaged claims by famed paralegal Erin Brockovich-Ellis and people around Beverly Hills High School (and a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Caitlin Flanagan of the Atlantic Monthly is up for a National Magazine Award in the Reviews and Criticism category. Otherwise, it's pretty slim pickings for... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin thinks that KCRW's firing and reinstatement of Sandra Tsing Loh -- and her decision to reject the offer -- raises larger... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Times' apparent domination in the Pulitzer Prize competition this year is being taken by other newspaper editors "as a sign that the paper has... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Gubernick had been the Hollywood correspondent for Forbes from 1987-90. She joined the Wall Street Journal as an entertainment writer in 1998 and died yesterday... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Randy Harvey has been a reporter and columnist for the L.A. Times sports section, and most recently has been a senior assistant sports editor. He's... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 16, 2004
L.A. journalist and author Hilary de Vries, whose first novel So Five Minutes Ago follows the life of fictional celebrity publicist Alex Davidson, has sold... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Ricky Jay and San Francisco Chronicle book critic David Kipen are among the additions coming to the local commentary slots during NPR's afternoon "All Things... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Author and journalist Ann Louise Bardach has written for Vanity Fair, Los Angeles, Talk, George and, among others, the New Yorker -- but you can... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Disgraced ex-journalist Jayson Blair has been on three Fox News Channel shows already to plug his book about the New York Times, and has interviews... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The L.A. Press Club is still looking for awards entries from Southern California journalists. The deadline is Friday. Information here.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Following yesterday's release of her joint statement with Sandra Tsing Loh, KCRW general manager Ruth Seymour sent a missive to the station's email list: Dear... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 15, 2004
Boing Boing, the group blog co-written by Mark Frauenfelder and Xeni Jardin in Los Angeles (as well as others), cleaned up in the 2004 Weblog... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Channel 2 reporter Rick Chambers was taken off the air for two days last week after airing racial slurs in a taped story about that... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
She won't return to the air, but the radio station and Sandra Tsing Loh issue a joint statement: KCRW RESCINDS DISMISSAL OF SANDRA TSING LOH... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Tidbits from Howard Kurtz's story in the Washington Post on a new report card on the media from the Project for Excellence in Journalism: "Americans... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The New Yorker's worst-selling cover of 2003 was the one about Arnold Schwarzenegger as "California's strongman." The best-selling double issue was winter fiction. Jesus covers... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Rick Orlov in the Daily News reports that former police chief, and current councilman, Bernard Parks is expected to announce for mayor "any day now."... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Jacques Steinberg in the New York Times reports on the pitch received last week by 400,000 registered users of LATimes.com -- an invitation to click... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Before USC law professor and op-ed meister Erwin Chemerinsky heads off to Duke this fall, he has agreed to advise Mayor Hahn on how the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
LA.com is making a marketing splash if nothing else, with ads visible around town and spots on KCRW. Now the portal website backed by Dean... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Prime space in the Travel area of LATimes.com announces "Postcards from Paris," which is supposed to be staff travel writer Susan Spano's journal of living... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 12, 2004
Somebody asked in email recently what's with all the Paul Magers mentions here. All I can say is check out the big Times Calendar story... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Tom Scocca, senior editor of the Washington City Paper, is the new media critic at the New York Observer. He will write the Off the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Backlash continues from KCRW's dismissal of Sandra Tsing Loh. The hometown Santa Monica Mirror's editorial this week, titled "Loh Blow," blasts the station and general... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Brian Vander Brug of the L.A. Times won a National Journalism Award in photojournalism from the Scripps Howard Foundation. He gets $5,000 and a trophy.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
On Life and Times tonight (KCET, 7 p.m.), Toni Guinyard reports on the newspaper war for Spanish-speaking readers here between La Opinión and Hoy. Earlier:... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Jack Shafer, Slate's media critic, clicks on Gawker and Wonkette a dozen times a day but hates to admit it. He wishes the Nick Denton... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The new "bi-coastal, biannual print magazine dedicated to identifying and promoting established and emerging literary talent" is out. The editor is Leelila Strogov. Writers in... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Jim Schachter, a former assistant business editor at the L.A. Times now at the New York Times, was in line for, but did not get,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Consider this paragraph in a recent top-of-the-page lead story in the L.A. Daily News by Troy Anderson, about recycling firms accused of skimming money: Californians... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 11, 2004
Marc Cooper has an entertaining appreciation of his friend and journalism mentor, the late Marshall Frady, in The Nation. Frady died this week at 64.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Pasadena public radio station yanked the series "The Play’s the Thing" from its lineup because of a couple of banned words spoken during a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The lede in today's piece on Mayor Jim Hahn in CityBeat by Charles Rappleye: There’s no question Mayor Jim Hahn is a strange political bird.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
David Ehrenstein of the LA Weekly sits down at home with British ex-pat Gavin Lambert to reminisce about Hollywood and Natalie Wood, the subject of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 10, 2004
The program schedule for the liberal talk show net that takes off March 31 is out, and as reported in December, USC's Martin Kaplan is... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Caryn at art.blogging.la is unhappy that the L.A. Times won't let her post for free the full text of a story in the paper about... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Rip Rense's column today at the Rip Post recalls several of the characters he got to know and like working at L.A. newspapers in decades... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Romenesko has the memo from Bill Keller: Sam's list of accomplishments should probably be headed by his virtuoso 1997 biography of Whittaker Chambers, a finalist... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Don Aucoin at the Boston Globe has a little fun pondering who might inherit Martha Stewart's role as arbiter of taste. Paris Hilton, Donald Trump,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Alexandra Jacobs does the "Palmy Days" column observing on Los Angeles life for the New York Observer. This week, she writes about the practical differences... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
This time from Diane Disney, Walt's last surviving child. She tells Jim Bates of the L.A. Times that it's time for Michael Eisner to step... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
This time from the San Jose Mercury. First, the correction in Tuesday's paper: The front-page Mike Cassidy column Saturday misstated the kind of place mats... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 09, 2004
Based on an anonymous tip, I dropped in on Variety.com's weblog page and found that "The Porning Report" is history. "Coverage of the porn industry's... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
A Caltech grad student in physics has been arrested and charged with last summer's arson rampage against Hummers and other SUVs at four dealerships in... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The former editor and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter died Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai after complications from intestinal surgery, the paper reports today. She had... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
I went poking around the Editor & Publisher site to see if they decided to acknowledge that the Pulitzer list Joe Strupp crowed about having... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Former L.A. City Council member Jackie Goldberg, now in the state Assembly, and her partner of 28 years, poet and activist Sharon Stricker, were among... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
In the months after 9/11, many travelers gave up flying to drive instead, thinking it "safer." The end result was 350 more traffic deaths, author... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Hard-core anti-L.A. Times bloggers Patterico and Xrlq are going national, so to speak, as regular contributors to a new group blog, Oh, That Liberal Media!... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 08, 2004
A sampling of book deals from today's Publishers Lunch weekly. Non-fiction: Journalist and critic James Sullivan's AMERICAN BLUE, the story of blue jeans, from their... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The New York City medical examiner needed to use dental records to confirm that the remains found in the East River were those of the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
High-traffic liberal blogger Kevin Drum will be writing Calpundit for money for the Washington Monthly, starting as soon as the new URL comes down. Yes,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Variety's Claude Brodesser discusses the hot movie of the moment, The Passion of the Christ, on The Politics of Culture, Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. Tonight... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Those following the end of Sandra Tsing Loh's six-year run as a KCRW commentator may want to tune in Marketplace this afternoon. Cathy Seipp says... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Michael Hiltzik, in today's LAT Business section: Speaking as someone who lived and worked for years in a string of petty Third World dictatorships, I... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The full list of Pulitzer Prize finalists in the journalism categories that we reported on Friday (apparently first) has shown up today on the Editor... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The Pacifica Radio show "Democracy Now!" phoned up the exiled Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide this morning in the Central African Republic. The show re-airs between... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Noam N. Levey, the new guy in City Hall for the Times, takes stock of the potential lineup of challengers to Mayor Jim Hahn and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The March calendar of events has picked up some new listings. Among them is a book party to be thrown by the LA Weekly next... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Timm Herdt, newly linked on the left, is state bureau chief for the Ventura County Star. He blogs mostly about politics on the Star's site,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 07, 2004
The L.A. Times has probably taken more lumps than it deserves over the changing of "pro-life" to "anti-abortion" in an opera review. (See LAT's anti-abortion... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
This week in the L.A. Business Journal, Editor Mark Lacter moves his weekly commentary out to the cover and calls for Michael Eisner's departure from... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Attention West Side writers: screenwriter Aleks Horvat, founder of the Hollywood Creative Directory, has opened a private rental work space on 26th Street in upper... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The blog host went down earlier today to upgrade, putting up a notice that it would be back in service by noon L.A. time. The... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
James Wolcott opens his exploration of politics blogs in the April Vanity Fair (not online) by asking "are we in danger of drowning in blogorrhea?"... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Channel 4's legal reporter Manny Medrano is the former federal prosecutor who got into TV news as an analyst on the O.J. Simpson case and... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Tim Rutten reviews Jayson Blair's Burning Down My Masters' House: My Life at the New York Times, in the L.A. Times Book Review: Blair owes... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
On the L.A. Times op-ed page Sunday, Rush Limbaugh and Sandra Tsing Loh both expound on the radio decency issue. You'll know which is which:... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 06, 2004
Jennifer Garner vowed on the Oscars red carpet to hit In-N-Out once the night ended. Vanity Fair served the burgers at its party at Mortons.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Some of the finalists for this year's L.A. Times Book Prizes are listed in the paper today (full list is below). Among the local nominees... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 05, 2004
Says AP, via Yahoo and I Want Media: "Gov. Schwarzenegger, the former action figure and champion bodybuilder, has inked a deal to become executive editor... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The descriptor "Big Tobacco" has been used in the L.A. Times 56 times in the last two years. But the term will probably show up... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
There are unofficial, and more to the point unconfirmed, lists of Pulitzer Prize finalists floating around the newsrooms at both the L.A. Times and New... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
But not much else? I've said before that the name of the big-bucks KCBS anchor imported from Minneapolis is the number one search engine term... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Or can it? The New York Post's Keith J. Kelly says today that Gov. Schwarzenegger "is close to signing a deal with the parent company... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
State Senator Richard Alarcon opted out of running for mayor of the Valley in the secession election in 2002, but he's about to become the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
L.A. Times photographer Carolyn Cole, whose work from overseas shows up here on occasion, was given the Newspaper Photographer of the Year award in the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Viruses posing as emails from people you know are coming around again. Just a reminder, if you get any email with an attachment that claims... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 04, 2004
Elizabeth Guider has been named deputy editor of Variety and Daily Variety and Timothy M. Gray has been named executive editor. From the published story:... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Steven Mikulan in the LA Weekly sets the scene for the upcoming contract talks between Hollywood screenwriters and producers. With the Writers Guild's president under... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
In today's CityBeat, Dennis Romero interviews New York Times taxes reporter David Cay Johnston about his new book, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign To Rig... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Los Angeles County DA Steve Cooley isn't going away now that he was reelected Tuesday in a walk. And yesterday, he told reporters for the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
USC constitutional law professor Erwin Chemerinsky begins at Duke University in the fall. His wife, Catherine Fisk, a labor law professor at USC, also is... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The humiliation of Michael Eisner. Top right on the New York Times front by Laura Holson, with sidebars. Lead story in the LAT, mainbar by... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
An actor who paid $5 for a 19th-century painting at a Los Angeles garage sale three years ago has sold it to a museum for... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 03, 2004
Here's why reporters want newspaper corrections to make clear that an editor is at fault for an error introduced to their copy. Last week, the... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Sandra Tsing Loh's Sunday morning commentary "The Loh Life" has been taken off the KCRW air, apparently over her use of a bad word. [See... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
The author of Los Angeles studies City of Quartz and The Ecology of Fear has a new science-adventure tale for children out called Land of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Sara Nelson in the New York Observer: By my count, the reviews and the ranking system on Amazon.com count for about 95 percent of writers’... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 02, 2004
The news is considered so profound (or cool, if you prefer) that scientists were flown from JPL in Pasadena to Washington to announce today that... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Busy day in L.A. City Hall. In the morning, the City Council by a vote of 15-0 banned some kinds of political fundraising by appointed... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
L.A. Observed reader John Krill (www.photoessayist.net) lauds today's full two-page double-truck photo spread from Haiti by L.A. Times photographer Carolyn Cole. But he complains, why... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Publishers Lunch is amused by LAT baseball writer Ross Newhan's reference to Judith Regan (in a story today about ex-star Jose Canseco's book) as a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
La Opinión versus upstart Hoy. True to its Tribune Company home, the Los Angeles news on Hoy's site is registration only. LAT story.... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Arnold Schwarzenegger returned in triumph to "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno Monday night, and who should drop in but Gray Davis. The two govs... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
March 01, 2004
The Tuesday New York Times does indeed correct Sharon Waxman's Oscar story from Monday, both the error Hollywood was gabbing about and a couple of... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
As the Martha Stewart case goes to the jury, UCLA law prof Stephen Bainbridge argues in a column at Tech Central Station that criminal charges... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
This should provide inspiration (of the pull your hair, bang your head on the wall kind) for the aspiring novelists among you. Publishers Lunch reports... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Editor Mark Lacter of the L.A. Business Journal uses his column this week to let Mayor Hahn have it. Seems that on Feb. 18, Hahn... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Screenwriter Chuck Pfarrer, who really did serve as a Navy SEAL, has sent an open email to members of the Writers Guild calling out guild... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Matt Welch poses a question that every presidential candidate should be asked: if God loves the United States, does he love the District of Columbia,... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Garrison Frost writes in The Aesthetic (The South Bay's Journal of Arts and Ideas) of attending a memorial service last week for Cy Zoerner, a... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
In his weekly column, Variety Editor Peter Bart faults last week's New York Times story by Sharon Waxman in which studio heads say (not for... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
Writing as a "frequent listener," LAT Business columnist Michael Hiltzik points out in Monday's "Golden State" column that Clear Channel has approved of Howard Stern's... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
President Bush will be in town Wednesday, messing with evening rush hours traffic. You might want to avoid the area around the Convention Center (11th... $MTEntryExcerpt$>
When Stan Chambers began covering news for KTLA, there were only 100 televisions in Southern California. Since then, Chambers estimates he has reported about 20,000... $MTEntryExcerpt$>