Weekly archive
May 10 - May 16, 2009
Saturday, May. 16
I keep getting notes from readers about mistakes in the L.A. Times and on its website, including today's subhead gaffe saying the Hubble Space Telescope got new* telescopes rather than...
The Daily Breeze education reporter died Friday night after being taken off life support with his family by his side. Here's the Daily Breeze story and blog post by his...
Friday, May. 15
Emmis Communications back in Indiana has put out a release praising Kit Rachlis' nine years as editor of Los Angeles Magazine and his successor, Mary Melton. "Kit has done a...
Here's the email Kit Rachlis sent about his departure as editor of Los Angeles. Mary Melton moves up from number two. Hi, When Emmis granted my book leave last year,...
Dwell magazine's June issue rates San Francisco's new international terminal the best airport in the U.S. Los Angeles International is pegged as the country's absolute worst: Los Angeles is the...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to LA Sketchbook for a second day in a row. Tells you something about what's in the news. As always, click on the cartoon to...
With the financial news not so rosy, "Marketplace" tapped L.A. composer and musician Joe Matzzie to craft a "more melancholy version" of the classic tune "We're in the Money" that...
Gov. Schwarzenegger threatens drastic cuts at the state level, in some cases even if the props pass on Tuesday. Rough & Tumble, WWLA, Airtalk Candidate for governor Meg Whitman...
Thursday, May. 14
Haven't seen the book yet, but I like the title. "Beverly Hills Adjacent" is a debut novel with strong local flavor and media bloodlines: it's by Jennifer Steinhauer, the New...
Vu Nguyen, who is 34, suffered cardiac arrest while playing in a weekend soccer game in Santa Monica. The Daily Breeze staff story says that Nguyen is hospitalized in a...
The Lakers blew it in Houston again, losing 95-80 and looking bad doing it. This is a potential championship team? The Rockets, minus the big center Yao Ming, have forced...
With the Anaheim Ducks getting set to play a deciding game 7 tonight in Detroit, I have to say that — for me — there aren't too many sports scenarios...
In the world of foodies and food writers, today's big news is that Frank Bruni is turning in his Amex card as the restaurant critic of the New York Times....
On the right, how Los Angeles Magazine played Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on the cover in December 2006. My piece on the mayor was a mix of skepticism and marvel at...
Judy Chu's consultant Parke Skelton tells LA Observed that the reason Richard Ziman's name was belatedly taken off the invitations for this week's Chu fundraiser at Ziman's home is that...
Yesterday's news that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to auction off the historic Los Angeles Memorial Colisuem to help ease the state's budget mess caught Steve Greenberg's attention. As always,...
Author Frances Dinkelspiel has noticed that ever since the San Francisco Chronicle laid off dozens of reporters, the number of author and artist features in the paper has gone up....
TV video shows an El Monte police officer kicking the head of a chase suspect who appears to have surrendered. Fox 11, LAT, SGV Tribune A Channel 2/9 camera...
The June cover of Los Angeles Magazine, out in a few days, bears a portrait of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and one word blazoned in white ink across the page: Failure....
Wednesday, May. 13
Eerily prescient headline from last July at Not the L.A. Times, Roy Rivenburg's spoof of his former employer's foibles: State sells San Diego to erase deficit Now today's headline at...
During Monday night's fundraiser for Judy Chu at the Daphna not Richard Ziman home, city airport commissioner Christine Essel was pitched to the crowd as a candidate to succeed Wendy...
The boiling bi-coastal scandal involving Wetherly Capital Group, a New York pol and some Villaraigosa commissioners is likely the reason that Monday night's Beverly Hills fundraiser for congressional candidate Judy...
Today's post is from an Angeleno whose Twitter profile describes him as a "digital marketing nerd and writer with a fondness for Hollywood, webseries, widgets and wine," retweeted by @LAWeekly:...
This cartoon was created by Steve Greenberg several weeks ago when the Los Angeles City Council was still debating whether to finish the elephant enclosure at the L.A. Zoo....
Former Daily News editor Ron Kaye has been building up to this post ever since he got fired last year, I suspect. With Ed Moss departing yesterday as publisher and...
Channel 4 devoted ten minutes on its 5 p.m. newscast yesterday to saying goodbye to retired anchor Paul Moyer, despite the memo last month saying there would be "no...
Sam Zell's bankrupt Tribune Company is facing an Internal Revenue Service audit of the ESOP part of the transaction that allowed Zell to take control of Tribune. The IRS "disclosed...
Tuesday, May. 12
Officer James Veenstra, who was wounded in the Feb. 2008 SWAT raid in the Valley in which officer Randal Simmons died, was honored at the White House Tuesday along with...
Four oh. * Final: They win by 40. And in Anaheim, the Ducks just forced a seventh game in their NHL playoff series....
In which we observe the media- and politisphere's embrace of micro-blogging, one tweet at a time. Today, The Wrap's Sharon Waxman gets out of town: sharonwaxman Headed to cannes, god...
I don't know which of these ethics provisions are new, but among those that caught my eye is the rule that "motion picture rights to articles written by news staffers...
The bankruptcy judge just gave the Tribune Company permission to pay $13 million in bonuses to stop selected staffers from leaving, but said no to $2 million in pending severance...
Michael Wolff continues his ongoing rant about newspapers at Newser, arguing that most papers have surrendered their niche anyway and that better means of doing their job are readily available....
Ben Fritz has been freelancing for the L.A. Times for about a month and will be a general assignment reporter on entertainment, writing the Sunday box office roundup and items...
Hard to see how this would apply to Dean Singleton's barely breathing SoCal newspapers, but here's the memo explaining MediaNews' plans to come up with some premium content that readers...
More by Steve Greenberg Steve is the editorial cartoonist for LA Observed. Bio and email...
An anonymous, no questions asked gun exchange program by the LAPD netted 40 assault-style weapons and a rifle with a grenade launcher among the 1,700 guns turned in. "We...
Monday, May. 11
Times Wire web page appears to deliver everything generated by the New York Times, in order and in one sentence plus a headline and link. The "river of news," says...
Both new assistant professors come billed as multi-media journalists. Seattle Times news producer Robert Hernandez and new media researcher and author Andrew Lih, whose new book is "The Wikipedia Revolution:...
Daniel S. Baum continues to Twitter his downfall as a contract writer at the New Yorker — he's getting into promises that either were or were not made by editor...
George Sanchez, hired just last fall to cover the LAUSD for the Daily News, stepped up to be bought out Friday. Cityside staff down to nine reporters and columnist...
Mark Lisanti manages to tie a personal grooming note into Hollywood. Proving he hasn't lost the Defamer touch. @marklisanti Just got the Dark Knight of haircuts: 30 minutes too long,...
Fortune.com reported the basic story that Hollywood mogul David Geffen recently sought to acquire the 19% stake in the New York Times that is held by hedge fund Harbinger Capital...
Fix the basic unfairness of Proposition 13 that lets multi-million dollar mansions get away with lower property taxes than you or your neighbors pay and the state might not...
Yahoo has promoted Jimmy Pitaro to oversee what they call "North America Vertical Audience Experience," meaning he's in charge of News, Finance, Sports and a whole bunch more. That means...
Steve Greenberg is the editorial cartoonist for LA Observed. There's an archive of his cartoons on the site, and a page with his his bio and email contact. Click...
The Orange County Register's communications manager is hosting a new blog to tell the rest of the story [aka the good news] about the paper and newspapers in general. Very...
An appeals court in Iran freed journalist Roxana Saberi from prison. CNN, NPR, LAT The Service Employees International Union was included on a conference call between the Obama Administration...
Sunday, May. 10
No Yao, no problem: Rockets lead by 29 after three quarters. And it really hasn't been that close. Is the series "over" because Yao Ming is hurt? Uh, no. *...
Last night, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in Washington for the White House Correspondent's Dinner — though you wouldn't know it by the caption at the Huffington Post. Ouch. He was...
