Ask any Orange County political insider or elected official what reporter they talk to at the LA Times and they will shrug and say no one. It is painfully clear that the LA Times has abandoned any hope of having a viable Orange County operation. They canceled their Orange County section years ago and rarely print oped submissions regarding OC public policy.
I did a poll in the city of Garden Grove a couple years back that showed the LA Times was the fourth most popular local news source among resident after the OC Register, the local Garden Grove Journal, and even the local Channel 3. The rest of Orange County would probably show similar results.
The Times’ last respected OC-based journalist left several months ago. Jean Pasco was the dean of the OC press corps when she packed it in to join the staff of the Orange County Clerk-Recorder.
The LA Times is so out of touch with Orange County that controversy surrounding the paper itself is about the only thing that gets them any attention.
Both the OC Sheriff and District Attorney’s offices and have had black-out policies on and off with the Times and specific reporters for years. I suspect partly because they have had several reporters who never exhibit fairness in coverage and also because its just not worth the effort–if no one reads the paper in Orange County, why bother talking to them?
The latest controversy surrounding the Times is playing out in the OC Weekly our alternative sensational give-a-way that actually does some decent investigatory work.
The Weekly got a hold of an email sent to all Deputy DAs from Susan Kang Schroeder the DA’s spokesperson. Sent Tuesday, the email details why DA staff should proceed with extreme caution when speaking to one particular reporter. This reporter, Christine Hanley is bad news according to Schroeder. Its a fair assessment of the facts which Schroeder lays out based on her personal experiences with Hanley.
The LA Times’ OC editor Steve Marble responded from where ever he does that sort of thing from. Looking at the Times’ Orange County content, I assume he is based out of Los Angeles. Marble vigorously defends his reporter as you would expect him to do. But when one of the last handful of reporters at the paper that actually knows anything about the county is being shut out of entire government agencies, he might be wise to think about tactics and style and perhaps even fairness and why she is persona non grata.
Anyone who deals with the press, will tell you tough questions and hard driving reporters can be trying to deal with, but professionals get though those times and even forge strong working relationships with these journalists. It takes a special kind of mean-spirited, biased reporter to draw the fire like the memo from Schroeder to her staff.
What is lost in this rancor is that this is the most relevant the LA Times has been in years. And that is sad to me, a fan of the media who relishes in media coverage of the political process and public policy initiatives by local government.