Media but not public admitted to Los Angeles juvenile court proceedings

The presiding judge for the L.A. County Juvenile Court ordered the courts open to the media but not the public. The court had previously barred the media and public from cases of child abuse, foster care and adoption. The parties involved in a case can still make a compelling case to close doors. From The [...]

Los Angeles: Mystery surfaces concerning water district use of pr firm to write stories to enhance image

The Central Basin Municipal Water District contracted with the public relations consultant Ed Coghlan for stories indexed on Google News to enhance  its image. Mike Adams wrote over 20 stories, but the Los Angeles Times could not find any evidence that Adams exists. The only biographical information offered was bogus or could not be verified. [...]

Marketer accuses L.A. Times of bias in running articles criticizing weight loss surgery product

A marketer for a band surgeons implant around the stomach to discourage overeating claims in a lawsuit that the Los Angeles Times ran “attack articles” critical of their product on pages with ads from competitors. The marketer also said claimed that the Times sold keywords associated with the articles to competitors . -db From the [...]

Police say L.A. Times investigation of pensions could endanger lives

The Los Angeles County police union is fighting the Los Angeles Times over the newspaper’s quest for pension information that the union claims if made public could endanger the lives of retired officers. In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court, the union argued that in pitting the public’s right to know against legitimate safety issues, [...]

L.A. Times journalist accused of recording telephone conversation without permission

A Los Angeles attorney has filed a class action suit against a Los Angeles Times business columnist for recording conversations without the consent of interviewees. That is against the law in California. The Los Angeles Times management called the suit “vexatious,” similar to three other  suits the attorney filed against the Times, all of which [...]

Federal ruling helps newspapers bid for California legislative expenses

A new federal ruling extended the application of the Freedom of Information Act bolstering the attempts of California newspapers to obtain records of California lawmakers’ budget allowances and expenditures. The newspapers were petitioning for the records under the state’s Legislative Open Records Act. The federal district court ruling came down in August when the judge [...]

L.A. Times editorial: Punish Murdoch, not the press

The British government is considering legislation to curtail the press after the phone-hacking scandal perpetrated by the News of the World including monitoring contacts between national newspapers and politicians. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times argues: “No one, journalists included, should defend the hackers. Their behavior — including the now-infamous deletion of messages from [...]

Los Angeles Times criticized for publishing full text of basketball star’s slur

While The New York Times called Kobe Bryant’s verbal assault on a referee a “gay slur”, the Los Angeles Times printed the slur uncensored (“f—ing faggot”). Nancy Sullivan of the Los Angeles Times explained why they printed the full text of Bryant’s slur, “Derogatory terms such as the one in the Kobe Bryant story are [...]

Los Angeles Times issues guide to California public records, invites public input

The Los Angeles Times has published a guide to California public records with advice about covering public meetings, obtaining records and interpreting financial details. The Times has also asked readers to send in government records of interest that the staff would review and post on the public records website along with records posted by Times [...]

Public records requests laid bare corruption in small, poor Southern California city

Two Los Angeles Times reporters knew they were on to something when the Bell, California city clerk told them they would have to wait ten days to receive records that should be produced immediately. They threatened to invoke the California Public Records Act to obtain the records that showed city officials were giving themselves outlandish [...]

Los Angeles County child welfare probe heats up

Amid accusations that they are more concerned with leaks than with the safety of children, the Los Angeles County supervisors ordered an investigation of what they termed “inappropriate disclosure of confidential child welfare information” to the Los Angeles Times. -db Los Angeles Times August 18, 2010 By Rong-Gong Lin II In a contentious 4-1 vote, [...]

Salary scandal tied to lack of oversight from community newspaper

The Santa Cruz Sentinel says in an editorial that when Bell town officials voted themselves outrageous salaries and pensions, it went unnoticed because the town’s community newspaper shut down in 1998. -db Santa Cruz Sentinel Editorial August 4, 2010 An aftermath of the scandal in the Los Angeles-area city of Bell over salaries and pension [...]

The Supreme Court’s inconsistent 1st Amendment rulings

The Supreme Court’s just-ended term was marked by mixed results and “inconsistent” rulings on First Amendment cases according to Los Angeles Times. – SMD First Amendment Rulings Opinion/Commentary July 5,2010 Los Angeles Times The Supreme Court term that ended last week will be remembered for several important decisions. The court ruled that juveniles couldn’t be [...]

Story of government spying gets no play in media

A telecommunications technician in San Francisco discovers that the government is operating a covert  center in his own building that monitors the phone calls and internet traffic of millions of random citizens. When the story goes to the Los Angeles Times and 60 Minutes, the government successfully kills it. -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Commentary March 17, [...]

First Amendment panel finds promise, pitfalls in social media

By Donal Brown The panel on journalists and social media at the First Amendment Coatition Assembly offered wise advice and a few emphatic warnings, chief among them: everything a journalist puts up on Twitter or Facebook or other social media is public. Speaking at the assembly October 24 in Los Angeles on the panel entitled [...]