High Speed Recall
As blatantly crazy as the California Governor Recall is, it’s certainly fascinating. As my friend Charles pointed out so deftly on the phone tonight, the phrase “May We Live In Interesting Times” applies perfectly.
One aspect those of you not in the California area aren’t seeing is our local media coverage. Yes, it’s very much true, local news in Los Angeles is car chase heaven. One car chase a week is not unusual. During the all important sweeps months it’s not unusual to see two a week. “If it bleeds, it leads” is standard operating procedure for most local news in Los Angeles. So, how do you deal with the fact now that the recall is the only thing anyone is talking about in California (this is VERY true) and now your lead story has to be politics? Toto, are you sho’ we still be in the Golden State?
This article in the New York Times paints a wonderful picture of how local news in California, specifically Los Angeles, is coming to grips with covering the recall. News directors are at a complete loss as to how to handle this. There are actually reporters who sound like they resent the fact that they have to cover this circus. Seems to me it has more to do with the fact they are now forced to think when reporting, than just reacting.
My favorite part of the story is about the 100-year old woman who’s running for Governor. The news team remark how incredibly lucid this woman is and joke about whether she is actually as old as she said she is. Know what? They’re doing one of their “Truth Squad” investigations into the woman to verify her age.
I think this quote from the article best brings together the entire story. “The laws of Los Angeles news media physics have come undone.” It’s a beautiful thing to watch.
