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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Memo to the Media: Welcome to the Secession Circus

Memo to the Media: Welcome to the Secession Circus Politics by Jacqueline Fox Rumor has it that Los Angeles Times media critic David Shaw is preparing a lengthy piece on the media coverage of the drive to break up Los Angeles over the last year. I suppose it was a good thing he decided to attend the May 22 hearing of the Local Agency Formation Commission because, for once, there was something to see. From where I sat, it was difficult to tell which there were more of this time around, press passes or “Let The People Decide” placards. But, after more than a year covering secession for this publication, I couldn’t help but ask him: What are you going to write about? “That’s a good question,” said Shaw. Unless Mayor James Hahn was scheduled to speak at a LAFCO hearing or a time-line decision by the nine-member “Team LAFCO” was on the agenda, public hearings on secession over the last year may as well have been held in Executive Officer Larry Calemine’s living room. You couldn’t give away a seat two rows from the front on most occasions. On others, there were literally people nodding off sometimes me and the one or two other reporters in the room. In short, until it became apparent earlier this year that secession wasn’t going away, there was little TV or radio coverage anywhere. Not to say there haven’t been news stories. The Daily News has followed the issue with every resource it’s had, covering every angle from assets to aqueducts, and even came through with a recent three-part series on the history of the Valley’s push to form its own city. But there has been little beyond the who-what-where-when-and-why’s and here’s what I think is behind it: The editors were too busy weeding out any attempt by their writers to analyze what they were reporting in an effort to make sure they weren’t one step ahead of those writing for the editorial page every single copy of which pro-secessionists ought to copy verbatim and use in their “Yes” campaign. Take the Times and you’ve got the same story pretty much in reverse, with one difference: The opinion pages have recently begun to note that the Valley secession movement is actually gathering steam. A collection of writers, business leaders and social commentators, for example, weighed in a week or two ago with their own takes on what being an Angeleno means. One contributor wrote from the perspective of her past life in the Valley and her new perch overlooking what sounded like the Verdugos, not the dirt roads and chicken farms of Pacoima. Times columnist Steve Lopez got on the bandwagon with his own for-or-against piece last week. Secession is gonna die, Lopez wrote after making a trip to the Valley to get a feel for where folks stood on the issue. Maybe. The Times’ own poll showed recently that a near-majority of voters citywide support secession and that the numbers who oppose the idea have dwindled over the last few years. We know where Lopez stands on the issue. And he may have thought he got an accurate view of what secession really means to Valley residents, but the problem is he got it from a few folks hanging around an upscale, air-conditioned coffeehouse near Ventura Boulevard in the middle of a workday. I suggest Lopez move a little farther north to places like Arleta or Sylmar where graffiti-plagued walls, dirt for sidewalks and the smell of poverty have been part of the neighborhood fabric for so long making the area more livable could be considered a threat. It’s pretty clear all the TV stations are looking for are good sound bites when they decide to do a secession story. Radio correspondents from local stations and even National Public Radio got in on the action during the historic vote May 22 to put the initiative on the ballot. Clearly, they all got what they were looking for. Hahn and LAFCO Commissioner Zev Yaroslavsky, also a county supervisor who represents the Westside and parts of the Valley, traded barbs for several minutes. He was just one of roughly 30 who signed up to speak during the public testimony period. I caught a few TV camera operators yawning. Why? Because, in typical fashion, Hahn didn’t make it to the podium until nearly two hours into the hearing. The poor guys had to sit through hours of dry legalese before they got their golden nugget. Maybe Shaw is headed in a direction that’s not yet on my radar, but it seems to me he’s only got to go back a few months for anything meaty, and there’re only a couple of outlets in town he needs to archive. Still, I was happy to see the news vans parked outside the Hall of Administration as I headed into the LAFCO hearing last week. Even if, once inside, they broke my concentration and blocked my view while clamoring for a shot of senior citizens in floppy hats and anti-secession slogans hand-scrawled in glitter across their T-shirts. That’s all right. I say: Welcome, it’s been lonely out here. Jacqueline Fox is politics reporter with the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. She can be reached at [email protected].

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