R.I.P., Ron Fineman

Before the year gets any older, I wanted to take a moment to remember local TV gadfly Ron Fineman, who died at the end of December at the age of 54.

Fineman filled a void in Los Angeles media, covering (and, more often, critiquing) the local TV news scene via his website On the Record. He pointed out when reporters missed a story, didn't ask the right questions or did their viewers a disservice by getting the news wrong.

Fineman also gave some of L.A.'s lightweight reporters and anchors a hard time. He famously gave KCOP/13's Lauren Sanchez the nickname "Rocks," because he believed she was just as bright as a box of, well, rocks. And he teased just about everyone by pointing out the use of "broadcasteze" -- on-air cliches that no one actually uses in every day conversation.

Because no one else regularly covers local TV (including the L.A. Times or Daily News, which just periodically weigh in on the beat), Fineman did a real service for the industry -- and his web site was so widely read, and hit everyone so hard, that it was sometimes mysteriously blocked from local TV station computers.

I never met Ron in person, but we emailed back and forth several times through the years. When I did write a story about local TV news for Variety, he'd be curious to learn more about what I knew. And likewise, if I wanted to know something about the L.A. TV news market, I'd sometimes hit him up for info.

On his site, Fineman had chronicled his battle with colon cancer over the past few years. As the disease spread, the once twice-a-week column began to only ocassionally get updated. Sadly, he died on Dec. 30 at a hospital in Santa Clarita.