San Bernardino Aftermath: Thursday's Newspaper Front Pages

Per the Los Angeles Times' Henry Fuhrmann, who posted this on his Twitter feed: "Here's today's almost-final front page. (The edition just now sent to press has a few changes.)"

Below, the San Bernardino Sun's Thursday front. (The Sun's sister paper, the L.A. Daily News, sports an identical cover.)

Anatomy of the David Letterman News Break: How It All Went Down, Step By Step

April 3, 1:03 p.m. (PT): R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills, performing on Thursday night's edition of "Late Show with David Letterman," sends out this Tweet to his approximately 1300 followers:

1:05 p.m.: TV Guide Magazine's Rob Moynihan, a big R.E.M. fan and likely the only TV reporter among Mills' small group of followers, sees the Tweet -- and checks Mills' Twitter feed. He sees that Mills had earlier Tweeted about his guest stint on Letterman that night, and suspects that Mills really is Tweeting about Dave's retirement:

1:10 p.m.: I see Rob's Tweet, and immediately suspected that big news was indeed upon us:

1:10ish p.m.: CNN's Brian Stelter sees Rob's Tweet also, and retweets it. Stelter has more than 200,000 followers, so once he does so, the news is out there. Everyone is off and running.

1:19 p.m.: Stelter confirms the news on his Twitter account:

1:40 p.m.: Everyone frantically calls CBS and Letterman's camp, but they're not responding yet. Perhaps thrown for a bit of a loop by Mills' Tweet, although it was clear they'd be putting the news out soon anyway. So it takes until 1:40 for Deadline to send out their news alert:

1:40 p.m.: Also by then, the radio interview requests start coming in (I eventually spoke to KNX Los Angeles, WTOP Washington and KFBK Sacramento on Thursday):

1:45 p.m.: Deadline sends out a second news alert.

1:47 p.m.: Variety's news alert goes out.

1:50 p.m.: The Hollywood Reporter's news alert arrives.

1:50 p.m.: Letterman's press relations firm makes it official:

2:14 p.m.: CBS follows up with their own statement.

2:30 p.m.: Barely an hour after the news was confirmed, Letterman analysis pieces already start posting, including this smart one by Brian Lowry:

2:40 p.m.: The body's barely cold, but speculation -- including some outlandish choices -- about post-Letterman scenarios are already everywhere:

4:45 p.m.: Letterman releases the full nearly 10 minute video from that night's show where he announces his retirement. Every news site quickly reposts.

5:05 p.m.: By early evening, sites have already put together slide shows and other clicky clicks on the future of CBS' "Late Show":

Also by early evening, Letterman's YouTube channel posts this backstage interview with Mike Mills on how he broke the news:

7:25 p.m.: Even Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is getting into the act, asking CBS to move the new "Late Show" to Los Angeles. Keep in mind, this news is just six hours old.

9:30 p.m.: By now, it's already on to David Letterman career retrospectives. He's still doing the show for another year, but looks like this will be The Longest Goodbye.

10:12 p.m.: Mike Mills is strangely getting into Twitter fights with people who thought the musician ruined Letterman's announcement. (Mills points out that the audience of 300 would have spilled the beans awfully quick anyway.)

Postscript: Mills now has 2,890 followers (and counting) -- having added around 1500 in the past day.

KCBS Airs Prank Call During Dorner Coverage (VIDEO)

It's always dangerous to air unverified phone calls live on TV, and indeed, the KCBS/KCAL duopoly just got pranked. The station put on a guy claiming to be "Mike Taugher" from the U.S. Fish and Game Commission -- but clearly it wasn't. Luckily for the station, the worst thing the caller said was "dumbass," which is not one of the FCC seven dirty words. Nonetheless, it's a reminder to stations to fully vet callers before putting them on live. The caller was referencing Ronnie the Limo Driver, Howard Stern's head of security.

(If for some reason this video doesn't work, watch it on YouTube here.)

The Times' Deadline Problem

The Jerry Sandusky verdict came down on Friday at 10 p.m. Eastern -- 7 p.m. Pacific. That's a scramble for the East Coast newspapers to get something, anything on their front pages. For the West Coast, however, it was a breeze. Plenty of time to tear up P1 and get the biggest news of the day on the cover.

Except at the L.A. Times. As is well known by now, the LAT shuts the door on the "A" news section at 6 p.m., as Tribune uses the press to print other papers as well. The "LATEXTRA" section was created in order to catch late-breaking news, and indeed Saturday's LATEXTRA bannered the Sandusky news. But for folks glancing at the Saturday page one covers from all over the region, the news was strangely absent from the L.A. Times. Here's how other papers nearby covered it:



Above: the Bakersfield Californian, Daily Breeze, Daily News, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and the Sacramento Bee.

Dodger Thoughts on the McCourt Sale: 'Deliverance'

Tuesday night's big Dodgers news -- that villain Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the team -- quickly set L.A. abuzz, and over at my pal Jon Weisman's Dodger Thoughts, he summed the news up quite nicely:

We have worried, we have raged, we have sulked, we have sworn, we have screamed, we have sighed, we have yearned, we have cried. Outside we have tried to fight, and inside, more than a little, we have died.

But now, deliverance. Deliverance to what, we don't know. But deliverance nonetheless.

[snip]

My friends, it's time to have some fun.

Jon notes that the folks behind Save the Dodgers will hold a celebratory rally tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Dodger Stadium.

It's Tough to Be 5 Years Old in Southern California

Yikes. Perhaps it's because we have our own 5-year-old, the Blogger Kid. But I've noticed a recent rise in bad news surrounding 5-year-olds in the area, as reported by the L.A. Times:

Girl, 5, shot in cheek as family drives on South L.A. street

Compton man charged in death of 5-year-old niece

Parents left 5-year-old boy asleep in car while they got high, Orange County officials say

5-year-old calls 911 after father kills mother, self

That, folks, is from just TWO DAYS worth of posts at the L.A. Times' L.A. Now blog. What's more, it doesn't even include the similarly devastating posts about kids of other ages (particularly 3 and 6) that have also been impacted in the last few days.

Southern California: STOP IT.

David Letterman's Confession

What a bizarre, and rather sad, story. When I first tweeted the news of the extortion attempt against David Letterman -- and his admission that he has had sexual relations with staff members -- I got a lot of unusual responses from people:

That's a pretty serious thing to be throwing around on Twitter. What's your source?

and

is your Twitter HACKED?

Here's my updated story in Variety about the news, and how Letterman handled it on Thursday's show. It appeared like the audience wasn't sure at first whether Letterman was doing a bit, or if he was serious. It didn't help that Dave kept nervously making quips while explaining the situation. (That led to one point where the audience laughed -- and a serious Dave asked, "Why is that funny?").

An excerpt:

"I get to looking through it and there's a letter in the package and it says, 'I know that you do some terrible, terrible things. And I can prove that you do these terrible things.' Sure enough, contained in the package was stuff to prove that I do terrible things," Letterman said on Thursday's edition of CBS' "Late Show."

The host said the alleged extortion suspect claimed he planned to write both a movie screenplay and a book based on what he knew -- that Letterman had engaged in sex with staffers.

"He's going to take all the terrible stuff he knows about my life -- and according to this packet, there seems to be a lot of terrible stuff he knows about -- and he's going to put it into a movie unless I give him some money," he said. "That's a little hinky. I just want to reiterate how terrifying this moment is. Because there's something very insidious about, is he standing down there, is he hiding under the car, am I going to get a tap on the shoulder?"

Letterman said the individual threatened to go public with the allegations unless Letterman paid the person $2 million.

The host, under advisement of his attorney, met with the man on three different occasions. According to Letterman, the suspect even made it clear he knew what he was doing was illegal.

Letterman told his audience that he then contacted the Manhattan District Attorney's Special Prosecution Bureau.

"I had to tell them how I was disturbed by this I was worried for myself, I was worried for my family, I felt menaced by this, and I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I have done that were going to be exposed," he said.

Letterman was obviously distracted the rest of the show. Meanwhile, I'll be on NBC's Today show tomorrow to talk more about the news...

Was Assemblyman Mike Duvall's Scandal-Led Resignation Foretold on His Website?

Perhaps we should've known all along that California Republican Mike Duvall would wind up resigning in disgrace. (Check out all the lurid details of Duvall's affair with a lobbyist here -- and read how this idiot bragged about his conquests near a live, open microphone. Smart dude.)

Why? Check out the banner photo on his website, as also seen above. Look at the prominently displayed presidential seal in front of Duvall. Here's a closer glimpse:



Yep, Duvall's main web photo features him speaking at a podium emblazoned with Richard Nixon's name. Ahh, two scandal-ridden, forced-to-resign politicos in a pod!

Are L.A.'s Local TV Stations Back to Their Old Car Chase Habit?

Over at Variety.com, I go into more depth on Monday's strange Bentley car chase.

At least one local news director, KNBC's Bob Long, admits now that covering the chase was a colossal waste of time. But given the rumors that a person of note (a.k.a., Chris Brown) may be behind the wheel, they made the call to dump the 11 p.m. newscast in favor of telecasting the pursuit:

"On rare occasions we'll make them a part of regular newscasts if it seems to rise to the level of legitimate news," said KNBC news director Bob Long, who's been vocal in the past on his dislike of televised chases. "This one smelled like it might. We got some information that turned out to be incorrect, that a person of some prominence was involved."

But it wasn't Brown - and Long admitted that covering the chase wound up being a mistake.

"It was a wasted newscast, and I feel terrible about that," he said. "It irritates my serious news watchers. I got a lot of unpleasant mail today, and I answered everybody to explain my thinking."

While Long was wringing his hands, others may also be wondering whether blowing out their newscasts - and giving up that ad revenue (some of which will likely be recouped via makegoods) - was the right call.

But there's also likely some unrepentant news directors out there who feel that police chases - and the increased ratings that usually pop during the broadcast - are good for business.

"There are some people in our business who get a huge kick out of moving that needle," Long said. "But that's a meaningless number. It represents people who are in constant motion through the dial, who don't actually watch anything."

More here.

Although 25 Now Confirmed Dead, Metrolink Disaster Remains a Local Story

Time to once again rate the front pages. Two days after the Friday evening Metrolink disaster, 25 people are now confirmed dead -- and the story rightfully still dominates the headlines in the region's newspapers. But if you pull back and look at the rest of the country, it's Hurricane Ike that's dominating coverage. Actually, that's even true in the rest of California. The Metrolink tragedy doesn't even warrant a front page mention in the San Francisco Chronicle, strangely enough. (Perhaps because it's day two... but with so much news coming out on Saturday about what might have happened, you'd think SF readers would be interested enough for it to warrant a tiny mention on P1).

Above, for a second day, the LA Times goes with a powerful image of the destruction of the Metrolink train. The Daily News, however, opts to go with a dull shot of... the train tracks. This picture doesn't convey any of the tragedy or even make you pay attention. Quite a dull choice. And that headline? "Point of No Return" -- really, we gotta go with a cheesy cliche this soon?



The Bakersfield Californian asks the question on everyone's mind: Why didn't the engineer stop? It's quite a busy front page -- kudos for managing to get a regional, national and local story all out there, but with so many refers it's impossible to count, and even an ad, it's a mess. Meanwhile, I'm surprised that La Opinion -- with its snappy headline -- put the actual story inside.

The Santa Barbara News-Press may be a mess behind the scenes, but they at least can put together a smart-looking front page. The Ventura County Star goes the most emotional of the bunch -- a shot of LAPD officers saluting their fallen comrade, combined with a list of the 25 who died. (I would have expected the Daily News to go this route.)

The Daily Breeze, interestingly, plays up the USC game bigger than any other local paper -- and in a way, provides a nice, upbeat contrast to the pics of destruction also on the page. I approve -- good way to provide some relief. And then there's the Orange County Register... which I guess figured the San Fernando Valley isn't local enough for them. 

Did You Hear the Boom?

The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at Edwards AFB, here in Southern California, at 12:49 p.m., complete with trademark sonic booms:

Atlantis crossed the Pacific and glided to a stop at 12:49 p.m. on a runway at Edwards Air Force Base in California. NASA managers had hoped to land the shuttle in Florida, but bad weather forced them to abandon that plan.

"Welcome back," Mission Control told Atlantis. "Congratulations on a great mission." Controllers praised the crew for providing a "stepping stone to the rest of NASA's exploration plan."

Atlantis' return from NASA's first manned flight of the year was marked by its trademark twin sonic booms that were heard from San Diego to Los Angeles. After deploying its parachute, the shuttle came to rest on the concrete runway under mostly sunny skies.

Damn -- how did I miss the booms?! In past Edwards landings, the sonic booms have shaken the windows here in the office.

BREAKING NEWS: Paris Hilton Back to Jail! Local TV News Teams Overwhelmed with Breaking News!

Covering the coverage:



KNBC/NBC4 wins the top RED ALERT prize for employing not one, but two red "Breaking News" bars to cover the turn of events. Even the eventual nuclear holocaust would only garner one red bar, methinks.



KABC/ABC7 comes up with the best, and most effective headline: "Screaming Paris Sent Back to Jail." It's simpler than KNBC/NBC4's wordy headline, and much more descriptive/fun/tragic/evil than KCBS/CBS2's or the surprisingly tame KTTV/Fox11 one.



KCBS wins for best photo. That closeup of teary-eyed Paris, combined with those slew of slide shows (I especially love "Hot Billionaire Heiresses" -- dude, that's gonna triple CBS2.com's web stats today, guaranteed).


C'mon, KTTV/Fox11, there's no time to watch Fox shows online when I want for free -- didn't you hear? Paris Hilton is back in f'ing jail!