Big Emmy Winners Include KMEX, Jon Weisman and Variety

Well, how about that. Two of my favorite former Variety colleagues (FYI, you're all my favorites) took home Emmy gold on Saturday night! I've been writing about the Los Angeles Area Emmy awards for years, but this year it truly hit home: Jon Weisman won the Emmy for Outstanding Sports Feature, having served as an associate producer on Time Warner Cable SportsNet L.A.'s "10,000 Wins" (on Access SportsNet Dodgers). And "Variety Studio: Actors on Actors," including executive producer Donna Pennestri (above, right), won the Outstanding Entertainment Programming Emmy on behalf of PBS SoCal.

Meanwhile, Spanish-language L.A. TV won the day in most of the key categories: NBC-owned Telemundo station KVEA won the top prize, the Regularly Scheduled Daily Evening Newscast (7 pm to Midnight) Emmy for Noticiero Telemundo 52 A Las 11 PM. Univision-owned KMEX won the Emmy for best morning newscast (4 am to 11 am) for Primera Edicion. And KMEX's 6 p.m. newscast tied with KVEA's 5:30 p.m. newscast for best daytime news.

KMEX led all stations with 9 awards, also including outstanding editor-programming (Antonio Camberos), outstanding news director (Horacio Cervantes), outstanding sports reporting (Diana Alvarado), outstanding investigative news reporting, outstanding hard news reporting (Antonio Valverde), outstanding light news story- multi-part report, and outstanding serious news story - multi-part report.

KVEA followed with seven Emmys, then Time Warner Cable SportsNet L.A. (six) and KTLA (five). KCBS' Pat Harvey was given the Governors' Award.

Why Does San Francisco Hate L.A.?

(Photo by Pretty Stems)

It's one of the great one-sided California battles: San Francisco can't stand L.A., while L.A. could care less. Josh Heller is an Angeleno who also admits a love for San Francisco; he writes about his attempt to finally unite "both So- and NorCals under the ideology of "PanCalifornianism." An excerpt:

I’d never call it San Fran or crowd the streetcars on my way to eat Ghiradelli chocolate and Boudin bread bowls of clam chowder at Fisherman’s Wharf. We’re Californian too! We respect your vibe man!

But many San Franciscans see it differently. You can be brutally attacked (read: coyly judged) for merely mentioning that you’re from Los Angeles.

Last summer my girlfriend and I went to a cafe on Warschauer Straße in Berlin. An American employee was excited to meet us because we could be audience to her joke about how her boss looks like Screech from Saved By The Bell. She was friendly when we told her we were from California, but when we explained we were from the south, she spent six minutes talking shit. All we wanted was our certified organic blueberry muffin and maybe to make another friend who spoke our language, so we could tell them about how our landlord looks like the German Mr. Belding. But no, she decided to stand by her NorCal values (NorCalVals) from 5,657 miles away.

Yet still, I hold no grudge.

Josh goes on to recount a wild stay in San Francisco. We're proud Angelenos who also enjoy time in SF, silly rivalries be damned.