Go behind the news with L.A. Times Today on Spectrum News 1
Los Angeles Times Today airs on Spectrum News 1, Monday-Friday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
L.A. Times Today is a rare glimpse behind the headlines of the award-winning Los Angeles Times.
Join Spectrum News 1 anchor Lisa McRee as she interviews Times journalists and photographers covering local news, politics, business, entertainment, sports and opinion, every Monday through Thursday at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.
L.A. Times Today tells the stories behind the stories that resonate in California and around the world. For example, The Times always has a backstage pass at the Academy Awards. At this year’s show, we collected dispatches from the stage all night, reporting what you didn’t see on TV. Photographer Al Seib, who has worked the Oscars for three decades, shot the event from the rolling of the red carpet to the reactions of winners backstage.
The show also goes in-depth to tell the stories behind hard news. When DNA on genealogical websites led to suspects in the Golden State Killer case and a 1973 child killing in Newport Beach, L.A. Times Today helped explain what happened. In the video below, Times crime reporter Richard Winton tells how detectives used open-source genealogical databases to search for DNA that would lead them to a relative of the Golden State Killer, and eventually to the suspect himself. These same methods led to a suspect in the killing of 11-year-old Linda O’Keefe, which Winton describes as a crime that “haunted Newport Beach for decades.”
Viewers will also hear how reporters got their scoops. Below, Andrea Castillo describes her story on day laborer Eduardo Hernandez, an undocumented worker who was dying but hadn’t seen his family for a decade. Castillo explains that Hernandez probably lost contact with his family because after all his years and toil in the United States, he “still hadn’t made it” and was probably “depressed and ashamed.” His family in Mexico, however, opened their hearts to him. “It wasn’t surprising at all that they forgave him,” Castillo says. Responding to the mixed reaction among readers, Castillo notes that immigration stories often prompt strong feelings on both sides, but she wanted to present a “real picture of who this person was.”
