Opinion: Rocky’s Roads

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Is there a teaching job open in the journalism school at USC?

Because City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo knows what’s news, all right.

He shouldn’t be surprised that his wife’s driving record -- smashing the back end of his official SUV while driving with a suspended license, and tooling around town in the family car with no insurance -- makes big headlines.

After all, his own office sent out an e-memo last December about what is ‘’newsworthy.’’ In the course of reminding attorneys in his criminal branch not to talk to the press without clearance, the e-mail offered some pointers on what makes news:

``Cases involving celebrities [no matter how minor],’’ along with ``cases involving an elected official, political figure, community leader or other notable person … ‘’

Class, we’ve got ourselves a twofer: Paris Hilton, a celebrity, drives on a suspended license, and goes to jail for probation violation – and Michelle Delgadillo, the wife of an elected official and political figure, drives her husband’s city-owned SUV on a suspended license and backs it into a pole -- and the city pays for the repairs, until Delgadillo writes a check nearly three years later.

What else makes news in the Delgadillo School of Journalism? When the victim sustains ``unusually serious injuries.’’ Hello, sweetheart, get me rewrite: it may turn out that the chief casualty of Delgadillo’s wife’s poor driving and his poor judgment … is his own political standing.