Bernardi to Turn Tables on Reporters in New Show

The often opinionated and sometimes boisterous Ernani Bernardi will temporarily trade his councilman’s seat for moderator’s chair when he presents a televised current affairs program that will be a local version of “Washington Week in Review.”

Dubbed “Los Angeles News in Review,” the first half-hour show airs at 8 p.m. today on Channel 45, United Cable Television, which serves more than 50,000 east San Fernando Valley households. It will be taped an hour earlier, and Bernardi says he may distribute the tape to other cable stations in the Los Angeles area in hopes of wider airing.

The show is scheduled to run every two weeks.

Bernardi’s effort is not unique among Los Angeles City Council members, most of whom appear at least occasionally on cable television talk shows. But his show will be the first designed to feature newspaper reporters--instead of politicians, city staff or community members--talking about current events.

Bernardi said he got the idea after becoming disgusted with the fact that most people rely on television for their news. “What do you get from television? Nothing,” he said. So he decided to bring the print medium to the tube.

Bradley Investigation

Topics to be covered tonight include the investigation of Mayor Tom Bradley, recommendations of the City Council’s Ethics Commission and the city’s garbage disposal problems. Reporters scheduled to appear are Bill Boyarsky of the Los Angeles Times, Rick Orlov of the Los Angeles Daily News and John Schwada of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner.

The set will resemble “Washington Week in Review’s”: an oval table, stark lighting, subdued background. Scott Merrifield, manager of studio operations at United Cable, said the only remaining question is whether to use the studio’s only plant--fondly named Oscar--in the background.

Despite his reputation for feistiness and lengthy speeches before the council, Bernardi has promised to let the reporters do most of the on-camera talking unless “it seems as though it’s falling down a little or slowing down. Then I’ll pose a question.”

Topics under consideration for future shows reflect some of Bernardi’s pet peeves and issues pertinent to his northeast San Fernando Valley district: immigration, crime, gangs, overdevelopment, crowded housing and unpaid police overtime.

Bernardi said he will have no qualms about cutting guests off if they drone on beyond the nine minutes each is allotted for presenting and discussing an issue.

“I’ll butt in when the time is up,” Bernardi said. “Don’t worry.”

Because Channel 45 is a public access channel--an electronic town square that allows all comers time to air whatever they please--if the discussion goes overtime in the studio, it will run longer on television too.

“We have no editorial power whatsoever,” Merrifield said. “We’re not editing what is said, just trying to make sure it looks good.”

Community college students will tape the show, smooth it out and broadcast it.

With city funds, Bernardi hired Erwin Baker, a retired Times reporter, as the show’s producer. Baker covered City Hall for 21 years and said he hopes to rely on relationships developed with reporters during his career to fill the program’s guest lists for months to come.

“There’s a great source of expert opinion represented by reporters in this town,” Baker said. “All I can say is the three people I asked this time were not reluctant.”

Both men agree that the show’s development was more coincidence than plan.

Bernardi has wanted to do something like the show for more than a year. But he said he had to put the idea on hold when he was forced into a runoff election last spring.

Baker had been working part-time producing an employee newsletter for the Los Angeles Unified School District. When funding for Baker’s newsletter was cut in August, he sent letters to several council members offering to do public relations work.

2 Plans Converge

The two plans converged earlier this month. Public access television, required by the City Council in granting cable franchises, provided the vehicle.

After reviewing hours of “Washington Week in Review” tapes, a format was chosen, guests were lined up and a time to air the show was negotiated with United Cable.

In fact, the show’s title was chosen less than two weeks ago. Bernardi wanted a name that would remind viewers of “Washington Week in Review” and allow him to include issues outside City Hall. When he and Baker decided to do the show every two weeks, any titles that mentioned “week” were rejected.

A list circulated among reporters and others at City Hall included “Inside L.A.,” “Inside City Hall” and Baker’s favorite, “Byline Los Angeles.”

Bernardi didn’t like it.

“I didn’t even know what that meant,” Bernardi said of Baker’s choice. “What kind of jargon is that?”

Baker said they will wing it--using mistakes from the first program to improve the second and so on. Although tonight’s show will be taped, future shows may be broadcast live.