One Reporter Who Made a Difference

Three deaths this winter had an impact on Los Angeles journalism.

You’ve heard a lot about two of them, the closing of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the death of Bill Stout, commentator for television station KCBS. The third was the death of someone less well-known, Joyce Peterson, who had spent many years covering City Hall and the county Hall of Administration for City News Service and the Daily News.

The newspaper and the two journalists helped shaped the public perception of government actions and, at times, the actions themselves. That happens when news coverage impels officials to do something: For example, public reaction to stories on the homeless freezing forces government to build shelters.

Stout and the Herald were highly visible players in this process. The Herald spurred things with its choice of stories, many of them then pursued by competing papers. Stout, a populist with a big-city manner, prodded officials with acerbic commentaries.

Peterson, who was retired from journalism at the time of her death, illustrated another, less visible part of the process. She engaged in the daily grind of journalism, examining the agendas of City Council and the county supervisors, running from meeting to meeting, gathering quotes, and turning out three, four or five stories a day.

A glamorous job? Nope. But more influential than you might expect.

I met her when I was a local government reporter. Like many of us, Peterson was driven by obsessive curiosity and a competitive desire to get the story first. And she was tricky.

After a news event, she’d say, “This was really boring.” At first, I thought this meant she wasn’t going to write the story, and I didn’t have to, either. But she always did write and my editors always saw it. I learned that the meaning of “this was really boring” was that she was trying to steer me from the story.

Peterson was a talented, respected reporter who worked against considerable odds. Her sight was so bad that she couldn’t drive. She took the bus to work. When she wrote, her eyes were inches away from the typewriter and, later, the computer screen.

She waited in hallways for hours for some public official to come out and lie to her about what had transpired behind closed doors. Then she’d make many phone calls to determine the extent of the lie.

This isn’t a nice way to make a living. Few people other than cops or sales people would put up with the waiting. Several years ago, for example, my boss ordered me to the County Hall of Administration to verify a tip that a county supervisor was dying of cancer. His family and staff were trying to keep it a secret.

The supervisor’s chief assistant said he wouldn’t talk to me. I said I’d wait. I had newspapers to read and plenty of time. I sat in the waiting room for two days, waiting long enough to get an answer that satisfied my editor.

You might ask, what’s the purpose of such behavior?

In the case of the supervisor, it was important because the sick man’s friends were trying to line up a successor before his death to assure continued county favoritism for industries in the district. Constituents deserved to know what was going on. They might have wanted someone else.

Peterson made her impact on government in a subtle way.

Each day, reporters at City Hall and the County Hall of Administration are confronted with meeting agendas that are several pages long. In addition, there are press conferences and unscheduled events. It’s an overwhelming amount of work and reporters cannot cover it all. So each reporter picks and chooses.

Let’s say the mayor is holding a press conference to promote recycling. Since he already announced his recycling program last week, this one is not covered. On the other hand, there’s a vote coming in the council’s Police Committee about more police foot patrols. Everyone’s concerned about crime. That’s the one that will be covered. That’s the news the public will get.

When Peterson worked for City News Service, her decisions were particularly important. City News Service distributes stories to papers and broadcast stations, and tips them off on coming events. If Peterson made an event sound intriguing, television cameras might also cover it. Or all-news radio stations might dispatch a reporter.

Part of what influenced her was her belief in the public’s right to know. But much of it was intangible--what was hot, or at least sounded hot to her. Her decisions were also shaped by what other events were occurring in the news and how much time she had.

In this way, rank-and-file reporters like Peterson make news decisions that determine what goes into the papers, and what is seen on television or heard on the radio. From that often comes public outrage and political action.

Joyce Peterson was a valuable part of that process and she’ll be missed.