KCBS Starts ‘Ask the Mayor’ Segments Today

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley will open himself up to direct questions from local residents today as KCBS Channel 2 institutes an “Ask the Mayor” weekly segment on its 5 p.m. newscast.

For the first several weeks, Channel 2 will tape questions from people in various neighborhoods and Bradley, not knowing the questions in advance, will respond on the air live. In future weeks, the station hopes to include some live questions as well, said KCBS news director Jose Rios.

“This is not about throwing the mayor a bunch of softballs, and it’s not about crucifying him either,” Rios said. “We just want to provide at least a few of our viewers the chance to get direct feedback from the mayor. Some of the questions may be about heavy issues, like how to implement the Christopher Commission’s recommendations, and some might be as basic as somebody saying there’s a pothole in front of my house that no one will fix.”

Both Bradley and KCBS are committed to the segment for the next four weeks. If it goes well, it will continue indefinitely. Rios said the station might consider having mayors of other Southern California cities spell Bradley for a week.

Today’s segment will mark the first time Bradley has agreed to an interview on Channel 2 since he was enraged last March by the rough treatment he received from KCBS anchors Michael Tuck and Bree Walker in a live interview in the wake of the Rodney King beating. In that appearance, which a mayor’s spokesman called “the most slanted and biased interview our office has seen,” the anchors forcefully suggested that Bradley ought to resign.

But both Rios and Bill Chandler, a spokesman for the mayor, said Thursday that the “Ask the Mayor” segment had nothing to do with the previous interview. Rios explained that one of KCBS’ producers had produced a similar segment in New York with former Mayor Ed Koch and proposed it here.

Chandler said that the mayor answers calls and complaints from constituents on a daily basis, and is always eager to expand his opportunity to do so. While the mayor was disturbed about the March interview and engaged in subsequent discussions about it with KCBS management, Chandler said, it has not had any permanent impact on the mayor’s relationship with the station.