TV Reporter Brushes With Law for Story on Alcohol

Of the unwritten laws of journalism, one seems rather basic: Don’t break the law.

It seems simple enough. But it’s not always that easy, at least for some television reporters seeking to demonstrate all that is wrong about society.

KGTV (Channel 10) reporter Marti Emerald is an expert at the ambush interview. She’ll chase a subject down an alley, camera rolling, firing often-sarcastic questions at the alleged wrongdoer, who assumes the expression of a deer in the headlights of an oncoming car.

KNSD-TV (Channel 39) “investigative reporter” William La Jeunesse is also one of the increasingly common breed of television reporters in love with the ambush technique.

In a purely voyeuristic sense, La Jeunesse’s reports can make for some entertaining television. Take, for example, his recent report on drivers who have had their licenses revoked or suspended. With hidden cameras capturing the action, La Jeunesse followed people out of the courtroom and into the parking lot, where, lo and behold, they got into their cars, even though a judge had minutes earlier pulled their license.

The story has been done a thousand times, but it is always thrilling for an audience to see the reporter confront the poor guy getting into his car.

However, the technique can raise questions about ethical boundaries.

La Jeunesse may have crossed a few lines in a recent report about minors buying alcohol.

As part of the report, La Jeunesse and his crew asked minors to go into a series of La Mesa liquor stores to buy booze, while a hidden camera recorded the activity. Afterward, he took a camera into the stores to confront the clerks.

Since it is illegal for a minor to buy alcohol, it could be argued that La Jeunesse was an accessory to a crime, albeit a relatively minor one.

No law enforcement officials were involved in the operation, although before doing the story La Jeunesse contacted the local office of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Department and the San Diego Police Department (even though the operation took place in the city of La Mesa) for advice.

In general, law enforcement officials discourage such unsupervised “decoy” operations. Reached on Thursday, Steven Ernst, supervising investigator of the local ABC office, said he advised La Jeunesse that the best way to go about such a story would be to follow a San Diego police detail doing an official sting operation. But La Jeunesse said he wanted to do the story that night.

Ernst said he doesn’t recommend such activities, but he did direct Channel 39 toward La Mesa, because he felt enforcement is more difficult there. Although he said he generally doesn’t approve of the method, Ernst acknowledges that the Channel 39 report was an effective way of illustrating the ABC’s problem in enforcing the law.

“I had no problem with it,” Ernst said. “It expressed the story.”

Channel 39 News Director Irv Kass emphasized that the story was done for a “good purpose” with the knowledge of authorities. There was no deception; all concerned parties were told not to misrepresent themselves, including the minors. Minors were purposely chosen for their youthful appearance and, if asked, they were told to tell their real age, Kass said.

“It was designed to point out how easy it is to buy alcohol if you’re underage,” Kass said.

But the larger question is, simply, how far is too far? It is a question that is often debated in journalistic circles, with no clear answer. But even the most intrepid reporters agree that the ends rarely justify the means.

“What was the harm caused?” La Jeunesse asked. “Some may feel we overstepped” ethical boundaries in this case. “But I also think we demonstrated a point.”

The takeover of KRMX-FM (94.9) has been delayed, yet again. Now Anaheim Broadcasting is expected to take control from Sandusky Broadcasting on Dec. 3.

The principals were not forthcoming with any reasons for the delays, but calls to the Federal Communications Commission provided some clues. According to the FCC, there is nothing from the Washington end holding up the sale, and the FCC granted its approval in September.

Even more interesting, according to the sale contract on file with the FCC, the station is being sold for $7.5 million. That is quite different from the $10.1 million price announced when Sandusky made the sale public in July.

All this suggests that financing questions and maybe some hardball negotiating have caused the delays. Anaheim principal Tim Sullivan, who will move down to San Diego once the sale is complete, would say only that the holdup is “more of a logistical thing.”

Former KFMB-TV (Channel 8) weatherman Larry Mendte is off to Chicago for two months to do reporting and fill-in anchoring for WBBM-TV, the CBS owned and operated affiliate. . . .

Channel 8 has been stirring things up at the Sheriff’s Department with its series of interviews with deputies, electronically disguised, who have been revealing tidbits about the inner workings of the department. . . .

Contrary to a published report, former KPBS producers Anasa Briggs-Graves and Sarah Luft have reached verbal agreements to settle their lawsuits against the station, according to their attorney Lloyd Tooks. Briggs-Graves, who is black, was charging race discrimination; Luft sex discrimination. Both lost their jobs in last year’s “reorganization.” . . .

The normally responsive San Diego Zoo refused to send a representative to discuss its handling of animals to Channel 39’s “San Diego Headliners.” It may be that the zoo didn’t like reporter Michael Settonni’s recent series that tracked some of the zoo’s sold animals to a hunting ranch in Texas. . . .

According to “Hard Copy,” which appears to specialize in features on porn stars, “Rolodex Madam” Karen Wilkening “brought mew meaning to ‘reach out and touch someone.’ ”