A Historic Moment, Flippantly Treated

“U nless Los Angeles area viewers understood Mandarin Chinese or were willing to stay up past 2 a.m., they missed seeing Gov. Pete Wilson’s State of the State address on television. . . .”

The reference to Mandarin Chinese must have been confusing to readers of that opening paragraph in an article written about the lack of interest by all but two Los Angeles television stations in carrying the governor’s speech (Calendar, Jan. 10). In fact, it was a rather flippant handling of what was actually a historic moment in California politics.

And despite all of its discourse on the subject of multiculturalism and its impact on Los Angeles, The Times failed to recognize the significance of this first-ever simultaneous translation in Mandarin Chinese of a U.S. governor’s State of the State address.

Rather than focus on the positive aspects of how three organizations--the California Broadcasters Assn., AT&T;’s Language Line service and multilingual station KSCI-TV--combined their resources to serve a growing and important segment of the community, The Times devoted two stories (Calendar, Jan. 8, Jan. 10) to the subject of who didn’t carry the message.

While we can’t answer for the others, we can tell you why KSCI chose to carry the governor’s speech in its entirety, followed by a live special that included expert news analysis and commentary, as well as participation by viewers who phoned in to voice their own opinions about the governor’s remarks.

As a station serving the vast multicultural segment of the community in more than 14 different languages, we recognize our responsibility to keep viewers informed as well as entertained. Luckily, our viewers--including the area’s 325,000 Chinese-Americans--agree with that point of view. They want to know what is going on in their neighborhoods and their nation and how issues and events will affect their lives.

KSCI is proud to have played a part in this historic moment in California politics, and we salute the California Broadcasters Assn. and AT&T; for recognizing the importance of communicating to one of the largest segments of the state’s growing Asian Pacific American population.

The Times should not discount the importance of KSCI. As the face of Los Angeles changes, so do we in striving to meet the needs of the immigrant communities that are largely overlooked by the general media, including the Los Angeles Times. The Times has several columnists and reporters covering mainstream television. How about one column dedicated to programming on KSCI and other non-English broadcast services?

KSCI preempted a popular Chinese drama to carry the governor’s State of the State message, but we didn’t hear any complaints. The presentation was a phenomenal success, with viewers still calling the station with their comments on the governor’s speech long after the program ended. Would we do it again? You bet!

The CBA has already lined up satellite coverage of the upcoming political debates and has again arranged with AT&T;’s Language Line to provide simultaneous translation in Mandarin Chinese, and we have committed to carry the programs.

Californians should note that mainstream apathy is giving way to minority strength. Today’s immigrants are tomorrow’s voters. And KSCI is here to make sure these new voters are well informed.