New Channel 2 News Director Sets Off a Storm : Television: Since John Lippman’s arrival at KCBS the level of newsroom discontent has reportedly risen, much of it focusing on the direction of news coverage.

So this is what Channel 2 means by “Action News.”

The storms that have buffeted Southern California are now being matched by turbulence at KCBS, the troubled, CBS-owned flagship station in Los Angeles.

For one thing, Channel 2 has had to cope with the petulant behavior of two of its anchors, Bree Walker and Michael Tuck. Their recent jaw-to-jaw, expletive-spewing, screaming match in the Channel 2 newsroom--prompted by derogatory comments Tuck made about Walker’s husband, Jim Lampley, in a magazine article--was the talk of the station.

Anchor spats, however, are not what most ails KCBS.

Instead, the station’s destructive 100-m.p.h. wind is said by many there to be news director John Lippman, 42. Since blowing in from Seattle six weeks ago with an apparent mandate to make sweeping, cost-cutting changes, he reportedly has alienated much of the staff while creating a climate of fear in the newsroom and dragging “Action News” down into the muddy abyss of tabloids.

News directors have come and gone in Los Angeles, some of them intensely disliked by their staffs. Never within memory, however, has there been this level of discontent at a station. Said one staffer: “We’re all hanging our heads in shame.”

It’s no wonder. Boomed a recent 5 p.m. news headline on KCBS: “Real live sex slaves and their captors!”

Along with economy-dictated budget cuts, the tabloid disease has been spreading across television like an ugly fungus, the guilty parties ranging from “Entertainment Tonight” to the usual suspects in local news. A recent ratings-sweeps story on KABC-TV Channel 7, for example, trumpeted the “dangers of douching!”

It was Channel 2, however, that recently became the city’s first station to poll viewers on “the sexiest woman in Hollywood,” followed by its poll on “the sexiest man in Hollywood.” It was Channel 2 that aired “Southern California’s Most Wanted,” an 11 p.m. news series on criminals that was set to creepy music. And when it comes to absurdly gratuitous live shots--designed only to impress viewers--Channel 2 has now zoomed ahead of its competition.

A storm alert coincided with Lippman’s arrival at KCBS. It consisted of condolence cards sent by some of his former staff members at KIRO-TV in Seattle. One, which Lippman was seen ripping from a bulletin board, was a Valentine: “Roses are red, violets are blue, you have our news director, and our sympathies too.”

The warnings appear to have been justified. Based on the descriptions of 20 newsroom sources (all but one speaking on the condition that their names not be revealed), what Lippman has done at Channel 2 so far ranges from outright repression to “Geraldo-ization.” Says one news staff member: “He’s pimping away the credibility of our news.” Says another: “He’s cruel and mean.” And still another: “He’s slime.”

To vice president and general manager Steve Gigliotti, though, KCBS’ new news director is doing “an outstanding job. The vast majority here feel that, for the first time, there’s direction and someone here who understands news.”

KCBS’ ratings have risen dramatically since Lippman’s arrival, at least in part because of last month’s high-rated Winter Olympics coverage on CBS. It remains to be seen whether the improvement is long-term.

Some changes instituted by Lippman indicate a desire to drive up ratings primarily by staging self-aggrandizing stunts and putting on a show. For example, virtually all of Channel 2’s live reports are now followed by anchors asking questions of reporters. The purpose is not journalism, but to demonstrate the anchors’ concern and involvement with the news. The practice is not new. What’s new is the extent to which it is being employed at Channel 2.

Lippman’s staff memos reflect his intense interest in stagecraft. “He wants to do lively, entertaining shows, not the news,” said one staffer. Buried deep in a two-page memo praising KCBS’ storm coverage, for example, was the following: “We learned to milk the drama from live situations, (moving) from live shot to live shot, allowing anchors to use pauses to increase the drama. . . .”

As if the news itself weren’t dramatic enough.

Also alarming some staffers is Lippman’s astonishing new policy of not requiring reporters to show their copy to anyone before putting it on the air. Just like live TV, in other words, there are no safety nets.

Other actions that have prompted anger toward Lippman include his withering array of personnel shifts and the reportedly ruthless manner in which he deals with people on a personal basis. The word intimidation often surfaces in talk about him. “He looks for the thing you want most, then takes it away from you, because that represents control,” a source said.

For example, Ernie Arboles, a former KCBS producer who has won two Emmys and three Golden Mike awards, said that Lippman gave no reason--even after being pressed to do so--for removing him last month as producer of the 5 p.m. newscast. Before producing the 5 p.m. newscast, Arboles had produced the 6 p.m. newscast since 1987. “Ernie busted his butt and Lippman just yanked him,” one newsroom source said.

“I have compassion for the people who are going to remain here because they are going to have to deal with a tyrant like this,” said Arboles, who left the station Friday for a news job at KNBC Channel 4. “People are not rags to be thrown away when you’re done with them.”

Then there was the case of Virginia Pearson, a newsroom receptionist for 25 years. A woman in her late 60s whose duties consisted of answering the phone and doing light paperwork, Pearson was three weeks from retirement when Lippman ordered her to begin typing material she had always written out by hand. Based on what Pearson told other staffers, her terse conversation with Lippman went like this: “I don’t know how to type,” she protested. “You’ll learn tonight,” he replied.

In an interview, Lippman insisted that Pearson, who retired Friday, did indeed know how to type. Asked about Arboles, Lippman said that he had some “communications problems” in the booth, but that “I have a lot of respect for Ernie. He is a good producer.” Make that ex-producer.

“I absolutely respect people,” Lippman argued in response to hearing of complaints to the contrary, “and I’m thrilled with the Channel 2 staff.” He said he wasn’t surprised that he would be criticized. “Change is difficult, change is painful,” he said. “My only motivation is for Channel 2 to be a success.”

He said he also wasn’t surprised that staffers were fearful, given his reputation (his former staff nicknamed him the “Prince of Darkness”) and Channel 2’s own tempestuous history. “Some people have worked themselves into a white fear over a myth that came down from Seattle,” he said. “And there is also the history of rapid turnover at KCBS. I’m trying not to have that happen.”

Lippman denied rumors that he wants to make things so unpleasant at KCBS that its high-salaried journalists (the average salary for field reporters is about $150,000) would leave on their own so that he could replace them with lower-priced employees from smaller markets. But he added, somewhat ominously for the present staff: “I come from a station where we did twice as much news than KCBS with a third fewer people.”

Even among some of Lippman’s critics, there is a feeling that change was in order. KCBS has long been mired in third place among the local network-owned stations, and employees have watched one quick-fix savior after another being parachuted in by CBS and then abruptly yanked out as if at the end of a yo-yo.

“Granted, we were kind of stuck in old habits, and we needed to break out of that and be more competitive,” Arboles acknowledged. “But now it’s gone in the extreme.”

How extreme? According to sources:

* To hold the “Geraldo” audience, Lippman has mandated that the 5 p.m. newscast each day have a direct tie-in with Geraldo Rivera’s syndicated talk show, resulting, for example, in recent extensive coverage of Rivera having fat cells transferred from his buttocks to other areas of his body to smooth wrinkles. When “Geraldo” did a segment Monday on blondes, moreover, Channel 2 echoed that in its 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts (“Are they dumber or smarter?” anchor Chris Conangla asked about blondes) by having entertainment reporter Steve Kmetko manufacture a related story. In effect, Rivera is dictating news assignments for the CBS-owned station. Perhaps significantly, Channel 2 executive producer Michael Horowicz himself joined the station two years ago from “Geraldo.”

Lippman denies making direct “Geraldo” tie-ins a must, but his actions and newscasts speak for themselves. For example, on the day that Rivera’s topic was sex slaves, Lippman strode through the newsroom exclaiming: “We’ve got to find some sex slaves in Los Angeles!” They did. “We would not have done it if there had not been a local angle,” he said. In other words, no Peoria sex slaves for Channel 2. Good journalists have to draw the line somewhere.

* With three crews on the assignment, Channel 2 joined other local stations in obscenely over-covering Liz Taylor’s recent 60th birthday party at Disneyland. But his first thought was to have reporter Harvey Levin enter the park as a paying spectator that day, then hide in a bathroom or some other place so that he could remain after closing time and file live cellular phone reports on the party.

Lippman acknowledged being “comfortable” about hiding a reporter inside the park “if it would have gotten us exclusive information” on Taylor’s party, but he said he abandoned the idea upon realizing that the party was a media event. Then why still have Kim Marriner reporting live from a chopper above the park? “We overdid it,” Lippman admitted.

During last month’s storm coverage, Lippman ordered reporters in the field not to carry umbrellas. Sources say the purpose was theater. “ ‘Action News’ is not umbrellas,’ he told staffers, ‘Action News’ is wet in the rain.” Seeing the station’s medical reporter, Dr. Howard Torman, in the newsroom, Lippman ordered him to do a storm-related story. “What kind of story?” Torman asked. “I don’t care,” Lippman replied. “Just go out and get wet.”

Commenting on the Torman incident, Lippman said: “I didn’t want to be presumptuous to tell him what the story was. It was not my field.” Lippman said he issued the no-umbrellas order for only one reason: “Because umbrellas get in the way of the shot. We’ve got to see the reporters.”

Lippman seems to have had a change of heart, though. On Monday, the day after he vigorously defended his no-umbrella policy, three Channel 2 reporters did use umbrellas while reporting in the rain. Their faces were fully visible.

* Channel 2 and other stations aired dramatic footage of one of the February storm’s worst tragedies, 15-year-old Adam Bischoff being swept to his death by the strong current of the swollen Los Angeles River. Unlike other stations, though, Channel 2 used that footage as part of a promo for its storm coverage that ran several times the next day, once accompanied by the song “Riders on the Storm.” It was appalling.

Lippman said that he was unaware of the promo, but that if it did run in that form, “I don’t think it was a good idea.”

* In a story that led two Channel 2 newscasts, Levin accompanied a camera crew to the home of a man accused of molesting his 13-year-old daughter, identified the man and briefly interviewed him through the front door. By identifying the accused molester, Levin, in effect, also revealed the identity of his daughter.

Lippman’s account of what happened: “This was one where I was not interfering in the reporter’s story. I think what we did was consistent with Channel 2’s past practice. Obviously we would do our best not to identify a victim in a situation like that. I think we did our best not to do that. My belief is that we did not identify the daughter in that situation. In news you have to walk a very careful line, and sometimes you make mistakes. In this story, which was worth covering, we need to use it as a textbook case in making sure we don’t inadvertently identify the victim or the accused.”

Meanwhile, the “action” continues. “What we’re doing,” lamented one KCBS staffer, “is using the techniques and credibility of news journalism to create entertainment and sell a product.”

Someone mentioned that Edward R. Murrow must be turning in his grave about now. If he were, rest assured that John Lippman would send a crew to cover it live.

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