Channel 8 Feature: Promotion as News

There was this weird, detached tone to the Ted Leitner feature on last week’s “Assignment San Diego,” the KFMB-TV (Channel 8) news magazine. Repeated references to “the station” went unexplained, as if “the station” wasn’t the very same station that employed Leitner and produced and promoted this puff.

Though it had the veneer of being open and revealing, the concept of the 14-minute Leitner feature was the type of unabashed self-promotion that modern TV managers try to keep away from their news departments.

Channel 8 management apparently felt no aching ethical qualms about airing a feature on its own sports personality during a news program--the local equivalent of “60 Minutes” airing a feature on Mike Wallace or ABC’s “20/20” doing a feature on ABC’s Joan Lunden. . . .

Oh, wait, “20/20” did do a feature on Joan Lunden.

So, it’s really an accepted thing in television news. No big deal.

Maybe next week Channel 8 will do a feature on intense anchorwoman Susan Peters, titled “The Sensitive Journalist and Her Voice Coach.” Or maybe KGTV (Channel 10), which has a flair for the self-promotional, will produce a series about Stephen Clark, “The sensitive anchorman discusses his problems deciding which suit to wear.”

During “Assignment San Diego,” Leitner said television critics who criticize his performance or complain about the inequities of the system are “idiots” who know nothing about television. He’s probably right.

Leitner, who is easily the most recognizable name in local news, shouldn’t feel any remorse that he makes a healthy six-figure income while a dozen station employees are laid off. Management should, but not Leitner. He’s just playing the game.

Leitner’s callous dismissal about why his status is secure while other employees were recently laid off at Channel 8 is also accurate. He explained on “Assignment San Diego” that management pays him the big bucks because the audience “doesn’t watch or listen specifically for the writers or producers.” And it says quite a bit about television news.

Of course, given Channel 8’s ratings, it could be argued that not too many people are tuning in to see Leitner these days, but that’s the nit-picking of an idiot critic.

In the course of the interview, conducted with Leitner sitting on the white couch of his Fairbanks Ranch house, he revealed some of his personal side, including details of a troubled childhood. Reporter Maria Velasquez read from Leitner’s autobiography, although she didn’t tell the enthralled audience where they could pick up a copy.

The interview was chock full of revelations. There was Velasquez noting that Leitner “doesn’t even get the jitters anymore.” And, Leitner admitting that societal “injustice drives me crazy, it just makes me nuts.”

And, there were other interesting tidbits for followers of local TV news. Although Leitner has publicly refused to acknowledge that his short-lived stint as a political commentator in 1990 flopped--he quit the segments because management wouldn’t pay him, he once said--Velasquez, who (remember) works for Channel 8, said in a voice-over that the “Leitner Strikes” segments “struck out.” In response to a question about it, Leitner acknowledged that he has been “overexposed.”

Leitner also acknowledged that he is thin-skinned, which was probably the largest truth he shared on the show. Leitner always assumes critics are talking about him. Sometimes, they’re just talking about the system that created him.

Once famous in media circles for doing “lawsuit of the week” articles, spotlighting many a strange case, the Reader is currently in court defending itself against a lawsuit laced with more than a few bizarre elements.

Acting as his own attorney, Ken Erhardt (described in court documents as a former chairman of the Ocean Beach Planning Board and a frequent letter-writer to local papers in support of right-wing causes) is charging the free weekly with libel, slander and invasion of privacy.

The case stems from a May 3, 1990, article written by longtime Reader contributor Neal Matthews titled “AKA Ken Erhardt?” The article quoted local newspaper staffers who suspected that Erhardt, a frequent letter-writer to local papers, was using assumed names to author a series of letters in support of Nicaraguan Contras. It also alleged that Erhardt had delivered a death threat to the office of San Diego Newsline.

Erhardt also has filed a separate breach of contract suit, alleging that Matthews agreed to kill the article. The Reader denies all charges.

Because it revolves around an allegation made by others, not a dispute over the facts presented in the article, Reader attorney Greg Roper earlier asked for a summary dismissal of the case, arguing that a decision in favor of Erhardt would represent serious damage to newspapers’ First Amendment rights.

“Barring the reporting of suspicions . . . leads to the conclusion that newspapers cannot report on suspected criminals, arrests, or other allegations of improper conduct unless they can prove that the charges or suspicions are true,” Roper wrote in a court brief. “This is not the law, and, moreover, it would be horrendous policy, severely compromising the First Amendment if it were to become the law.”

Superior Court Judge Wayne Peterson, however, ruled that the case should go to trial because the article implied that Erhardt had written the letters, even though it only quoted the opinions of others.

Erhardt is expected to conclude his case today. On Tuesday, the defense expects to call a handwriting expert to testify that Erhardt wrote the letters in question. Matthews also may be called to the stand Tuesday.

Former KPBS producer Matthew Eisen’s original movie script “Sad Inheritance” has gone into production for ABC-TV. Starring Susan Dey, it is the story of a woman who takes drugs during her pregnancy and then faces the consequences, a topic inspired by Eisen’s work on the KPBS documentary “Victims at Birth.” . . .

As part of an audit of how stations are complying with federal regulations on dealing with political candidates, the FCC is reviewing the political files of KFMB-TV (Channel 8), KNSD-TV (Channel 39) and Cox Cable. The three operations were chosen at random as part of a nationwide investigation. . . .

The current issue of Premiere magazine includes a lengthy, favorable piece on Eleanor Antin’s “The Man Without a World,” the old-style Yiddish film she produced in the guise of fictional Soviet filmmaker Yevgeny Antinov. Calling the film “funny and sensual,” author J. Hoberman praises its historical references, and says it is “beautifully lit and wonderfully acted,” and the sets, which were created at UC San Diego, are “as canny as they are elaborate.”

CRITIC’S CHOICE: A FESTIVAL OF STUDENT FILMS

Vivid evidence of why the San Diego State University film production deserves support will be presented Thursday at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (formerly the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art).

A festival of SDSU student films, “Rebels With a Cause,” will screen at 7 p.m., with proceeds going to benefit the school’s filmmaking program. Sixteen student films will be shown, most of which have never before been publicly screened.