Council Endorses I (heart) L.A. Drive, Attacks Media’s Depiction of City

The Los Angeles City Council jumped on board the I L.A. bandwagon Wednesday, blaming the news media for a growing national impression that the city is sinking in a sea of troubles.

At the request of newly elected San Fernando Valley Councilwoman Laura Chick, the council unanimously passed a resolution protesting what it called unfair media focus on the city’s problems, and asking for more balanced reporting.

The council’s motion also praised efforts to mount a $30-million-a-year ad campaign rivaling the “I Love N.Y.” media blitz of yesteryear to revive Los Angeles’ reputation, which has been battered by riots and an economic slump.

The council acted shortly before CBS-TV broadcast a “48 Hours” program Wednesday night which asked: “Has L.A.’s moment in the sun passed?”

Chick’s resolution singled out the CBS program and recent articles in Time and Newsweek magazines in protesting “unfair one-sided media focus on the problems of this region while ignoring all positive attributes.”

“You might not know it by reading newspapers or watching TV, but we’re doing incredibly wonderful things in Los Angeles,” Chick said.

During the discussion, Council President John Ferraro--but not Chick--blamed the Los Angeles Times for writing “nothing but negative stories” about Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Times Communications Director Laura Morgan said Ferraro’s charge was “simply not true.”

“We cover all aspects of this complex and interesting city, including its triumphs as well as its difficulties. That’s what responsible, balanced reporting is all about,” she said.

CBS News spokesman Tom Goodman defended the “48 Hours” program, saying: “There’s some good news in it, some bad news in it, there’s a little bit of everything. We tried to be as objective and fair and honest in dealing with some of the problems L. A. has and some of the opportunities L. A. has.”

Goodman also took issue with Chick for criticizing the “48 Hours” episode without seeing it. An aide to Chick, who represents the southwestern quarter of the Valley, said Chick based her remarks on a news release issued by CBS.

The council action was quickly welcomed by the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Central City Assn., a private organization of about 250 downtown businesses.

The bureau, which gets much of its funding from the City Council, hopes to launch a privately bankrolled $30-million ad campaign to improve the city’s image. The association plans to mount a separate public relations campaign at an estimated cost of $100,000 to counter negative news coverage of Los Angeles.

The city should respond to all negative national news stories about Los Angeles, said Carol Schatz, the association’s lobbyist.

“We’ve got to fight back,” Schatz said, citing then-mayor Tom Bradley’s decision in May not to comment on a Wall Street Journal report that Los Angeles is one of the most stressful places in the nation for children to live.

“Once you find yourself a target, you’ve got to stand up and counter it. Otherwise it gets worse and worse and worse, and now it seems it’s popular to bash Los Angeles.”

The convention bureau’s board Tuesday unanimously approved a long-range strategic plan for dealing with the city’s flagging image that includes the proposal for an advertising campaign in national and international media markets.

“There’ve been hateful, inaccurate things said about Los Angeles that have been very punishing to business here,” said Michael Collins, the bureau’s executive director. “Our product is vastly better than its perception right now, and we intend to change that.”

The only way to do that, he said, is “to do what a nasal spray does--advertise. We can’t afford to leave our image-making in the hands of strangers. We need to tell our story on our terms.”

No theme for the proposed ad campaign has been picked. With a city blessed with creative talent, the more daunting task is to convince recession-weary businesses that it is in their best interest to contribute the $30 million annually to finance such an effort, Collins said.

Times staff writer Steven Herbert contributed to this story.