COUNTY WATCH : Eye That Sees All

The televising of meetings of elected officials has opened a special window for the public, one free of editing. Now, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, at the urging of member Zev Yaroslavsky, joins the club. That’s good.

However, we warn that the camera can be cruel. For example, in 1991 a Huntington Beach mayor, receiving a delegation of Japanese visitors, muttered unbelievably xenophobic remarks that were picked up by a live microphone and sent out over the airwaves. The delegation was there to give the city a check for $93,000.

For the intrepid viewer, there’s no shortage of outrage. The televising of Thousand Oaks City Council meetings, for example, led some political contenders to run on an “anti-bickering” platform.

And personal appearance counts. A Newbury Park viewer applauded a city official for shaving his mustache, saying his encounter with a razor made it easier to read his lips.

Camera angles are very important, as a freshman Maryland legislator learned. He was told, to his horror, that the viewing audience had just caught him picking his nose during a poignant speech by a constituent. He spent much of the rest of the evening holding his nose, as if it was his characteristic pose.

With the TV camera present, enunciation bloopers have a wide audience. In one meeting, an East Coast school board member repeatedly referred to some fellow named Louie. It was later determined that he had been mangling the phrase “in lieu of.”

Now you understand our respect for the courage of the county supervisors.