Opinion: How can reporters shake the ‘fake media’ insult? Start showing up to local council meetings

To the editor: Mark Oppenheimer has a valid point about community journalism and the lack of local reporting leading to less ideological diversity in media. (“Why does the public hate the news media?” Opinion, Oct. 17)

I worked for several newspapers after college in the southeast part of Los Angeles County covering the communities of Bell, Bell Gardens, South Gate, Downey and Huntington Park. When the papers folded, there was no one left to cover local government except for gadflies, volunteers or the occasional big-city reporter if there was a hot issue.

I personally covered every council meeting on my beat, knew the players and knew the workings of city government. The personal relationships created just because I was a familiar face led to an intimacy with how things worked that the occasional or amateur reporter would never have.

But the papers closed and now local government news is mainly press releases and community newsletters. Bad government starts on the local level, and with no one keeping tabs, it just gets worse.

Paul Taylor, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Oppenheimer explains that the ideological unevenness of his profession is due to a lack of conservatives getting into the news-gathering side of journalism.

Throughout most of his rather convoluted explanation, Oppenheimer tries hard to be objective, but he cannot hold back. He unloads with such choice remarks as consumers of the conservative press “swimming in that swamp” and Breitbart teaching young conservative reporters “how to write propagandistic ‘takes’ in favor of the Trump administration.”

Look no further, Mr. Oppenheimer, for whom the bell of public resentment tolls.

Jack Kaczorowski, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I’d like to add a few more reasons why people do not trust media outlets like the L.A. Times:

Using the world “falsehood” instead of “lies;” decades of binary reporting, as if there were just two valid sides to an issue; acceptance of the status quo; click-bait headlines (even in print); and chasing shiny objects rather than asking obvious questions.

While we are very grateful for the good work journalists have done, the business of news media leads to choices like the ones listed here. Therefore, it is complicit in our current state of governance and quality of life.

Both consumers and non-consumers of news know this and have become frustrated.

Julie D’Angelo, Burbank

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