Tues | May 29 I was reading “The Canalis Report” on the Press-Telegram website today. This particular report, published a few days ago, follows new councilman Dee Andrews around his Sixth District neighborhood and contains this line from author John Canalis: “If Long Beach is a body, I know the head uptown, the feet downtown, the pinky finger that is Belmont Shore. I don’t truly know the torso—the guts to the heart. Like a lot of people who live east of Redondo Avenue, I drive through Central on my way to somewhere else.” Maybe, except Canalis is not someone else, he is a reporter and a member of the P-T editorial board. While it’s perfectly OK for a middle manager from Bluff Heights to not hang out in Long Beach’s “guts,” an editorial writer for the hometown paper better know it in all its pancreatic subtleties. Look, I take no pleasure in ripping the P-T. I worked there for three years in the ’90s and found it to have some of best and nicest I’ve ever met in the business. But, after I left, it was bought by a guy named Dean Singleton, who owns most of the similarly-sized papers in Southern California—South Bay Daily Breeze, L.A. Daily News, etc.—and runs them with the same bottom line in mind. He knows investigations and hard news reporting requires time and experienced reporters, both of which cost money. His papers prefer to dwell in stuff that requires little effort or cash: kids in costumes and kids flying kites and stories about kids being the future. I have nothing against kids—as long as they don’t mess with my stuff—but news organizations are given the freedoms they enjoy because we are many times the last/only line of defense between those who would harm the public—crooked politicians, unethical cops, greedy newspaper owners—and the public. When you abdicate that role you get editorial writers who admit not knowing the city they cover. You get an editorial, a few weeks ago, that said Long Beach was lucky to have a guy like Chris Pook running the Sea Festival the very day The District published a cover story raising a lot of questions about how Pook does business with the city. (It must have been embarrassing for the P-T days later when it had to send a reporter to the city council as it followed up on our story.) There are a lot of other examples, many of which have been fed back to us when people are effusive with their thanks for us now being in town. But here’s the point: we’re not a daily paper. We can’t cover the city day to day. That’s the P-T’s job and we sincerely wish they would do it. If not for the sake of the city or journalism, then, hey: do it for the kids.

Wed | May 30 Kobe Bryant is a tool.

Thurs | May 31 Kobe Bryant is misunderstood.

Fri | Jun 1 Brent Bailey, the former principal of El Modena High, is sentenced after pleading guilty to engaging in lewd conduct—masturbating—in a public restroom. Bailey is sentenced to three years’ probation, to complete a program for sex offenders and to take AIDS education classes. Now, do you think our ongoing problems with demystifying AIDS (so that it is treated as any other deadly disease and not a wrath of God thing) has something to do with using AIDS education as a sentencing tool? Has anyone ever been sentenced to study lupus?

Sat | Jun 2 We were just speaking of papers bottom-lining it—and who’s doing more of that these days than the folks at the Los Angeles Times? They’re saying goodbye to a whole other batch of reporters and editors, this time 60, which include six Pulitzer Prize winners, columnists Al Martinez and J.A. Adande and such heavyweights as Glenn Bunting and Rone Tempest, who is not only one of the world’s best journalists but has the best journo name this side of Marmac McSocko. In a story today trying to explain/soften/rationalize the staff reductions there was this comparison: “The San Francisco Chronicle announced last week that it would reduce its news staff by a quarter. Reports circulated Friday that the once-robust San Jose Mercury News would pare its staff again.” Here’s the thing: when I worked at the LA Times in the ’80s—I have commitment issues—there was a swagger to the paper. It would never compare itself to the like of the Chron or Merc. There were only two papers it measured itself against: the Washington Post and New York Times. But, like the P-T, the Times isn’t locally-owned anymore—it’s owned by the Chicago Tribune—and this is what comes of it. On the plus side . . . SODOKU!

Sun | Jun 3 I believe both Marcus Camby and Jermaine would understand Kobe Bryant. Jason Kidd also seems very understanding. But not Mike Bibby. Mike Bibby’s jump shot seems to have lacked understanding, especially in crunch time, the last couple of years.

Mon | Jun 4 Well, well, well. Looks like the P-T is finally devoting some manpower to some good old-fashioned journalism. A week after a report came out saying Long Beach had the filthiest water in the state, the P-T published a long piece about local ocean pollution. Good piece. And who do we have to thank for for this enterprising piece of local journalism? Why, Mireya Navarro. Yes, Mireya Navarro of the New York Times.