LA Times: Is Disney Paying Its Fair Share In Anaheim

[Hatbox Ghostbuster]

Pulitzer winners and SI senior writers are folks I'd want to know as a writer and sports fan.

Sorry, but SI doesn't do anything for me. Frankly, neither does ESPN (unless it's a game).
Just give me MLB Network and I'm good. Baseball is about the only sport I can stomach anyway.

 

[Disney Irish]

Some players are good analysts, some are very much not (Shaquille O'Neal, love you, please stick to commercials tho), but at any rate I think discounting the work of David Halberstam, Jackie MacMullen, Lee Jenkins et al is a mistake.

I don't think anyone is discounting them. What I was saying at least. Is that when a person reporting on a particular topic, has personal intimate knowledge of said topic, due to having participated in said topic, it makes the reporting much more rich in terms of content. They can provide far more personal insights into a topic then anyone who hasn't participated in that topic.

The perfect example is the topic for which this thread was starting. @Darkbeer1 has personal insight into this topic due to this personal dealings and previous reporting on it. So much so that he was even contacted with regards to the LA Times article when it was still being formulated. So I can trust his understanding and opinion far more than I can trust the LA Times reporters who don't have the history nor the insights into the Disney/Anaheim deals.

 

[Hatbox Ghostbuster]

Yeah. No one is looking down on Pulitzer winning writers for not being former professional athletes.
But to echo @DisneyIrishGuy 's point, it's hard to deny that you tend to get more insightful commentary from people who have personal ties or past experience to a certain subject. That's all we're saying.

 

[flynnibus]

Yeah. No one is looking down on Pulitzer winning writers for not being former professional athletes.
But to echo @DisneyIrishGuy 's point, it's hard to deny that you tend to get more insightful commentary from people who have personal ties or past experience to a certain subject. That's all we're saying.

Or simply put... EXPERIENCE.

The reporter who rotates through responsibilities and regions every 18months who is covering the game because they are a 'local favorite' to the TV eyeballs... probably not that experienced with the game they are covering.

I don't know why TV continues with the formula of these athlete interviews... they are all coached to death on how to answer without saying anything of substance, how to praise all others before yourself, how its team pro and con... 'next man up'... blah blah blah. And reporters don't even blink when people don't even answer the question anymore. Its going through the motions for something of zero real value.

And now that media and cameras are always in the locker room even during team talks, etc... it too loses it's purity. Putting more coverage on something tends to water it down, not dig deeper.

 

[c-one]

I don't disagree with that at all. What I disagree with is the notion that personal ties or past experience comes strictly in a participatory manner -- Roger Ebert's background was reporting, not filmmaking, to my knowledge, but most folks seem to agree he was a star commentator on the movies. I think that a weak point of much of journalism is a lack of that domain knowledge, particularly as the long established folks lose jobs or retire. Good journalists are genuinely curious about a lot of things and good researchers, though, which is also key. And in this case I will say that the LAT put their film and business guy on the Disney story, not some cub general-interest reporter fresh out of USC's undergrad program, and to my eye the story was well-researched. Same guy who broke the story of Ratner being a total creep, I believe.

 

[Disney Irish]

I don't disagree with that at all. What I disagree with is the notion that personal ties or past experience comes strictly in a participatory manner -- Roger Ebert's background was reporting, not filmmaking, to my knowledge, but most folks seem to agree he was a star commentator on the movies. I think that a weak point of much of journalism is a lack of that domain knowledge, particularly as the long established folks lose jobs or retire. Good journalists are genuinely curious about a lot of things and good researchers, though, which is also key. And in this case I will say that the LAT put their film and business guy on the Disney story, not some cub general-interest reporter fresh out of USC's undergrad program, and to my eye the story was well-researched. Same guy who broke the story of Ratner being a total creep, I believe.

Roger Ebert was also a screenwriter, so he had at least some background in the film industry. He helped co-write Beyond the Valley of the Dolls in 1970 which is shortly after he started reviewing films.

 

[Darkbeer1]

And here is the LA Times article discussing the change of status...

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-et-mn-disney-lifts-ban-20171107-story.html

>>

 

[Pixieish]

And here is the LA Times article discussing the change of status...

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-et-mn-disney-lifts-ban-20171107-story.html

>>

See? They can write an article with no bias. It even makes sense that it has a link to the article that caused the problem in the first place (which could be seen as biased, but that's a stretch).

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

“We’ve had productive discussions with the newly installed leadership at the Los Angeles Times regarding our specific concerns, and as a result, we’ve agreed to restore access to advance screenings for their film critics,” Disney said in a statement sent to The Times on Tuesday.

Newly installed? By who?

 

[Pixieish]

Newly installed? By who?

Someone said earlier...hired in October, started on Nov. 1st if I remember correctly.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Newly installed? By who?

The new owners of the LA Times, hired in October, and started work November 1st,

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lewis-dvorkin-editor-20171009-story.html

>>On Monday, D’Vorkin, 65, was named editor in chief of the Los Angeles Times. He plans to officially join Los Angeles Times Media Group on Nov. 1. Levinsohn also named Rosen, his deputy, as president of the Los Angeles Times Media Group.<<

http://www.latimes.com/about/lat-lewis-dvorkin-story.html

>>Lewis D’Vorkin was named editor in chief of the Los Angeles Times in October 2017. D’Vorkin is a seasoned journalist and media pioneer with 40 years of experience in both traditional and new media platforms.

Prior to joining The Times, he served as chief product officer at Forbes, leading the editorial, product and technology teams for Forbes Media and its related brands. At Forbes he spearheaded a unique content-creation model and developed a worldwide publishing platform for distributed authorship. He also introduced the news industry’s leading native advertising solution (BrandVoice) and supervised the creation of the New Newsroom, which integrates editorial, data analysis, product development, engineering and social distribution to foster real-time connections between readers, content creators and marketers.

D’Vorkin has years of journalism experience as the Page One editor of the Wall Street Journal, a senior editor at Newsweek, an editor at the New York Times for the newspaper’s daily and Sunday editions and executive editor of Forbes from December 1996 to April 2000.<<

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2017/10/la_times_gets_another_new.php

>>That's not necessarily the plan for the Los Angeles Times. But Tronc watcher Ken Doctor calls D'Vorkin an out of the box hire whose Nov. 1 arrival will reset the strategy for the LA Times and Tronc itself once again.<<

http://www.laweekly.com/news/who-is...tor-in-chief-of-the-los-angeles-times-8736821

>>
If D'Vorkin tries to do at the Times what he did at Forbes, "It’s going to be a completely different newspaper," Mele says. "On the other hand, here's a guy who’s tried different things. I am profoundly in favor of trying new things in the daily news industry. So yes, it’s a shakeup. It’s an unusual thing. Is that a bad thing? I don’t think so."

Or as D'Vorkin himself once said: "If you want to keep digging the same hole and not finding any oil, go for it. What we're trying to do is build a sustainable model."<<

 

[Darkbeer1]

And the firings from August...

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/arti...nted-rich-patron-for-the-once-great-l-a-times

>>What brings this to mind was the news on Monday that Tronc had fired four top editors, including Davan Maharaj, who was serving as both publisher and editor-in-chief. Maharaj was replaced with a new publisher, Ross Levinsohn, and an interim editor, Jim Kirk, former publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times. Levinsohn is the Times's eighth publisher since Tronc bought the paper in 2000 and its fourth in the last two years. Kirk, meanwhile, had joined Tronc six days earlier as a senior vice president for strategic initiatives when he was handed the reins at the L.A. Times. Not exactly stability-inducing.<<

 

[Darkbeer1]

OK, back to Anaheim politics and how messed up the city is due to Tait/Moreno.

http://www.anaheimblog.net/2017/11/...-leaving-for-laguna-niguel-city-manager-post/

>>The exodus of talent and experience from Unstableheim City Hall continues as Assistant City Manager Kristine Ridge departs to become City Manager of Laguna Niguel. Ridge will take the reins of the South County city in January 2018.

Anaheim city government is a financially healthy, billion dollar enterprise in a city that is home to iconic Disneyland and the world-class Anaheim Resort; one of the largest and newest convention centers in the nation; and two major league sports franchises – the Angels and the Ducks. Plus, the city manager position is open. But the comparatively civil and normal atmosphere of bedroom community Laguna Niguel is a more attractive option.

That speaks volumes about the state of things in the City of Kindness.<<

>>Remember, Anaheim is (supposedly) recruiting for a permanent city manager and Ridge is and should be an obvious choice given she has greater breadth of operational and management experience than anyone else in Anaheim city government. Ridge’s departure is true testament to the dysfunction and low morale in Unstableheim City Hall in the era of “The People’s Council.”

As one City Hall insider put it: “A quarter century of institutional knowledge is walking away due to an environment under this mayor and his council allies that makes it impossible for an ethical, competent professional to do their job.”<<

So now we have an Interim City Manager, an Acting Police Chief, an Acting City Attorney, an Acting City Clerk, an Interim Deputy Planning Director, and an Acting Human Resources Director.

November 2018 can't get hear soon enough, hopefully their will be a city staff left for the new leadership to manage.

 

[Disney Irish]

OK, back to Anaheim politics and how messed up the city is due to Tait/Moreno.

http://www.anaheimblog.net/2017/11/...-leaving-for-laguna-niguel-city-manager-post/

>>The exodus of talent and experience from Unstableheim City Hall continues as Assistant City Manager Kristine Ridge departs to become City Manager of Laguna Niguel. Ridge will take the reins of the South County city in January 2018.

Anaheim city government is a financially healthy, billion dollar enterprise in a city that is home to iconic Disneyland and the world-class Anaheim Resort; one of the largest and newest convention centers in the nation; and two major league sports franchises – the Angels and the Ducks. Plus, the city manager position is open. But the comparatively civil and normal atmosphere of bedroom community Laguna Niguel is a more attractive option.

That speaks volumes about the state of things in the City of Kindness.<<

>>Remember, Anaheim is (supposedly) recruiting for a permanent city manager and Ridge is and should be an obvious choice given she has greater breadth of operational and management experience than anyone else in Anaheim city government. Ridge’s departure is true testament to the dysfunction and low morale in Unstableheim City Hall in the era of “The People’s Council.”

As one City Hall insider put it: “A quarter century of institutional knowledge is walking away due to an environment under this mayor and his council allies that makes it impossible for an ethical, competent professional to do their job.”<<

So now we have an Interim City Manager, an Acting Police Chief, an Acting City Attorney, an Acting City Clerk, an Interim Deputy Planning Director, and an Acting Human Resources Director.

November 2018 can't get hear soon enough, hopefully their will be a city staff left for the new leadership to manage.

Sounds like 2019 will be an overhaul of the city government after the 2018 election.

 

[Curious Constance]

Sounds like 2019 will be an overhaul of the city government after the 2018 election.

Doubtful. People aren't likely to be informed enough to know what or who are actually causing the problems they are facing. Especially if if flies in the face of their own political views. They'll hear the 30 second sound bite on the local news that justifies their beliefs, and make their decisions based on that. Similarly, people now seem to have no problem with media articles now being for hire. You can purchase an article that will be printed as fact to the world as long as you have like minded views as the organization you're purchasing it from. It's ridiculous.

 

[Disney Irish]

Doubtful. People aren't likely to be informed enough to know what or who are actually causing the problems they are facing. Especially if if flies in the face of their own political views. They'll hear the 30 second sound bite on the local news that justifies their beliefs, and make their decisions based on that. Similarly, people now seem to have no problem with media articles now being for hire. You can purchase an article that will be printed as fact to the world as long as you have like minded views as the organization you're purchasing it from. It's ridiculous.

We'll see. People tend to get informed when their own self interests are challenged. Additionally people will challenge their own political views when they aren't happy, we saw that in 2016. However once they realize the alternative they chose is not what was promised they go back to what they know, which we are seeing now. So 2018 will hopefully be a election season going back to the norms instead of the fringe.

 

[Darkbeer1]

I agree, CC. But I think/hope that the city has been so screwed up in one year (with a year to go), that the candidates for Mayor can address the key points the residents feel need major improvement on, and Disney isn't as big of a deal as many other issues facing the city.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Somebody just reminded me of this...

Don't forget that Jose Moreno pushed hard for Mike Matsuda to be superintendent for the Anaheim Elementary School District and when that failed, he got Matsuda the job as superintendent for Anaheim Union Scholl District. Matsuda could not have been more unqualified. Only a couple of years of junior high teaching, never an administrator on any campus, not a director, never an assistant superintendent. These guys are intoxicated by power and love to select unqualified lackies that will do exactly what they tell them to do even if its exactly wrong.

Hopefully facts like this will be brought up in the campaign for Mayor and councilpersons.

And let me clarify the situation between the city and Disney, nothing will change in the near future, and won't be in front of the city council.

Issues like West Anaheim and improving the area, including Beach Blvd. the Homeless issue and how to deal with it, street parking, building new housing, bringing in new businesses, coyote management, crime and safety are all key points that voters want to hear about.

Now, Disney and the Chamber of Commerce will be spending a lot of money to promote candidates that are business friendly, so Disney is a major player in the election.

 

[No Name]

I read the original article and didn't find it too unbalanced. But I also read the Disneyland section of this forum, so I'm plenty used to bias.

 

[Darkbeer1]

So the deal with Disney was pretty mild, and much of the structure was paid for by State and Federal Transportation grants, compared to what is being offered Amazon. And remember, Amazon has not asked for anything specific, just a question asking, what will you offer for the return of our construction and bring in jobs to the city.

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/this-city-hall-brought-to-you-by-amazon/

>>Example: Chicago has offered to let Amazon pocket $1.32 billion in income taxes paid by its own workers. This is truly perverse. Called a personal income-tax diversion, the workers must still pay the full taxes, but instead of the state getting the money to use for schools, roads or whatever, Amazon would get to keep it all instead.

“The result is that workers are, in effect, paying taxes to their boss,” says a report on the practice from Good Jobs First, a think tank critical of many corporate subsidies.

Most of the HQ2 bids had more traditional sweeteners. Such as Chula Vista, California, which offered to give Amazon 85 acres of land for free (value: $100 million) and to excuse any property taxes on HQ2 for 30 years ($300 million). New Jersey remains the dollar king of the subsidy sweepstakes, having offered Amazon $7 billion to build in Newark.<<

>>But the most far-reaching offer is from Fresno, California. That city of half a million isn’t offering any tax breaks. Instead it has a novel plan to give Amazon special authority over how the company’s taxes are spent.

Fresno promises to funnel 85 percent of all taxes and fees generated by Amazon into a special fund. That money would be overseen by a board, half made up of Amazon officers, half from the city. They’re supposed to spend the money on housing, roads and parks in and around Amazon.<<

So Anaheim found a way to get a major project built in its city, and not somewhere else, by finding a way for the tourists to pay for all the off-property improvements and get its city owned Convention Center multiple improvements, and using others money (Grants) to build the parking structure and related roadways. Sounds like the city council back then had a great, smart thinking staff and made one heck of a deal that has brought many millions in additional taxes to the general fund, and keep Disney in town.