Journalism

Christopher Trela, OC Editor, PR Pro and Press Club Prez, Lauded for Savvy Press Release Use

F O R   I M M E D I A T E  R E L E A S EFrom the desk of Christopher TrelaNewport Beach Independent editorNEWPORT BEACH (March 12, 2013) - Newport Beach Independent Editor Christopher Trela's strict adherence to Public Relations Society of America guidelines was highlighted by a websi ... More >>

Matt Bors, Cartoonist Featured in the Weekly, Gets Targeted by Sandy Hook Shooting Trolls

The evils of social media dragged an OC Weekly contributor into the middle of Friday's mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut.Portland, Oregon-based Matt Bors, whose cartoons you may recall from our Hey, You! column--and whose work has also graced the Los Angeles Times, The Nation and Village Voice, ... More >>

Is Aaron Kushner the Pied Piper of Print?

Can the novice publisher save The Orange County Register and transform journalism in the process?

OC Weekly Nominated for Three Awards at LA Press Club's National Entertainment Journalism Awards

The Los Angeles Press Club has recognized the Weekly with three award nominations for their fifth National Entertainment Journalism Awards. The awards ceremony will also honor Jane Fonda with their first Visionary Award (as introduced by Robert Redford) on Nov. 18th at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Ange ... More >>

OC Weekly Nabs Seven Awards at LA Press Club Affair Honoring Woodward and Bernstein

Celebrities and reporters gathered Sunday night at the Millennium Biltmore's Crystal Ballroom in downtown Los Angeles for the 54th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards and OC Weekly staffers grabbed seven honors.Three of the Weekly's awards were for first place: Michelle Woo for Best Persona ... More >>

Disney Overkill? OC Register Has 90 Journalists Contributing To Today's 'Disney News Mob'

Stop the presses! Nah, forget that. Stop all other news coverage whatsoever! This just in: Disneyland is . . . still Disneyland! And the Orange County Register is really, really excited about it! So excited that the newspaper has 90 journalists reporting stories, snapping photos and hashtagging ... More >>

Interview with Abdallah Omeish, Director of NBFF-Winning The War Around Us

The War Around Us recently nabbed the best feature documentary award at the Newport Beach Film Festival. It profiles the 2008-2009 Gaza invasion through the eyes of two young Al-Jazeera English correspondents, Ayman Mohyeldin and Sherine Tadros. Through their eyes, viewers get a glimpse into the Isr ... More >>

Ron Paul Supporters Invade LA Times Festival of Books, Make Asses of Themselves

Just like their candidate, Ron Paul supporters don't seem to know the meaning of the words "sit down."It took an auditorium full of annoyed bookish types to start yelling this command during the Q&A session of the Narrating Disaster panel at this past weekend's Los Angeles Times Festival of Book ... More >>

Pulp

Fox Pomona

Frost/Nixon

Maverick Theater

Even in Death, Long Beach Doesn't Respect The District Weekly

​Remember the District Weekly? Long Beach's own alt-weekly, created by a bunch of former Weeklings after the Great OC Weekly Schism of 2007? Went out of business in 2009 due to the Great Recession, the death of journalism and other issues I'm not exactly at liberty to discuss.After getting my prom ... More >>

Owen Youngman on Brother Randy, Axed Reg Sportswriter

​As we reported yesterday, veteran sports columnist Randy Youngman was among nine staffers laid off by the Orange County Register. Longtime readers of Youngman enjoyed his "Pickin' and Grinnin'" contests, but I always fancied his jabs at Keith Olbermann. From an Aug. 18, 2009 column: "Li ... More >>

Davan Maharaj, Former Times OC Reporter, is New Editor of the Los Angeles Times

Maharaj​The Los Angeles Times announced today that Russ Stanton is stepping down as editor and being replaced by Davan Maharaj, who started with the Times in 1989 as an Orange County reporter.Maharaj, who will become the 15th editor of the Times, has been managing editor since May 2008, overseeing ... More >>

[UPDATE: TOMORROW!] Jason Berry, Famed Author on Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Scandal, to Speak in Newport Beach Nov. 3

​UPDATE: Nov. 2, 11:43 a.m.This event is mañana. See you there!Original Post: Oct. 11: Few people can claim to have created an entire genre of journalism, but Jason Berry is one of them. He was the first reporter in the United States to care about the pedophile protectors over at the Catholic ... More >>

Jason Berry, Famed Author on Catholic Church Sex-Abuse Scandal, to Speak in Newport Beach Nov. 3

​Few people can claim to have created an entire genre of journalism, but Jason Berry is one of them. He was the first reporter in the United States to care about the pedophile protectors over at the Catholic Church, kick-starting decades of investigative reporting into the sex-abuse scandal with a ... More >>

Dave Gilliard Defends Secret, Anti-Barbara Boxer Campaign

​This morning I posted a brief story linking to Sacramento Bee coverage of a secretive, 2010 campaign effort against Sen. Barbara Boxer, and my post has been protested by a participant as inaccurate.Here's the background: According to the Bee's Dan Morain, a group called Taxpayer Network raised an ... More >>

"Illegal" Descriptors of Undocumented Rejected by Journalism Society

​The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) just voted to do something that I thought was already set in stone in American newsrooms (drop use of the term "illegal alien"), but the organization also forbid a term I'd figured was the P.C. alternative ("illegal immigrant").Based on a recommendati ... More >>

California Watch Investigative Journalism Nonprofit Setting Up Shop at Orange County Register

​Mark Katches wrote and edited for the Orange County Register for a decade. Now he's in Berkeley, serving as editorial director of California Watch, a project of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting that also has an office near the Capitol in Sacramento. California Watch aims to fill t ... More >>

I MiX What I Like! An Interview with Jared Ball (Part II)

​Yesterday, we published the first part of an interview with Jared Ball, author of I MiX What I Like! A Mixtape Manifesto, where the "Funkinest Journalist" talks about the politics of hip-hop and popular culture. Read the first part of the interview with Jared Ball here; in this second installment ... More >>

I MiX What I Like! An Interview with Jared Ball (Part I)

​ As I MiX What I Like! A Mixtape Manifesto pays homage in title to a series of articles written by the late freedom fighter Steve Biko, Dr. Jared A. Ball's first book declares hip-hop's mixtape as a principle means by which to "fight the power." Provocative in his analysis, the "Funkinest Journal ... More >>

Allergan PR Campaign Pays Off Reporters

​An Allergan public relations campaign is being called "sleazy."A PR company working for the Irvine-based pharmaceutical giant is apparently offering journalists $250 to attend an Allergan-sponsored media presentation on Botox, Latisse and Juvederm.

Remembering Watergate: A Conversation

Nixon Library

[UPDATED] Daniel Hernandez, Award-Winning Reporter, to Read From His New Book on Mexico City TOMORROW at Calacas!

​Originally published Feb. 3; updated for the obvious plugging reason . . .Those of us in Southern California fondly remember Daniel Hernandez, the San Diego native who jolted local journalism in Southern California for a couple of years--first, as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, then for ou ... More >>

Letters From OC Weekly Readers

Voice of OC Boasts of 2010 Accomplishments, Seeks Donations

Jonathan Ho / OC WeeklySantana and his son, Max.​Only a handful of Orange County reporters dedicated themselves to investigative journalism on a daily basis before last March. That month saw the birth of Norberto Santana's dream: the Voice of OC, the county's first non-profit investigative ne ... More >>

Cal State Fullerton's Daily Titan Faces Possible Student Boycott Over Use of "Illegal Immigrant" Instead of "Undocumented Student"

It has to be tough to edit a college newspaper nowadays. Not only are you, the cream of the coed crop, facing horrible job prospects upon graduation, but you also must manage the tricky PC waters that is the modern-day American university e​xperience.This unenviable position is the one that Isa Gh ... More >>

What is Craig Reem Hiding at the Great Park?

Shhh! I'm hiding great park secrets.​Crooks and con artists tend to erect ridiculous hurdles for journalists. For example, Mike Carona--our ex-sheriff-turned-convicted-felon--liked to grant interviews to journalists he knew would toss him only softball questions.For other reporters (like me), ther ... More >>

Charlene "Charlie" Padilla, Mother of Chino Inmate, to Get Prestigious Journalism Award

​Perhaps you know someone doing time in Chino right now. Charlene Padilla does: her son. And the concern "Charlie," as she is known, has for her boy was spun into an unlikely reporting assignment and a prestigious journalism award.Padilla is one of four individuals and a newspaper that will be hon ... More >>

Weekly Contributor Christine Pelisek Named CNN's Most Intriguing Person of the Day

​It may not hold a Roman candle to being a perennial winner of awards and journalist-of-the-year nominations from the likes of the Los Angeles Press Club, but at least the fine investigative reporting of frequent Weekly contributor Christine Pelisek has received national exposure.Moments ago, CNN' ... More >>

"Explosive Growth" of Medical Marijuana Delivery Services Explored by Investigative Journalists

Photo by Eric Zassenhaus​The perfect storm of California law allowing for medical marijuana collectives and local government crackdowns on storefront cannabis clubs has created the "explosive growth" of unregulated pot couriers.The Center for Investigative Journalism's nonprofit California Watch e ... More >>

The Solution to Online Media's Advertising Revenue Conundrum

​So, I'm a couple paragraphs into this Dan Walters' column on a coalition of education groups filing suit in Alameda County to declare California's public school system unconstitutional when my laptop screen goes dark.I thought I accidentally pulled the plug out of the outlet. Again.Nope, for a sp ... More >>

The OCLNN Shut Down: The Dirty Details

​Spencer reported yesterday that the Los Angeles Times spin-off news site OCLNN, the Orange County Local News Network, has been shut down, only four months after its launch. The site had combined sourcing from both the Times and the San Diego-based US Local News Network. We just received a few mor ... More >>

Probe Singles Out Covenant Care of OC for Cutting Staff at Nursing Homes While Getting Millions From State Taxpayers

​An Aliso Viejo-based chain stands out in an investigation by journalists who found 232 California nursing homes either cut staff, paid lower wages or let caregiver levels slip below a state-mandated minimum after the state gave nursing homes $880 million in additional funding to boost wages and ... More >>

What Do Pot Dispensaries, Cannabis Cowboys and "Glee" Have in Common?

​Fox's high school musical-twisted comedy Glee and segments on KCET/Channel 28's SoCal Connected on medical marijuana dispensaries and pot farm-busting law enforcement officers known as "cannabis cowboys" are among the latest winners of prestigious Peabody Awards honoring the best in electronic ... More >>

FAR West Convention

Irvine Hyatt

Has the Decline of the Register Created Space for Nonprofit Site the Voice of OC to Put Down Roots?

Scrabble Tournament

Neighborhood Cup

All the News Thats Not Fit to Print

Press consolidation, foreign correspondence and the Venezuelan coup