Part 93: Bad Journalism in Los Angeles – Oceanwide Plaza as a Symbol of Political Corruption

Published April 12, 2024

Apr 13, 2024

Photo of Oceanwide Plaza and a Los Angeles Police Department officer guarding the abandoned towers that have become a target for vandals and thrillseekers by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Mostly everyone in Los Angeles journalism agrees that things aren’t going well; it’s a general opinion. The reading public has very much become a viewing public, with social media so often being the target of ire from traditional journalists who view it as perniciously untrue. NBC News Deputy Tech Editor Ben Goggin recently wrote February 29 on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter that, “It’s concerning that people interested in journalism are now turning to influencer-style tactics and stunts to make a living.” Perhaps it was the Leap Day talking, but Goggin clearly had a point, and some strong feelings about the matter concluding that, “It completely degrades public trust in journalists, their incentives, and the facts they present.” Little harsh?

Sadly, this seems to be where we should all be heading, as clearly whether it’s the Los Angeles Times laying off journalists en masse or the pending threat of the LA Taco closing shop before the lack of funding, or perhaps most poignantly the newsroom dispute being aired on that same platform by respected journalists from Knock LA locked out by their sponsor organization, leftist Ground Game LA. Most interesting perhaps is the model presented by the Los Angeles Public Press, featured in a March 18 article by journalist Sophie Culpepper in Nieman Lab entitled: “From zines to paying every staffer $84K: How LA Public Press is trying to do local news differently.” An almost princely sum, the nascent publication perhaps represents the most utopian ideals of journalism thanks to generous funding from a San Fernando Valley tech guru.

According to the report, the “commitment comprises $3 million, distributed as $1 million each over three years beginning in 2022. He called this investment “the reason [LA Public Press] exists.” This wouldn’t begin to patch-over the Los Angeles Times budget deficit reported to have been “$30 million to $40 million a year,” per Times journalist Meg James on January 23. That was before the New York Times Ben Mullin reported that owner Patrick Soon-Shiong who had invested many times over that sum to float the paper of record in Los Angeles was outed as purportedly having interfered in a news story about another billionaire. Both the LAT and the NYT bill themselves as practicing “independent journalism” but concerns have also plagued the latter publication particularly over coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. This issue is now also at the center of the Knock LA dispute with Ground Game LA issuing a statement alleging that dissident journalists Cerise Castle and Ben Camacho had been “blocking coverage of Gaza” along with mistreating others.

The ironic part of this is that Castle and Camacho are among the brightest stars at the publication, with Castle’s investigation into gangs in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department reeling in awards and interest and Camacho’s battle over police records, including headshot pictures, drawing support from an almost uniform array of print and television and media in Los Angeles. Can you publish public records without consequence? And will anyone listen? The latter dispute has been compared to the Pentagon Papers and whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg whose leak of Vietnam War planning documents were protected by the Supreme Court of the United States after being published in the New York Times. The goal of Castle and Camacho’s reporting in so many ways principally seems to be the exposé of law enforcement corruption in Los Angeles, whether LASD, (See A Tradition of Violence) or a directory of Los Angeles Police Department (See Watch The Watchers).

Things aren’t much better per say at Los Angeles Magazine where attorney’s Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas purchased the publication in December 2022 under Engine Vision Media, which “plans to invest in more content, significantly enhance the magazines’ digital presence, [and] expand the slate of live events hosted by the magazines in their respective communities.” Perhaps the biggest piece of content still persistent in Los Angeles news is the LA Fed Tapes, the notorious racist recordings gifted on Reddit to the press by still unknown leaker “Honest-Finding-1581” perhaps the most indicative username in the history of online trolling. No one is honest in Los Angeles, people routinely insist to me that journalist Michele McPhee whose reporting broke the names of the suspected leaker Santos Leon and the story of his jealousy over his spouse Karla Vasquez seemingly lead to the recordings being made, and then published.

Publish or perish? I won’t dispute that there’s a lot of great beat reporters in Los Angeles, at least the ones who still have jobs, and even as some suggested that McPhee had some ulterior motive in writing, the story, the core of which I’ve independently corroborated in so far as Leon was fired after the labor unions private leak investigation revealed deleted software on Leon’s work laptop. The constant concern in Los Angeles that news, even journalism itself, might not be representative, much less precise or accurate, clearly compounds a general malaise towards the idea of journalism, and especially paid journalism. People expect news for free, and that’s what’s so great about social media, you don’t need a subscription. The other night in North Hollywood, I even had an LAPD officer on the street scoff at the idea of paying for the Times.

Perhaps the highest paid people in Los Angeles, many of the LAPD don’t even live in the City of Los Angeles, the officer was promptly informed by me that he could afford a subscription, and to put his personal politics aside. If journalism in Los Angeles were to end, surely many people would applaud, not least those who through their legions of lawyers, public relations experts and fixers manage to suppress negative information about themselves. This dynamic is always at play, keep the story out of the newspaper, and keep it from going viral. Personally, I’m so sure that this city is rigged that I think that almost no matter what evidence I might come up with as a journalist, much less what I might say as a whistleblower, that people will ignore it because it’s seemingly too dangerous, too risky, like a social media influencer stunt. What’s the difference after all between the truth being sensationalized and simply accepting an altered state of reality?

The greatest symbol of corruption at present in the city is inarguably the so-called “Graffiti Towers,” a.k.a. Oceanwide Plaza. The three part derelict carcass of concrete and glass next to Crypto.com arena and L.A. Live. As Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano wrote on February 2 to developer/candidate Rick Caruso’s immediately disclaim on X, “It’s also become L.A.’s latest Rorschach test” because as Arellano notes, “it’s the latest proof that the city is spiraling down in a doom cycle, another nightmare to add to our dumpster fire of street takeovers, homeless encampments and mass break-ins.” Mayoral candidate Carsuo had seemingly promised to make this version of Los Angeles go away, and two months now after the LAPD decided the place needed a 24-7 police deployment to prevent it from incurring any further harm the LAPD is still out there in force on a nightly basis, engines idling away through the hours.

The Los Angeles City Council following a motion by Councilmember Kevin de León whose primary challenge to Mayor Karen Bass and Caruso failed, and before the Tapes too, was sponsored by Council President Paul Krekorian to have the place further fenced in and patrolled by LAPD. Now LA City Council by a 13-0 vote on April 2 has decided to contract out for private security. The timeline for doing so remains unclear. Asked for comment, LAPD first offered to have the Captain for the Central Area speak with me by telephone before sending a written statement: “There is no date on when the special detail will end and private security hired. There is an on-going working group headed by the Mayor’s office staff.” LAPD further noted that “The LAPD has been accessing [sic] the public safety issues at this site regularly and deploying accordingly.” So I went back again to the Towers last night and counted 6 officers in their vehicles, which is about the number of people you’d need to start an independent news publication in the city.

As I canvassed the officers, speaking to three, some curious about why I was streaming and talking animatedly about what happens next with the project, with its raw ghostly power they almost seemed interested in what I was talking about. Perhaps there was simply not much going on at 1:00 am in the South Park District of Downtown Los Angeles, the old stomping grounds of now convicted Councilmember José Huizar who is fast running out of time before he has to report to the Bureau of Federal Prisons on April 30 for a 13-year sentence. I wasn’t out there to troll the LAPD, or simply seek clout, but you have to wonder when the city will be able to reduce its heavy deployment of resources there, which seemingly might be something that Kevin de León might have been right about. His statement declaring: “There are no more free rides at the expense of the public for developers.” Is Kevin serious, or is he just playing possum?

So many people have speculated that KDL as the acronym goes was nothing but another Huizar, that his political resilience had been tested and well, he’s not out of the race yet, even as Ysabel Jurado, a member of the Democratic Socialists of Los Angeles topped him in the March primary. They have until November to duke it out, and undoubtedly someone should be concerned about the taxpayer cost of securing Oceanwide. Requests for comment sent to De León’s spokesman as well as those for Council President Paul Krekorian and Mayor Karen Bass went unreturned on exactly what the timeline is here for having LAPD “babysitting them instead of fighting real crime in our neighborhoods” as de León noted. Having survived the demand for his resignation following the LA Fed audio leak, it’s almost surprising when you see Kevin doing anything resembling good government.

Seemingly it’s been weeks now since there was a major problem at the location, so are 6 units still needed? Perhaps Los Angeles should start investing directly in journalism, an NPR of our own, better and more controversial than PBS. At the same Church of Scientology facility in North Hollywood, I had caught up with William Gude, better known as FilmThePoliceLA, or now Scientology Audit (Streets LA), a man who many suggests has followed a similar path in doing influence style police accountability like that of street vendor activist Edin Alex Enamorado, who along with 6 compatriots remains jailed in San Bernardino County. The regular report from LA Taco’s Janette Villafana filed on April 5 was concise, and they’ll all be going on trial on April 29, one day before Huizar gets a cell, with his attorney alleging he’s been a victim of a conspiracy, with the Mayor of Fontana allegedly telling him, “We have a surprise coming.”

A request for a change of venue is supposed to be considered today. Undoubtedly, it should be granted, even as video evidence suggests that Enamorado did cross the line, you have to wonder about the lack of bail being granted and the integrity of the case. Even if Edin is what they say, a convicted felon with a violent streak, did he still have some redeeming value as an influencer-activist, dare we even say journalist? Ben Goggin would surely disagree, and even if Enamorado is the poster child of what not to do, fans seemingly wonder why Gude might be laying low following his nose getting broken in altercation adjacent to the La Poubelle Bistro & Bar where activists have used social media as a tool of protest, live streaming everything to a nightly audience that reaches across the globe. Traditional news may be local, and it may involve a beat, but the world of social media is new and brave, for good or bad.

If all it takes to get a story is pointing a camera at someone doing something embarrassing, when is it City Council’s turn? Even the Los Angeles Times seems fed-up with the body. With their editorial board headlining today, “L.A. City Hall has a corruption problem. Why are leaders stalling on ethics reform?” The Times says that, “If they fail to act quickly, it will be clear that they cannot be trusted to make substantial changes to the city’s political structure.” Moreover, they think that, “Activists and civic leaders will have to organize and impose reform from outside.” Will social media and influencer style tactics be the essential ingredient to an ethics revolution at the troubled Spring Street location? If the LA Fed Tapes were supposed to be a lesson to Council, with the leaker crooning: “Wow, you know it happens, but when you actually hear it, it's unbelievable. The labor movement is in bed with City Hall.” The double-space isn’t mine, but one thing I can tell you is that it’s more popular among the legal, formal professions.

In other news, now is definitely a good time to be a lawyer in Los Angeles, and especially one suing the city over failing to meet nearly unmeetable housing goals to alleviate the crisis of the unhoused. According to a Times report by journalist Doug Smith, “In a closed session Friday, the L.A. City Council agreed to pay Umhofer, Mitchell & King LLP $725,000.” That’s probably just a down payment on the Oceanwide Plaza security tab, but clearly those lawyers deserved taxpayer money for seemingly, well, actually not-holding the City to account. Even as Judge David Carter ordered an audit into the city’s spending on the homelessness crisis, perhaps the number one policy issue for both Caruso and Bass, the Judge was adamant, “I can’t have a substandard audit,” he said. “It can’t be $100,000 short or even a million short.” While the amount of lost or misspent funds remains unknown, there’s no sign that he’s going to summon Eric Garcetti for testimony.

The bad state of journalism in Los Angeles clearly threatens both through lack of integrity and loss of audience appeal to reach those most receptive to its audience who could float journalism. To condemn out the gate, the idea of street-level journalism, much less influencer-style tactics as both a tactic and subject to be considered is a pre-emptive strike on innovation, much less true disruption. You need to have something truly good to create a news earthquake, not simply content or even an overwhelming steady rate of shootings and fires. That means journalism that matters, and I’ll fully agree with Matt Pearce, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, now on Substack that a world where Google AI seemingly threatens to inhibit news, that “I will offer the suggestion to you that maybe the digital infrastructure company with the $2 trillion market cap, $20.7 billion in profit last quarter, $48 billion revenue from search, is more malefactor than bystander here.” A malefactor, if you Google it, can be defined from Oxford as a “a person who commits a crime or some other wrong.”

AI alone won’t save journalism, but embracing a more forthright open posture surely will. Lately, I’ve been spending less time on X, period. The text based algorithm lacks the dynamism of a TikTok or YouTube with its streaming technology with less restrictions than Meta and more reach. So I’ll keep going out and trying to put the camera on the problem, whether it’s the Church of Scientology allegedly harassing a prosecutor and two LAPD detectives or the deployment of costly LAPD to guard a symbol of corruption. Look at Oceanwide Plaza long enough and you’ll start to see movie scenes, a ghost tower like others in the U.S., even in China, the product of foreign investment gone awry. $1 billion dollars, and no deliverables. In an ideal world, you put the truth out there and the news market responds, but in our new world, not just digital, but estranged from even names themselves, the cloak of a username promises more chaos than contrition, and costly mistakes in the name of power.

Link: Ben Goggin X Post on Influencer Journalism

Link: Facing ‘Immediate Layoffs,’ L.A. TACO Launches Membership Drive to Save Our Publication

Link: From zines to paying every staffer $84K: How LA Public Press is trying to do local news differently

Link: L.A. Times to lay off at least 115 people in the newsroom

Link: Los Angeles Times Owner Clashed With Top Editor Over Unpublished Article

Link: A Tradition of Violence The History of Deputy Gangs in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

Link: Watch The Watchers

Link: Los Angeles Magazine Sells to L.A. Attorneys Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas

Link: EXCLUSIVE: LAPD Zeroes In on City Council Leaker

Link: Column: Vandalism or street art? What the graffiti-tagged high-rises say about L.A.

Link: Los Angeles City Council looks into private security to deter high-rise graffiti

Link: What’s Next For ‘The Justice 8?’ Judge Denies Motion Requesting Law Enforcement Personnel Records, While Attorneys Fight for a Change of Venue and More