Being Nice to Stars Doesn’t Hurt News

Having replaced former Channel 2 “Action News” News Director John Lippman as the prime subject of Howard Rosenberg’s recent displays of rapier wit, I wanted to express my appreciation for all the attention (Rosenberg columns, Calendar, June 14 and 16) and at the same time suggest that perhaps Rosenberg is not getting the point of the entertainment news coverage I provide daily on the “KTLA Morning News” and recently on “John & Leeza.”

Maybe it’s a crazy notion given the normally adversarial relationship between celebrities and the press, but I honestly like these people, and it is a genuine thrill to meet them. (It is also a sincere thrill to speak two hours every morning with Carlos Amezcua, Barbara Beck and Mark Kriski.)

Yet Rosenberg’s suggestion that crawling into bed with Tom and Roseanne Arnold, or having Arnold Schwarzenegger cut up my breakfast into uniformly simple-to-eat and digestible bites, compromises my objectivity in actually reporting legitimate news about these stars, or in reviewing their artistic works, is just not true.

We at the “KTLA Morning News” are proud of the fact that we spend more on-air time and off-air effort covering all facets of the entertainment business than certainly any other local television station and several other local media outlets.

The adage “You catch more flies with honey” is never more true than in covering Hollywood. I can tell our viewers the real reasons behind the Arnolds’ battle with ABC, for example, because these two stars and many, many others actually talk to me. Our viewers also know that my access to celebrities in no way influences our movie or television reviews. In recent weeks I have had revealing on-air conversations with Michael J. Fox, Don Johnson, Rebecca De Mornay and Schwarzenegger; and all their recent films were received decidedly unenthusiastically on the “Morning News.”

Rosenberg also suggests that when we participate in a promotional venture with a celebrity, that by kidding about it on the air, we are trying to hide our obvious insidious attempts at commercial promotion. Rosenberg makes another real mistake here because he does something that we never do: He assumes our audience is not adept or sophisticated. They are.

On the basis of the large volume of viewer mail that we receive, the “KTLA Morning News” probably has the smartest viewers in town. They get the joke. They know what we’re doing. I trust that someday soon Rosenberg will figure it out too.

Incidentally, when our new 9 a.m. talk show “Project X” premieres in mid-July, we would welcome the chance to have Howard review the show live on the air. Who knows, he might have a future in television.