What is the media's role in the Miramonte investigation? The wind-up magic of Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo.” Miramonte update by LAUSD Superintendent. Rick Santorum wins three-state sweep – but what does it mean? Obama does 180 on super PACs. An intimate portrait of the first marriage.
What is the media's role in the Miramonte investigation?
Update: L.A. County Sheriff's Department says the girl's story "is not true."
Last night, KTLA evening news had an exclusive report into the alleged lewd conduct crimes against children at Miramonte Elementary School. The headline interview was with a 10-year old girl, filmed in shadow and unnamed. She is one of the students who says she was subject to lewd acts by teacher Mark Berndt – who faces 23 charges. The news last night was that the little girl said a third teacher would send the girl to Berndt's classroom to "get cookies during class."
KTLA characterized it as accusation against a third teacher for helping Berndt. Attorney Brian Claypool was also interviewed for the story, during which he sobbed, "When I heard it today, it confirmed my worst suspicions. That teacher should be protecting [my client] from Mr. Berndt, and she helped him do it." It was a breathless report into a scandal that has rocked this school's community.
David Begnaud, KTLA reporter who interviewed the girl, said careful discussion occurred in the newsroom before they decided to pursue the story. Also, the mother granted full permission and sat alongside her daughter for the duration of the questioning.
“We took a couple of precautions that made me feel better about it. You could not see the girl, you couldn’t tell who she was, and we didn’t identify her mother,” he said.
Begnaud said he was also conscious of the questions he asked. “There were specific questions that we chose to ask, and many more that we chose not to ask, quite frankly, because I just didn’t think it was appropriate to go into some of the details with a 10-year old,” he continued.
According to Begnaud, many parents have stepped forward to say media coverage helped them discover what their kids knew about the case. He went on to say that attorney Brian Claypool was on KTLA news Monday morning talking about the clients he represents, and he mentioned the class the mother’s daughter was in.
“When the mother walked out of the door last night she told me, ‘I think the media coverage is helping, because had I not seen that interview, I don’t know that I would have talked to [my daughter],” Begnaud added.
The report has stirred some controversy over its impact on the child and the investigation. Parallels were drawn between the Miramonte case and the McMartin case, a previous investigation where children were manipulated to make false claims.
Steve Whitmore, Senior Media Advisor to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Lee Baca, said that the community needs to remember law enforcement is trying to do its job. “I believe in the decency of people, and so does the sheriff. The community, we understand completely, is nervous and scared, and they want immediate answers,” he said.
Still, Whitmore stressed that anyone with information should only speak to investigators involved. “We ask them to do that because what’s important are facts. We understand that the media is going to cover things, we understand that concerned parents are going to say things, but covering and saying things are significantly different than facts, cooperation and hard evidence.”
Whitmore said detectives interview witnesses multiple times to fact check, and the job becomes difficult when their interviewees have already spoken to the media.
According to Begnaud, the nature of the interview was not compromised by suggestive questions; they only wanted to confirm information they received from attorneys.
“We wanted to hear it directly from one of the alleged victims,” he said. “This young girl answered the questions; she never stuttered, never made eye-contact with anyone else, as if to say, ‘Is this what I’m supposed to say?’ She looked right at me, answered the questions and quite frankly almost had a smile. I don’t truly think she understands the gravity of what the adults around her know.”
WEIGH IN:
What is the potential impact of coverage such as this? Does it help or hurt the situation to have children as subjects of media interviews?
Guests:
David Begnaud, Reporter, KTLA News
Steve Whitmore, Senior Media Advisor to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Lee Baca
The wind-up magic of Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”
Martin Scorsese has already made himself a legend in the world of film, directing such notable movies as “Taxi Driver,” “Goodfellas,” “Raging Bull” and “Mean Streets.” In 2007, Scorsese received the Academy Award for Best Director for “The Departed,” which also won Best Picture that year. Scorsese’s most recent effort, however, takes a turn from the world of gangsters, violence and crime and focuses on the promise of adventure and the power of imagination.
In Hugo, a boy who has been orphaned after his father dies in a fire must fend for himself while living off stolen food in a train station. Meanwhile, he attempts to repair a broken automaton, which was a project of his father’s. It isn’t until Hugo meets a girl named Isabelle, who coincidentally has a key which fits into the automaton, that Hugo gets it to work and discovers its true purpose. The film is in 3-D, and Scorsese has received the Best Director Golden Globe for his work on the film. It is nominated for eleven Academy Awards this year, including Best Director and Best Picture.
WEIGH IN:
Why did Scorsese decide to focus on this particular story? How does the 3-D technology affect and enhance the overall work? What were your favorite moments of “Hugo,” and why do you think it’s getting such a strong critical reception?
Guest:
Martin Scorcese, Academy Award nominee for best director for the film HUGO
LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy on Miramonte Elementary sex abuse scandal
As school district administrators move to replace the entire staff at Miramonte Elementary School, which has been rocked by teacher sex abuse claims, new allegations of misconduct have emerged. The Los Angeles Times reports that a 50-year-old teacher’s aide sent letters to an 11-year-old boy in 2009, including one that read, “When you get close to me, even if you give me the chills I like that. Don't tell nobody about this!” The school remains closed today, following last week’s arrests of Mark Berndt and Martin Springer, two veteran teachers from Miramonte accused of lewd acts towards children. Superintendent Deasy joins Larry to discuss the latest news from this troubled school.
Meanwhile, the sheriff's department expects other students will now come forward. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau at (877) 710-LASD of (877) 710-5273.
Guest:
John Deasy, Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD)
Rick Santorum wins three-state sweep – but what does it mean?
Last night, Rick Santorum scored a hat trick by winning Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, the three states being contested for the GOP nomination. Even though none of these contests immediately award delegates, it could still be a major jump start to Santorum’s campaign, which had been petering out after the South Carolina and Florida primaries.
Furthermore, it will definitely set Mitt Romney back a bit after his recent gains, and will once again force the GOP electorate to consider the “conservative credentials” of their chosen nominee. Newt Gingrich also suffers, as he made basically no news throughout any of these contests and didn’t even speak to his supporters at the end of the night. Even Ron Paul made some worthy progress, winning second place in Minnesota.
Voters may find themselves looking to Santorum as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney come Super Tuesday, which would be fatal to Gingrich’s proposed path to the nomination. But again, none of these states award any binding delegates, so this might only prove to be a feather in Santorum’s cap. Furthermore, without a major jump in fundraising, no Republican candidate is going to be able to compete with Romney’s money machine nationally.
WEIGH IN:
What did Santorum really win here? Is Romney still the frontrunner in this race? What does Santorum have to do to capitalize on this momentum? How will the Romney campaign handle it? And what happened to Newt?
Guests:
Tim Lefever, Chairman of the Board, Capitol Resource Institute (CRI) in Sacramento
Arnold Steinberg, Veteran Republican Strategist and Analyst
Obama does 180 on super PACs
Back in 2010, when the Supreme Court first handed down the Citizens United decision Barack Obama didn’t have a lot of good things to say about it. He even spoke out against Citizens United in his State of the Union speech that year saying it would open the floodgates for special interest and even foreign money to flow into American politics, essentially hijacking the process.
Fast forward to an election year and the president is changing his tune. He’s decided to finally endorse Priorities USA Action, the Super PAC that was started by two former Obama aids to raise money for his campaign. In the last couple of years the conservative Super PACs have completely outstripped Priorities, making more than $40 million compared to their rather anemic $4.4 million.
The problem has been that because Obama has kept the Super PAC at arms length they’re having trouble attracting the big donors. But times they are a-changing. According to the New York Times the president has agreed to start sending out top staffers to Priorities USA fundraising events, a move that signals he’s ready to start playing with the post-Citizens United rulebook.
Jim Messina, who manages Obama’s reelection campaign, said they’re not going into an election year battle with “one hand tied behind their back.” He went on to say that Democrats and Republicans can’t play with two sets of rules.
This isn’t the only major policy item Obama has flipped on this week. Senior Advisor David Axelrod recently said that the administration is open to compromising with religious organizations on controversial rules that would require them to cover contraception as part of their healthcare coverage. Religious organizations fired back saying they’d work every legal angle to stop the rule from taking place.
WEIGH IN:
So, what do all these compromises mean for Obama as we continue on in the election cycle? How will the switch on Super PACS impact the upcoming race? And do these changes make Obama look like a flip-flopper?
Guests:
Bill Burton, senior strategist, Priorities USA Action (a super PAC supporting Obama)
Jonathan Collegio, Spokesman for American Crossroads (super PAC tied to Karl Rove)
An intimate portrait of the first marriage
How does being the United States president test a marriage? Veteran New York Times reporter Jodi Cantor answers that question in her new book, “The Obamas.” Cantor chronicles their relationship from their newlywed days to their rise in the White House. She details how Mrs. Obama shaped her husband’s leadership, from his time in the senate to the oval office. But every marriage has its ups and downs. When Barack Obama joined the senate in 2004, she stayed behind in Chicago with their two young daughters – Malia and Sasha – because she wanted to protect them from the all-too-disillusioning world of politics in Washington. This put a strain on their marriage because she was alone most of the time with her children. After his 2008 election, she was apprehensive about the family’s inevitable move to the nation’s capital, but eventually agreed to it, and reluctantly adapted to her changed role as the first lady.
WEIGH IN:
What influence does Michelle Obama have over her husband’s leadership? How did their relationship change after Obama became president? How does President Obama balance marriage and family life with his presidency? How did they grapple with their new roles? How does Michelle Obama adapt to a life of limited freedom and intense media scrutiny? What is the reality of political life and how livable can it be?
Guest:
Jodi Cantor, author of The Obamas (Little, Brown and Co). Cantor has been covering the Obamas since 2007 and is a Washington correspondent for the newspaper.