Mayor Eric Garcetti caused quite the uproar on Monday, when he dropped an F-bomb at the LA Kings victory ceremony. We discuss the OJ Simpson chase 20 years later. A new bill could allow underage individuals to consume alcohol.
Mayor Garcetti lets the F-word fly and a city starts talking
Mayor Eric Garcetti caused quite the uproar on Monday when he dropped an F-bomb at the LA Kings Stanley Cup Championship celebration.
Reaction to the incident has revealed a veritable rorschach test, with many in the crowd cheering on the seemingly free-wheelin’ mayor, while others called pre-calculated political foul and others still, including the unsuspecting FOX Sports Network, were just plain offended that the mayor of the second largest city in the country would let loose an expletive on live daytime television at a family event.
What does the city’s reaction say about the way Angelenos perceive Mayor Garcetti? The word can have a range of uses as parts of speech and as obscene versus simply colorful; should usage standards acknowledge that? Or is this just a case of politicians appealing to the lowest common denominator in an effort to appear to be one-of-the-people? And is the way you perceive the use of the word an even greater generational issue?
Guest:
Robin Abcarian, LA Times columnist who has written a piece on the Mayor’s F-bomb for today’s paper
Does having a daughter change the way men think about women?
A study co-authored by professors from Harvard and the University of Rochester shows that judges with daughters are more likely to side in favor of women’s rights than those with sons.
The “daughter effect” was most pronounced in the comparison of male judges appointed by Republican presidents, and echoes anecdotal evidence from the court and beyond. Standard debate about how judges decide cases focuses on law and ideology, but Professor Maya Sen, who co-wrote the study, says that personal experience matters too.
Other studies have come up with similar results in different fields -- one found that members of Congress with daughters are more likely to cast liberal votes, another found that British parents with daughters were more likely to vote for liberal parties. Intuition has long said the same thing -- that life experiences influence decision making.
Could having a daughter change the way an employer views colleagues, influence hiring practices, or change someone’s political perspective? Have you encountered a man whose daughter changed the way he treated women, or have you had your own point of view shifted?
Guest:
Beth Livingston, Assistant Professor, Human Resource Studies at the International and Labor Relations School, Cornell University
Jeremy Adam Smith, producer and editor at the Greater Good Science Center, UC Berkeley, author of The Daddy Shift, a collection of essays about stay at home fathers and their family dynamics
Where were you during the OJ Simpson car chase?
Tell us your story and share your memories in the comments below so we can read them on air during the segment on Tuesday, June 17!
The 24-hour news cycle, court TV, reality TV — all these television phenomena, you could argue, were born on one summer afternoon in 1994.
O.J. Simpson, an actor and former NFL star, was spotted by police in his white Ford Bronco at approximately 6:45 p.m. on June 17, 1994. The cops had been looking for Simpson, who went missing after being charged with the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her alleged lover, Ronald Goldman.
RELATED: Patt Morrison recalls the OJ Simpson white Bronco chase
What ensued was a low-speed car chase that went on for 60 miles and countless hours that changed the course of broadcast television. CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN interrupted regular programming to broadcast the chase live. News helicopters were deployed, legal analysts providing an endless stream of commentary were used.
RELATED: The surprising story of 2 TV chopper pilots who followed the OJ chase 20 years ago
Even major sports events, including Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Rockets and the Knicks, as well as the World Cup opener in Chicago, had to take a backseat to what was a bona-fide live television event. Some 95 million viewers watched the OJ Chase, and pizza chain Domino’s reported record sales that evening.
Where were you 20 years ago? What do you remember about the televised chase?
Angelenos share their memories on Facebook
Guests:
Howard Rosenberg, Pulitzer Prize-winning former television critic for the Los Angeles Times and he’s the author of numerous books including “The Menace of Media Speed and the 24-hour News Cycle,” (Continuum, 2008) which he co-authored with Charles Feldman
Michael Socolow, Associate Professor, Communication and Journalism, the University of Maine. Socolow was the evening Assignment Editor at CNN in Los Angeles during the night of the chase. He wrote about the experience in a piece for Medium
Are physician-owned distributorships (PODs) ethical?
Having “hardware” in the human body is nothing new -- people who have had orthopedic surgeries have long been setting off metal detectors -- but many doctors take issue with implanted devices sold by PODs, or physician-owned distributorships. PODs are groups of doctors, usually surgeons, who purchase implanted devices like screws, prostheses, or spinal hardware from a distributorship that they own. The physicians profit from the sale of medical implants, raising ethical questions about whether it’s okay to bring in a profit from their own referrals.
RELATED: Selling the Spine - full investigative piece by Karen Foshay
POD opponents argue that physicians profiting from device sales are getting a kickback, often overcharging hospitals and patients. POD owners claim to save hospitals money, and some say they operate transparently.
Are PODs ethical? Is it fair for a physician to profit on the hardware implanted during surgery? Might that incentivize more invasive procedures?
Guests:
Dr. Scott Lederhaus, board member at the Association for Medical Ethics, and surgeon at the Inland Neurosurgery Institute
Dr. John Steinmann, director of Spine Trauma at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, Assistant Clinical Professor at Western University
California bill would let under-21 winemakers and brewmasters have just a taste
The big business of booze in California means some students get started early, fermenting that is. As it stands now, students between the ages of 18-21 can study college courses on wine making and beer brewing, but are forbidden from trying their alcohol.
Now a newly proposed law might tweak that, thanks to UC Davis Professor Andrew Waterhouse. He asked the UC system to lobby Sacramento to make a rare exception to the drinking age. It would allow students to taste, but not consume, alcoholic beverages. Why is it crucial for students to be able to sip and spit?
Guest:
Andrew Waterhouse, Professor of Enology, University of California, Davis; Proponent of AB 1989
The curious, provocative mind behind Marlon Brando's smile
It is possible Marlon Brando was a star for too long and became famous for being famous - simplified as a movie star, a sex symbol, a lone wolf. Author Susan Mizruchi pores over Brando's letters, audiotapes, his writings and research to reveal a self-educated intellectual.. “I can report,” she writes, “that Brando’s hunger for knowledge was as insatiable as his more legendary appetites for women and food.”
While his iconic performances were on-screen in A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, Last Tango in Paris and Apocalypse Now, his most legendary was one in which he could not even be seen. At the 1973 Academy Awards, Brando declined to accept his Best Actor Oscar in protest of Hollywood's treatment of Native Americans. He sent a Native American Actress in his place. Mizruchi recounts the other social causes that informed his activism and his work.
An admitted life-long fan, Mizruchi focuses on his mind - rather than his string of marriages and tabloid details about his 11 children. How do you categorize Brando in the history of Hollywood actors? What do you think of his political activism?
Guest:
Susan Mizruchi, Author, “Brando’s Smile: His Life, Thought and Work” (W.W. Norton; June 23, 2014)