Full Disclosure Network, the scrappy independent news agency, has long focused on events and issues that other local television news channels fail to cover at any length.
It’s going national for the first time since its inception in 1992.
The Marina del Rey-based network, which airs online and on local cable channel LA36, has been focusing on what some call a brewing race war between illegal immigrant Latino gang members and young African-Americans.
The first two parts of a four-part series have been broadcast on Channel 36 and more than 40 other cable channels across Los Angeles and Orange counties and Sacramento. The series will soon be broadcast on cable channels in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts and several counties in Virginia.
The series focuses on Jamiel’s Law, a proposed local ordinance named after the late Jamiel Shaw II, a 17-year-old Los Angeles High School football star who was gunned down in March, three blocks from his home in South Central L.A. His alleged killer, Pedro Espinosa, is an illegal immigrant who had been released from L.A. County Jail, after serving four months on assault and weapons charges. His trial began last week.
Supporters of the ordinance believe that illegal immigrants who are suspected of gang ties, such as Espinosa, should be deported before they commit a crime. Federal policy calls for illegals to be deported only after jail or prison sentences. But top L.A. law enforcement officials and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa oppose the ordinance, saying that it would lead to racial profiling. Backers are mounting a signature drive for a ballot measure.
“We cover the news behind the news,” said Leslie Dutton, producer and host of Full Disclosure. “That makes some people at City Hall nervous.”
Latino Life
Founder and publisher Jaime Gamboa plans to revive city magazine Tu Ciudad as an Internet site, after Emmis Communications Corp. pulled the plug on the Hispanic-oriented English-language publication.
“We’re going to take it in a new strategic direction,” Gamboa said. He declined to give any further details, saying that an official announcement would be coming within weeks.
“I’m still working out the details but it’s probably safe to say that the new publication will take advantage of the Internet,” Gamboa said.
Tu Ciudad was launched three years ago as a glossy magazine designed to appeal to second- and third-generation Hispanic Angelenos. It had a circulation of 118,000. The average age of its readers was 35, of whom women made up 55 percent.
Oscar Garza, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, said the slowing economy led to the magazine’s early demise.
Emmis executives made the decision based on revenue.
“Emmis Publishing has decided to suspend publication of Tu Ciudad Los Angeles because the magazine’s financial performance did not meet the company’s expectations,” an Emmis spokeswoman said.
Auction Block
Horror film fans were terrified when Los Angeles-based Tartan U.S.A. announced that it was going to shutter its doors and auction off its library of 101 films.
They took to the Internet and practically set their blogs on fire bemoaning the loss of the scare-fare resource.
That was until Santa Monica-based Palisades Media Corp. came to the rescue last week, buying up Tartan’s library of films and creating Palisades Tartan Film Acquisitions to handle U.S. distribution.
The value of the acquisition was not disclosed but Tartan’s library has generated modest worldwide box office tallies of about $222,000 to $759,000 for each of its biggest hits such as “OldBoy,” “Mysterious Skin” and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.” The majority of its library, however, typically fetch between $50,000 and $100,000 per picture. Budgets for such pictures are usually under $50,000, according to Nash Information Services’ estimates.
Palisades expects to have the new operation up and running by July 1. The company is considering hiring some of the displaced employees from Tartan, said Palisades manager Ken Burns.
Offbeat Agency
Remember the glamour of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Some of today’s stars are a stark contrast, almost the polar opposite. For example: Seth Rogen from “Knocked Up” and America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty.”
So veteran agents Chaim Magnum and Robin Harrington recently opened LemonLime commercial agency, which they say is designed to specialize in “normalcy.” That’s to say people who look more like Rogen and don’t dance like Astaire.
“The way that advertisers are casting their campaigns today, they are really trying to reach out to consumers with commonality,” said Magnum, vice president of LemonLime.
Magnum said that LemonLime has already placed some of its clients in national campaigns, including ads for Apple, Del Taco, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Levi’s and
Donna Karan.
Staff reporter Brett Sporich can be reached at
[email protected]
or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 226.
