The groundbreaking television on TLC adventures for your mind.
Breaking news right now, Aaron Fitzgerald's in Chopper two over the seat of a pursuit.
Aaron, what do you know about this?
He is wanted for a crime committed earlier.
They haven't said specifically what that crime is over the radio.
Ask the Chopper where is he?
We don't know where it is.
There you are again on your location.
Nobody else has got this.
Here we go again, back northbound on Hollywood Way.
Those suits are going down the wrong way.
Oh!
Oh my God!
Oh my God!
Turn that tape around.
And we're on the air.
This city is 480 square miles.
As a news person, you have to be able to look over every square mile of this place and say, well, what is news?
LA is the place to be in the local news business.
It's always very busy here in Los Angeles.
This is KCBS, Channel 2, the CBS station in Los Angeles.
Right now in Los Angeles.
For years, it's been the third place news station in LA.
But it's still pretty near the top of the heap in the local news business.
Can you tell us what it was like in there?
This is the story of the people climbing that heap, the people who tell LA's stories.
Three, two.
Working to cover the news and build careers in the most competitive news town on earth.
Library, library, library.
My name is Larry Perrette and I'm the news director at KCBS.
Thank you.
I'm the chief executive officer of the news department essentially.
Charles Stewart, executive producer.
Good morning, Mr. Perrette.
How are you?
It's a lot of fun to work in Los Angeles if you're a news person.
Lots going on.
We're able to attract some of the best and the brightest people in the country.
There's no question about it.
The writers.
You know, that story could be your lead.
The producers.
Wally, call the desk. Wally, call the desk.
The assignment editors.
We're breaking out of there. Call the desk.
The reporters.
Can anyone even tell that my hair is darker?
The anchors.
It looks wonderful.
You can tell?
It's my news department. Those are my people.
And most of what's going on is a product of my team of people.
I just want to get a quick little meeting on that 11 o'clock.
We get into the office.
We have our story meeting in the morning.
Kind of the first look at what's going on.
I just want to know more about it.
God love you.
God bless you.
All right.
So, what do you got?
All right, so we have this wild bus crash this morning.
And we'll be live there on the scene.
So that's good. So it's 6 o'clock.
We have some weird weather going on.
Weird weather.
I like that.
It's been rainy. It's been chilly.
It's not typical.
It'll be miserable tomorrow.
Why? It's not miserable.
It's just going to be rainy and wet and too...
How do you know?
Because that's what we report here.
It is what it is.
It's a bad day of news here in Los Angeles.
Well, look, the good news is two and a half more hours.
A lot can happen.
The news hunt is on.
Faced with five hours of TV to fill every single day,
this team has to work the information network,
calling sources, scanning the papers,
checking police and fire radios.
Okay, action.
Anything to find the next big story.
My name is Jonathan Elias.
You want a top story.
You're looking for something to top-plot?
Yeah.
I got into this completely by accident.
What's the latest on Pakistan and India?
I originally wanted to fly jets in the Air Force.
That was a dream of mine.
I don't know if we have any cameras.
Same adrenaline rush, though.
Hello, newsroom.
A caller phones in a news tip,
and the CBS team swings into action.
Okay, here's the deal.
A satellite is down,
affecting all of the Pager carriers in the United States.
Can you do a phone report with us right now?
Major Pager problem in America.
We're going to go live to somebody from AirTouch.
Some satellite is broken,
and Pager service is out all over the city.
A communication satellite has shut down
for reasons I'm not quite sure of.
We've got to put somebody on it.
Their main satellite is down.
They have a backup satellite
that another Paging company uses.
They're trying now to uplink to that satellite.
This guy can settle that.
That'll take hours.
This guy was telling me it's not a matter of...
Oops, it's a matter of hours.
It could be a matter of days.
Their engineers are frantic.
They've notified hospitals.
They've notified cops.
They've notified everybody who's important.
We've got to tell them what's going on.
We've got to strategize what you're going to put on television
in 18 minutes.
18 minutes until the news hits the air.
To cover the breaking story,
a whole newscast has to be reshuffled.
The rush is that you want to get on the air
as quickly as possible
with the best information that you have.
We had, like, minutes to go.
I don't trust information coming to me from anybody,
but the person I have on the phone who identifies himself
is a chief operating engineer of that satellite.
So we're talking about millions of people
who have Pagers no longer work right now.
And we're talking about thousands of dishes
have to now be re-aimed.
Remember, you're off the top of the news, okay?
You're off the top.
Sorry, can we...
I'll come back for you, Howard, thanks.
There were a couple of voices I heard in the background
going, we're never going to make this, you know?
This is going to be a little touch and go,
but we'll get...
You know, what do you know right now?
I know.
Who's going to edit this?
Who's editing this?
That's when you say, oh, really?
You know, you love a challenge, and so you say,
we'll make it.
This is big.
He said they got six million satellites in his company,
six million Pagers, five and a half million are gone.
What do you got?
I got it from the phone.
There's a negative in that.
My 22.
22.
When you're up against it,
and there's no way you can pull it out,
nothing more frustrating.
This is a big deal.
We got to cut this in a hurry.
The whole satellite is spinning out.
In all the speculations, it could be an asteroid.
Asteroid?
Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
There are two kinds of news,
the kind that blows up in your face,
the kind you have to dig for.
Digging is the job of a rare and somewhat endangered read of news now,
the investigative reporter.
I'm Drew Griffin, reporter in the special assignment unit here at KCBS.
I grew up in Chicago on the South Side,
got into TV in college,
and I've been through seven stations in six different states.
I love it, you know?
I love the job, and I've always thought,
gosh, what am I going to do when I grow up?
I was hoping to be at a network level by this time in my career,
but this is pretty good.
I know a lot of guys at network that would love to have my job right now.
You remember, like, three months ago, that little kid died?
Tonight we uncover an alarming number of fake doctors
all across Southern California running illegal clinics.
What we're trying to do is go find fake doctors in the Valley.
Okay.
Well, we heard about these places,
and we know that the only real way to make an impact with television news
is to catch it on tape.
So you have to speak Spanish.
Así es, no problema.
We got two of our Spanish-speaking people to wear undercover gear
and to go into the clinic and see what they could buy,
what they could see, what they could find out.
I'm going to undercover gear while I'm going to be taking...
A purse camera.
Show her where we got to hook up the battery to that thing.
I have always strived to do investigations
because that's what I really love to do.
Okay, fantastic.
This is a fishing expedition.
So we got all our bait, and we're going fishing.
Everybody's pager is down.
My daughter works for Gatsheps Cellular.
They're getting bombarded with phone calls.
Their manager could do it.
She said, try paging yourself. It doesn't work.
Give it about. Let it run 20 seconds.
He says some good things at the top.
The whole satellite is spinning out of control.
Kill it, kill it. Let's go back to...
You got it. I got to run.
Speed means a lot when you're up against a deadline,
but getting it right means even more.
I think we have a pretty awesome responsibility
to maintain a level of control,
and also you got to make sure that you have your facts.
It's crazy behind the scenes,
but then at the same time you have to put a good face on it
when you go on the air.
You wipe the sweat off your brow and just say,
okay, here's what's happening.
Big story is developing.
I can't finish this conversation right now.
We'll talk after your shot. I got to go.
Please sit down. Two minutes.
You know you're going to make it
out there on television. You're sitting in the chair
and the camera's right in front of you.
That camera's going on. You better have something to say.
Our top story is that breaking news right now,
90% of all cages in this country are down.
They are not operational,
and some television stations are having transmission troubles too.
The cause is a satellite that's gone off live.
Jonathan Elias is live in our newsroom
with more on this breaking story.
Michael, I wish we had more information to tell you.
What we can tell you is that a satellite in orbit
that has been relied upon in the communications industry
for a long time is not working.
A satellite is not providing the kinds of resources
that it normally does.
Those are those times that just make you wonder,
how did we do that?
And you come away with something that looks halfway decent,
and you feel like you won.
We're going to be following the story.
We'll have a lot more to tell you about coming up tonight at 11 o'clock.
We'll go back to you now, Mike and Ann.
All right, Jonathan's going to have more on this breaking story as it comes in.
It's got to be Lisa Dillon.
22 minutes. It was assigned at 6.08.
And we got it on 22 minutes later. Not bad.
You don't want to freak people out. You just want to inform folks.
Nice job, Lisa.
We were freaking out.
Hopefully we came away just informing folks.
I like to think that I'm probably getting calls from people saying,
oh, my God.
Celebrations never last long in this business.
The news machine must be fed constantly.
Channel 2 goes to air with news at noon, 5, 6, and 11.
But news doesn't always happen on schedule.
Somebody missed their slot. Was it you?
It probably may have been.
I don't know. I mean, we literally sat down to start writing
and editing this thing at 20 to 6.
I started writing at 20 to 6.
We can never finish a sentence here because this is what news is like.
Stand by. Hello, Stuart.
You need the chopper again?
I've got to move it now. Breaking news, bud. Breaking news now.
We begin with breaking news. It is happening right now.
The SWAT team is at the old Chasen's restaurant.
Charles, I'm going to move Charles Stewart.
Can I move part of this?
We hope that he's still alive.
Let's go to him. Is that OK?
Yes. Move.
Brechen Carr, standing in the newsroom.
My name is Brechen Carr, and I'm an anchor and a reporter at KCBS.
Brechen Carr is just going over in a neighborhood near Beverly Hills
where there's shots were fired.
A woman was screaming, and SWAT's going, so we're going to go check it out.
I've been at KCBS for four months now. I'm brand new.
Brechen Carr, our reporter, is on the way to the scene there.
Coming from Salt Lake City, which was a great television news market,
but it was much slower paced.
I'm still reeling in a way, kind of pinching myself going,
wow, am I really here? When did this happen?
Brechen's assignment, get footage of the standoff, interview a cop,
and go live from the scene for the 6 o'clock news.
SIRENS
All we know at this point is that they got a 911 call sometime this afternoon
from someone in this vicinity, and that they reported hearing shots fired
and then the sound of a woman screaming.
We're at the lead at 6, and we've got now 12 minutes to turn this entire story around
for 6 o'clock news.
SIRENS
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held at a bridge named Bob.
Now how do you capture an event of such magnitude?
With the Pentax IQ Zoom 160.
It's compact and simple, like the name Bob.
It's got auto-focus, auto-flash, switches to panoramic,
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one of the longest power zooms of any 35-millimeter compact camera.
It's the Pentax IQ Zoom 160.
But you can call it Bob.
Aren't your pictures worth a Pentax?
SIRENS
HANDS
They keep us in touch with the world.
Sometimes too much.
That's why there's Purell.
It kills even the toughest germs without water.
And since Purell won't dry your hands,
you can use it every time you touch.
Too much.
To help stay well.
Purell.
Sunday on TLC.
In the Hollywood version, there were romantic heroes roaming the high seas.
On TLC to the fire.
Get ready for the real story of the golden age of piracy.
Pirates, Sunday starting at 9 on TLC.
Monday on TLC.
Cheer panic.
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Extreme terror.
In one brief moment, lives can change forever.
It actually went through his skull.
Survival in the sky.
Sky Crimes.
Monday at 10 on TLC.
MUSIC
You are not going to believe what we're talking about.
Look at her. Isn't she beautiful?
Look at that necklace.
It is gorgeous.
I wonder where she bought it.
I don't know, but it looks like it cost a fortune.
Hello. It's so nice to see you again.
We were just admiring your necklace.
Where'd you get it?
Actually, I got it at Dr. Bob's.
And he also custom made my earrings.
Hi, I'm Dr. Bob.
And at Dr. Bob's, we sell jewelry and we sell it right.
Dr. Bob's Jewelry and Pond.
Good morning. Welcome to Post-Atlantic's Plus.
Business cards for Mr. Hill.
Data facts to Jacksonville.
Birthday cards for Bob and Mary.
Passport photos stationary.
Packaging in every shape.
Cartons, stamps, and wrapping tape.
Next email to foreign borders.
Typing service, money orders.
Wedding invitations.
Phone communications.
Plastic laminations.
Graduation salutations.
Nothing panics us.
We're Postal and it's Plus.
One gunman, one hostage, one reporter with a deadline.
I don't get real nervous in these situations.
And I think it's mostly because I'm so focused on everything else
that I don't really have time to think about the fact that,
gosh, we might all really be in danger here if there's some guy
running around with a gun.
But in the meantime, my job is to get the story.
And so that's what I'm focusing on.
I'm more worried that I'm not going to get the story in time for
the 6 o'clock news than I am about getting shot.
Now, stretch our young B-roll.
Rosa, why am I knowing now that the tape's not ready?
We're waiting for the sheriff's public information officer to
give us a comment, just let us know what they know.
Sometimes they don't like it a lot when you go into their
little perimeter, but sometimes you just have to.
Listen, listen to me, please.
We need to be ready to come out of the break at any moment.
Please, let's get ready.
Right, no pre-show.
Victor, clear the pre-show.
Carl.
Seven minutes to air.
And I'm getting really nervous at this point because they
aren't coming over here.
Here he comes.
Let me see if I can get him.
One moment, let me grab my photographer.
Carl, he's ready to do the interview.
Can we take him?
I've got it in my hand.
I don't have much.
Shortly before four o'clock, West Hollywood Sheriff's
Deputy received a shot fired.
One, two, one, two, one, two.
Shots fired.
There was a man armed with a gun inside the residence.
Is it clear whether or not he's holding hostages?
That we do not know.
Okay, all right, thank you.
That'll do it.
We've got to spin.
Yeah, let's feed that.
How is it that we're finding out when we're in the lead in
that we don't have the tape?
No problem, no problem, no problem, problem.
Are we going to make it for six?
We are going to go into the valley, San Fernando Valley,
and start knocking out the doctors that we know about.
I already know.
I scoped these joints out.
The fact that these poorest of the poor are getting
swindled by these doctors and possibly hurt by these
doctors is a driving force for me.
So when you walk in, look for the Spanish label things,
and then when somebody asks you what's up,
start giving them a song and dance about your symptoms.
Okay.
And she'll get out of the van, and she'll walk across the
street or the parking lot, and she'll go into a store.
And she's going to come back inside the van?
She'll come back in here, and she'll tell us what happened.
I need the telling of what happened.
Their only real way to show this problem was to have one
of our people go in, make buys, and to get exams.
That was a good use of a hidden camera.
Cha cha.
Cha.
The stakeout begins.
While the hidden camera goes in for the sting,
Drew waits and watches.
She's in.
Oh, baby.
This is a place that was already busted last year,
but still in business.
Try not to attract attention.
I hear you.
You don't want to go with the doctor?
I don't know.
There's also water.
Hey, when you get three dollars, you can...
It's the same.
It appears to me that they're not qualified to diagnose
anybody for anything, and here they are distributing
drugs that are supposedly only prescription only,
without prescriptions.
So who knows what danger there could be in what they're doing.
We don't have to feed the whole thing, just from deputies.
Brake eight, brake eight, got to save feed.
Gretchen's got to transmit the SWAT team sound bite
back to the station.
It's only been a few minutes, but with the 6 o'clock news
about to start, Gretchen has only seconds.
9-1-1, shots fired, call.
Hi, it's Gretchen.
Could you take some information for me?
We are crashing.
We're looking at our watches and we're saying,
okay, we can feed the tape, we can get it to the station.
They called hostage negotiators.
And we can run as fast as we can, and we'll be at the camera
and be ready for the live shot before they're ready for us.
We're standing by five seconds back to Gretchen
and is out to camera three.
Get the tape now, we're on now.
I try not to think about the fact that everyone is watching.
That this huge public is out there watching, and this is live,
and if you blow it, you blow it.
I have IV.
We're coming up right now.
Gretchen Carr, our reporter, is on the way to the scene there.
We're going to be tossing to her in just a few moments,
and you can take a look at the scene right now, I believe.
Do we have a camera set up there?
We've got to get a picture right now.
There's Gretchen.
Gretchen, are you ready?
Can you hear us?
Yes, I can, and we are on the scene.
Right now I'm crouched behind a Beverly Hills police car
because they believe that there is a man,
possibly holed up inside one of these apartment buildings,
possibly armed.
They received a telephone call to 911 this afternoon about 4 o'clock.
The police are telling me that they believe there may be a hostage situation involved.
We, of course, will keep you updated on this situation
as the information becomes available.
Now we'll send it back to you in the station.
All right, Gretchen, we'll check back with you when you've got more news there.
Stay tuned. Thanks.
Holy cow!
My gosh, I plugged that in, and they're like, you're on!
Nice job, Gretchen.
Thank you.
You know, they're not happy with me back at the station right at this moment
because we got our tape fed in light.
But we didn't get it. I mean, you saw it.
We got it in two minutes to six,
and they said they wanted it, and then it didn't make the air.
So we'll see how it looks when we get back.
The hidden camera investigation is already striking gold.
This is a tough story to do because maybe some of these guys
are legitimate, they just don't have a license.
Here she is.
Bingo!
What'd you get?
Drugs.
I don't even know what these are.
We just take them once every six hours.
Give me an examination.
He says I have kidney problems.
Damn, I wish we had another camera.
Son of a bitch.
With really little effort, which stunned us all.
We got Vonte fake doctors giving physical exams
and store clerks selling us prescription drugs.
I mean, it was like a blessing
because it just all poured into the screen.
Now let's go to our second location
and do the same routine.
All right?
So we continued, and we kind of snowballed from there.
And in every place we went into, we were getting the same deal,
and we realized how huge a problem this is.
So we got some impersonating a doctor,
several people that are giving us prescription drugs
without a prescription.
It's pretty good for one morning.
So we're going on about three hours now
that there have been SWAT teams, police and sheriff's officers
that have cordoned off this area.
It's sort of painful when you feel like you just didn't nail it, you know?
We were a few seconds late getting on the air,
which is not good.
I came back from this live shot,
and my executive producer called me in
and talked to me about the situation out there.
I had my own observations about what I thought worked and didn't work,
so I wanted to ask you what happened, you know,
what was your experience in the field, what happened?
You're watching 7 California CBS 2 News at 6.
Gretchen Carr, our reporter, is on the way to the scene there.
We're going to be tossing to her in just a few moments.
Anne was in the toss to you.
We weren't seeing you ready to go on TV.
This is...there's Gretchen.
Gretchen, are you ready? Can you hear us?
We want people ready to go live in front of the camera
five minutes before the live shot.
Let me tell you what was exactly what I heard.
Gretchen, these are your marching orders.
Go get an interview or a live interview or tape,
and get video and feed them in.
And that's what I did, and we were there, and we were ready to go live.
And, I mean, yeah, it was late, but nobody said we weren't going to make it.
Then I need, you know, the reporters to say,
okay, you want me to be the lead or you want the sound bite?
Which one do you want? I'm not going to be able to do both.
This is different for me, too, because I'm not used to this happening, you know, like this.
I mean, news doesn't break in Salt Lake City, you know?
So this is all new, and the timeframes and the show turnarounds and just the whole thing.
I applaud you for your effort.
I mean, throughout the hour, it was great live television.
And it's just a matter of tweaking and getting it right, and we'll do that.
We'll certainly get a chance to try this again, probably tonight.
Tomorrow.
Everything beats you up sometimes, and the vans keep breaking and breaking and breaking and breaking and breaking,
and it just like stops.
Sometimes you just wish it would stop, and it doesn't stop all the time.
Thank you, 3205.
Okay, are you aware of a pursuit that the chopper just went on?
Okay, he said that they're on a pursuit.
We're CDB-9 here, 15-6.
Air 16.
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Starts Sunday, December 13.
Dreams die hard in California.
Two teenagers in a pickup make a high-speed sprint from the law,
but they've got two L.A. County sheriffs and one ambitious news team on their tail.
I have a chase in progress, a burglary suspect.
We're trying to get some information. It's another California chase here.
Go ahead for Chopper 2.
KCBS has a full-time Chopper news team on call to shoot and report stories like this one.
These high-speed chases are big news in L.A., sometimes big enough to cut into daytime TV.
Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it.
Six, five, four, three.
Little animation first.
Here we come.
For viewers who are just tuning in, you're looking at a silver Ford pickup,
which is believed stolen by two people who are inside.
Oh, we're live. No one else is live. No one else is live.
He was on OK Canyon Road.
Four's not there, seven's not there.
He got onto the 14th freeway.
Being fast is good. Being first is better.
He's just lost in the dirt there. He lost control.
He's just, OK, he just collided with something.
Now he's, we may see a foot for sure. OK, one of them's out.
The driver's still in. The passenger got out. Now he's in the back of the truck.
This is very dangerous now for him as well, unrestrained in the back of the truck.
If he goes as fast as he has been, this guy's in danger.
Oh, he's going to try and climb back in the truck.
Like right out of the movies. Very surreal to see something like that.
So Charles, who would have at the top of the newscast?
He would go live to the Chopper if it's there.
If not, which I think we might lose it, once we go too high in the mountains,
then we'll say we've been following a pursuit.
We'll bring you more information as we get it.
And then go on with the news. We should be fine.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you too well. The signal's very broken up here in the mountains.
We're in an area where we can't receive the signal consistently for the rest of this pursuit.
So it's going to be a little dicey.
Oh, we just lost. We're losing it. We're losing it.
We have a bad signal. Nikki, can we get some background video in case this thing dies?
This has been going on for at least 20 minutes to a half an hour.
It started in Lancaster.
Oh, they just fishtailed him.
Oh, T.C., traffic collision.
Whoa, there was just something.
Just an accident. Get ready to turn that tape around. Turn that tape around.
Turn the tape. Turn the tape, please. Turn the tape. Shit. Oh, God.
We've got to get our signal. Looks like something just happened.
Oh, put Michael-1 off the camera.
There it is. It's ending. They just hit him. They just hit him.
A pursuit coming to an end now in the city of Palmdale. There you see a fleeing suspect on foot.
You see it's a foot pursuit now. The CHP officers behind him used a fishtail maneuver to knock the car off its line of travel there.
Yep, got him.
LA County Sheriff's Department deputies jumped from that car and chased down the suspect and got him in custody.
The driver was taken into custody at the vehicle. Both burglary suspects, both now in custody.
The pursuit has terminated at Quartz Hill near Lancaster.
Reporting live from Chopper 2, I'm Aaron Fitzgerald. Back to you.
This is relatively unique to Los Angeles, although it's starting to happen in more markets now.
But because we have so many freeways and that kind of thing, there's a lot more of it.
It seems here than I've seen elsewhere.
Thank you, sir. We're out of here.
Clearly, when there are pursuits on, the ratings go up. Sometimes they go up significantly.
I've seen the ratings triple, quadruple. It's amazing.
You need to know all about the ratings. What they are is a measurement of how many people are watching you.
I sound like a sales guy and I'm a journalist. I'm really not. But you have to know the business of our business, too.
We do news, but we also have to be aware of the fact that there is another thing going on here and that's called making profit on this.
Give me some numbers and I want to put some red boxes up.
19, 10, 8, 19.
Okay.
6, 8, 14.
I'm just looking at all the decimal points here.
The station's been in third place since about 1985. So that's 13 years.
We're trying to reverse that. It's very demanding. It's very stressful.
You would like to think that you could grow your number, and really you should.
And if you don't, then I guess at some point somebody's going to come knocking on my door and say, Larry, your time is up.
And then you leave.
Well, we're going to do confrontations this morning. Eleanor's going to go in and try to see the doctor, buy the drugs.
She comes out and comes back, tells us what she got.
We're going to go back in and confront these folks and ask them what the hell they're doing.
Just jump in as fast as we can. Get in the door.
If you're prepared, you can be a real hard ass.
Because if you know that you're right and they're wrong and you got the goods on them,
then you can go in and be as tough and strong as you want to be.
You have a license to sell this?
I'm not selling this one.
You sold it. I've got it on sale.
Only this packet.
This is the only packet that's ever been sold.
You're putting people in danger by selling these drugs.
Get out of here. This is not a street.
Please, this is dangerous. Don't be prescribing these without a prescription. You don't know what you're doing.
So you're not a doctor?
Are you qualified to prescribe any medication or to diagnose anybody with anything, sir?
Are you licensed to sell prescription drugs, sir?
I mean, some people say pointing the camera at somebody and grilling them when they're uncomfortable in front of the camera is unfair.
Is there truth to that? Maybe.
Is there any way of getting around it? Not in the TV news biz.
Start rolling now.
We're with Channel 2.
I want to know why you guys are selling prescription drugs without a license.
How come you have a doctor in here, sir? Can we talk to you for a second?
Can we talk to you, sir?
What are you doing now?
Why are you locking the door?
Are you closing?
The story airs Monday night at 11 o'clock on Channel 2.
11 en la noche, Canal 2.
Esta lunes.
These guys just don't give a damn. I think they should be held accountable.
And since no one else is holding them accountable, why shouldn't we?
That gets me going.
We got a tip that five people were shot in Compton.
We're hearing three killed, two injured in the shooting.
And, you know, we're going to go see what's going on.
You know, I think when three people die, whether it's Compton or wherever, you know, that we need to go down and just figure out what's going on.
Let's see. We'll see what happens.
The night is young.
They describe the shooting as gang-related.
Compton is a very rough place, but the job is to tell a story.
You've got to go where the story is. You can't pretend to tell that story from being somewhere else. You have to go there.
Sometimes it's dangerous, sometimes it's a lot of fun.
What happened?
The shooting ended hours ago, but a reporter can still set the scene with the help of witnesses.
Two men got shot right here?
Shot dead or just shot and taken to the hospital?
Were they shooting right here in front of you guys?
I don't buy the apathetic role of just, well, you know, that was just another murder.
Well, I don't know that there is just another murder.
You know, some family just lost a kid.
How are you doing? Were you out here when this all happened?
I'm John Elias, by the way. Nice to meet you.
Sorry to meet you under these conditions, Lucille.
Now, Jonathan's job is simple. Hang out in Compton and edit a story together for the 11 o'clock news.
We're going to have to be here until 11 o'clock.
Simple, but not necessarily safe.
Compton's not the best place to be when the sun goes down. For a reporter.
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On a slow news night, there's one kind of assignment that's almost sure to pull in viewers.
A sex-related story.
There's all these stories that I think are generated out of the hype from Viagra.
I mean, just the word impotence is now in the news and so everybody wants to talk about it.
And so there's all these stories and for some reason, they keep landing on my desk.
This is the latest one.
I think that whole Viagra thing has been the bane of my existence because I'm doing sex stories every day now.
I don't want to end up just getting the fluff stories.
Now we've got to find somebody.
Tonight's assignment, to get reaction to a sexually explicit ad campaign.
Look for somebody who doesn't look like they'll be offended by this kind of question.
Excuse me. Excuse me.
We're with Channel 2 News and we're doing a story tonight on a new ad campaign that is coming out to stop men from smoking.
I'm just asking a couple of people to view it and then give me your response.
Thanks for doing this. We appreciate it.
Okay, so here's the ad.
I'm just going to press play here.
Now that medical researchers believe cigarettes are a leading cause of impotence.
I really want to be taken seriously.
I mean, I take this very seriously and so I want to be taken seriously.
Okay, so that's the ad. Any response?
Effective amusing.
You know, I've heard the phrase, well, we want you to do this because you're a woman.
And in some cases, you know, maybe some information is easier to take from a woman. I don't know.
For me, I think I have to gain credibility and respect and trust and if I'm missing any one of those, I'm not going to succeed here.
I wish there was no gun. I wish the world was peaceful.
I wish I let kids run this planet.
Jonathan gets drawn into the Compton shooting story as he edits it.
But in LA, you have to be careful about getting too attached to any one assignment.
I feel like this is a fireman.
Newsroom.
Two firefighters hurt.
The story is there's two firefighters who were burned.
Firefighters injured during training exercises.
A couple of firemen got burned, okay?
Tell me everything you know, please.
Over the fire training class, they got burned. One of them is serious enough to go to the Grosvenor Burn Center.
You know what? That's a good story.
That's a much better story than some people who got shot in Compton.
The news team decides to reassign Jonathan Elias.
Breaking out of there. Call the desk.
Oh, yeah.
Hi. We have two seriously injured in a fire training exercise.
Is there anybody else working tonight that can run on this?
No. We have two reporters tonight.
I just don't believe this.
We need more people. This is ridiculous.
To walk away from the story, I don't see these other crews breaking down and racing off to cover the story.
You know what? I usually don't have to argue when we have to move on a story.
This is a big story. There's a lot of people in this community that are pissed off that this happened.
And I don't blame them. Three guys down in a neighborhood, a bunch of kids are playing hoop.
The fuck is that about? I would be mad if it was my neighborhood.
Okay, I don't curse at you. I'd appreciate it if you don't curse at me.
I'm sorry. I'm just cursing because I feel strongly about the story.
I understand that you feel strongly about the story. I feel strongly about the story.
But at the same time, I think the firefighter story affects more people than the shooting in Compton.
We'll get the shooting in Compton story on the air. We will.
Tell me where I'm going. Just tell me where I'm going.
Grossman Burn Center in the Valley.
This is so frustrating.
He has a good point. You know, the Compton story is a good story.
There are 10 million good stories that happen every night.
And sometimes it's very difficult to make the decisions that you have to make.
But you know, you got to make them. And you know what?
Sometimes you make the good decision.
Every once in a while you make a bad decision. But you don't know unless you make a decision.
And so I'm making a decision. I'm making a decision.
I understand L.A.'s got breaking news. No one's questioning that.
It's just that you invest more than time.
As a reporter, you can't be oblivious to the fact that you also invest a piece of yourself in a story.
This is their call. We do as we're told.
We do know that one firefighter will be airlifted here within the hour.
There are times where I'll be asked to do things that I might not necessarily like.
And I'll do them. I'm a good soldier. I do my job.
Reporting live from the Grossman Burn Center, John Ackelhais, CBS2 News, back to you.
The Grim Reaper
Anytime. Testing one, two, three, four, five.
At El Arbolito, we confront Dr. Rubin, who admits he's a fraud.
The doctor has just sold us a prescription drug without a license.
We are making a lot of progress on how we're going to promote the story.
Even considering something bizarre like flying a plane with a promo in Spanish.
Oh, there they are. Wow. Look at that.
That's great.
That's pretty good.
Wow.
That is really wild. Now that's advertising.
Now comes the hard part. That's putting it all together.
You might want to go to the Natsambal.
He is in David.
Right now we're going to go to the outside of the store.
OK, so we'll get the exterior here.
I gotta think how I'm going to keep people interested in this story from the start to the finish.
All right, so we're done here.
The station prepares for tonight's broadcast.
Fake doctors tonight at 11.
You should do a bump out with that and maybe have a weather play with it or something like that, OK?
All right, thank you.
At the same time, another sex-related story is in the lineup.
And guess who gets the job?
So here is this. You should have all the elements you need and maybe a couple of M.O.S.s and then you're done.
Minute.
It's good.
Please don't. This is not a good moment for me.
It wasn't so much that the story itself was offensive.
It was just something I wasn't really comfortable with.
What are your thoughts?
I just think this is like...
I always end up doing sex stories, like every night it feels like.
I mean, it's not every night, but it's like to a point where I'm like...
I'm talking about men's penises and then I'm talking about rubbing stuff.
I'm just like, God!
I mean, it's like the Viagra stories and it just seems like I just end up with these stories all the time.
But I will do this. It's fine. I'm off tomorrow.
We've already made the decision.
That's all right. We've made the decision.
Okay.
It was kind of a difficult situation, but I felt really strongly that that wasn't a story that I should be doing on the 11 o'clock news.
What they don't realize is how many times we hear, I don't like that story, I don't like that story, or give me that story, or give me that story.
So they don't know that we might have just gone through ten rounds of that, you know...
And then we're in a bad mood. Sometimes I've actually said, what about me? I'm in a bad mood.
We're not allowed to be in bad moods.
No, we're supposed to always deal with all the stress and strain of everybody.
I'm in a bad mood once in a while.
He's in a bad mood a lot.
You know?
I get such a jazz out of developing these pieces from scratch, digging them up and putting them on the air in seven days.
It's exciting and scary because of the last half of the newscast bombs, there's only one person in the room.
Eighties by afternoon, so warming up in the bow. It's 60 in Studio City.
Palmdale 60, Palm Springs is at 63, 61 degrees on this Saturday night in Santa Ana.
How long did you work on this, Drew?
One week.
You got this in a week?
That's good.
Now the special assignment exclusive we've been telling you about tonight, we uncover an alarming number of fake doctors all across Southern California running illegal clinics.
Drew Griffin now with Fake Doctors, Real Danger.
The thing about this job is you have to put your work on the air for everybody to see.
That's embarrassing. That's embarrassing to me.
Large cheese. Somebody order a pizza.
I guess it's a pretty typical dorm room.
Stuff's constantly going on.
Hey, dude, can I borrow some underwear?
We party.
What's up?
We study.
Can I borrow some socks?
No.
We eat.
Somebody order a pizza?
So it's not like I have a ton of time or money to shop for a car, but I heard some pretty good things about Saturn and I figured I'd check out their website.
It was definitely different. I mean, I could actually pick out a car, play around with options, figure out monthly payments, avoid a lot of hassles.
How about some deodorant?
And Brian, my sales consultant, treated me great.
And looking at the coupe?
Which was also pretty different.
That was not all, do it again.
Considering the first time we actually met was when he stopped by with my coupe.
I am here with the Saturn.
Somebody order a Saturn.
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Your mother was a boxer.
Can we talk to you, sir? Sir, can we talk to you?
How come you're selling these prescription drugs and coming here, doctors, officers without a license?
I want to know why you're selling prescription drugs without a license.
You know, it's illegal.
While all this finger pointing goes on,
four mothers continue to risk their babies' lives in the back rooms of California's illegal health care.
This is widespread. We, quite frankly, don't know how widespread it is, but we found it everywhere we went in.
Okay. Thank you, Drew. Wow!
Look at all these collections. They're sounding very Michael Wallace.
Fantastic piece. This is, I mean, this is powerful. I'm telling you right now, this is huge.
See you guys. Nice piece. Thank you.
I think everybody pretty much liked it and was kind of surprised by it.
It was nice, nice feeling.
An early summer brush fire means Gretchen Carr finally gets a breaking news assignment.
Fire season is already rearing its ugly head. A brush fire near Cypress Park.
She's up against another tight deadline.
It's come dangerously close to homes. You can see the scars of the fire. Thanks. Bye.
Okay. Probably live at six.
It doesn't look like it's going to burn any of the homes, but they think there'll probably be a lot of smoke damage.
I know everyone's watching me to see if I, you know, sink or swim, and I got to swim.
The chopper's coming in and it looks like they're landing. They're doing water drops right now. You can see them.
15 minutes. It's a live shot.
With minutes to go, Gretchen's got to get an interview, feed tape, and set up for a live shot. There's no room for mistakes.
We'll get a live shot when we get set up.
Tell me what happened out here today. What sparked this fire?
We've got a lot to learn still, but I really feel like if this was all I ever did professionally in my life, I succeeded.
And this fire started about an hour ago. Fire crews were here shortly after the fire began and were able to contain it.
Once again, these homeowners on this hillside, very lucky that the firefighters were so close by and were able to respond so quickly.
In Cypress Park, Gretchen Carr, CBS2 News.
Thank you, Gretchen.
Yeah, that was very touch and go for a minute there. We were on at 10 after, so that was good. That was good.
I think we made it and got it in the newscast where I needed to be. So, that's the way to do it, I guess.
There are the days where it's very frustrating and you think, why am I doing what I'm doing?
And then you have another day that's just incredible and you say, I'll never leave this business.
Well, they're giving a little dinner to Dan Rather.
Tonight the Museum of Television and Radio is honoring Dan Rather for all of his years of excellent service.
What I like most about Dan Rather is he came up like I did. He came from a small market 48 years ago and has busted his ass ever since.
And now he's sitting in a great seat. And I have a lot of respect for that.
Dan Rather, Jonathan Elias. Nice to meet you. Good to see you.
The Museum is honoring Dan Rather. He's been at it since 1950. And look who stopped by here just alongside me.
Dan Rather was kind enough to take some time out. We have some video also of some of the past.
You've been at it, 1950, Huntsville, Texas, where you started as an AP reporter.
That's true. It seems a long time ago.
Very nice guy. I would like to think that I would be like that after 48 years in the business.
Yeah, I've been a few places and seen a few things that I would not otherwise have gotten to see.
I am always hoping that I will keep a very level head about what I do, keep the ego in check, and just work my ass off.
Congratulations. Thanks very much for taking time out for us. I appreciate it.
Thanks a lot.
Take care, Dan. Thanks very much.
Again, we're in Beverly Hills. Dan Rather is being honored here by the Museum.
As a very latest from Beverly Hills, we'll go back to you in the studio.
Once in a while, the race to cover news takes a little pause, just long enough for the industry to honor itself.
Tonight, KCBS is up for more awards than any other station.
I'm feeling wonderful to be with all the lovely people and to clean up house and take home all these Emmys, hopefully.
Knock on wood.
Drew Griffin is nominated for Best Hard News Reporting.
Any award he wins tonight could be a big boost for his career.
There's something that looks good on the resume.
I would love to work for Network News Magazine, but there are so few of them and the competition is fierce.
Let's win! Let's win!
I mean, they're nice. Winning is better than losing, for sure.
Emmys goes to Drew Griffin!
Yeah, Drew Griffin!
Go Drew!
You know, elsewhere people say, oh, you're still working for local news.
I have to decide if I can live with that and get over it or continue this quest for the network.
90 seconds on the 11 o'clock news is not enough. You need more story time. So thank you very much.
Not bad. Not bad at all. Good payoff.
We gotta keep doing it and do it again. They're only as good as your last newscast.
No matter how many laurels you win, you can't rest on them for long. Out there somewhere is the next big story.
Where's the satellite truck? Is the satellite truck here?
The next chance to become a star or fall flat on your face.
That would be us.
Go grab your cup.
The only thing you know for sure is you can never stop moving. Not in L.A., anyway. Not in the news business.
And we're on the air.