COVERITLIVE.COM

12:00

Chris Reed - Welcome. I'm ready for your questions. I will even talk about Mark Sanford!

12:04

Chris Reed - This is quite a run for East Coast governors -- Spitzer, McGreevy, now Sanford. The West Coast is lagging. There's quite a sleaziness gap between the coasts.

12:07

SignOnLiveChatModerator - Chris, what do you think about L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's announcement that he won't run for governor? On a recent cover of Los Angeles Magazine the word Failure was written over an image of the mayor. Is that a widely held opinion of him?

12:09

Chris Reed - Some people think the cover was too harsh and suggest Villaraigosa hasn't been that bad. He's also given plusses for trying to take over L.A. Unified, as other big city mayors have done with their rotten school districts.

But there's no question he could have been hammered for his management as mayor. L.A. has been drifting for years, unwilling to confront its fiscal problems, and Villaraigosa did little about it until the revenue crisis forced his hand this year.

12:14

[Comment From J]
Think the media is being fair to Sanford?

12:18

Chris Reed - Too early to say. But he's brought a lot on himself. And it's only going to get nuttier from here. I'm sure the Enquirer has already got a reporter and photog on a flight to Buenos Aires, and we'll soon know all about Sanford's girlfriend.

Who knows? Other weird stuff could turn up soon. Sanford's leaving the country amounted to a political suicide trip. Who knows what he is capable of?

Well, the Enquirer, perhaps by its July 1 issue.

I once had an article published in the Star, the Enquirer's arch-rival. It was a 1986 story about a shark eating a boat off the Island of Hawaii and the fisherman floating to safety on his tackle box. It appeared opposite what may have been the first Elvis-is-alive story in a tabloid.

12:19

Chris Reed - It was completely rewritten. I wasn't bitter. $300 was/is good pay for a freelance piece.

12:20

[Comment From David]
What's the first thing you would cut from the state's budget?

12:23

Chris Reed - I would go after prisons. Studies show crime is almost entirely a young man's game. For us to warehouse older inmates who are non-threats is idiotic.

This doesn't apply to sex offenders and con men. But just about every other category of criminal, it does.

Especially when you consider it costs well north of $40,000 a year to house an inmate in California -- far higher than the national average --- and that the $40k doubles for inmates over 60, it's nuts to let our desire for retribution bankrupt us.

Risk management should be the guiding principle in prison management. Not retribution.

12:23

[Comment From Gabriel]
There is always talk about fairness and balance. But what are journalists doing that is good, bad and what could be better?

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