Johnnie, and Linda

So we got a bit of a news break today from the latest on Terri Schiavo and Michael Jackson: Johnnie Cochran topped the news for one last time today by dying. I doubt most of us in the news industry were expecting it. For those who don't recognize the name, maybe "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit" will jog your memory of the O.J. Simpson trial a decade ago.

Personally, I was eagerly waiting for the Associated Press news wire to spit out what I knew would be an interview with O.J. Simpson, conducted by my cousin. I wasn't disappointed. After all, when the news cameras were showing a Ryder truck carrying Florida's presidential ballots, Linda was the one who called up O.J. and got him to comment on the similarities between that shot and the cameras that filmed his white Bronco being slowly pursued by the LAPD. And she flew out to Florida last year to interview him for a 10-year look back on the case.

What impressed me is that Linda not only wrote most of the main story, but she also spent the day in the Michael Jackson courtroom and wrote most of that story, too. Yeah, Linda Deutsch is basically my idol. And I'll also admit that I enjoy bragging about her.

Posted by Layla at 8:46 PM, March 29, 2005. Comments (0)

My normal life

Here, have a few random adventures from this reporter's life:

- I walked into one of the local courtrooms today (which I don't actually do all that often) and there was one of my high school classmates. We took double and triple takes, then quickly managed to learn that one of us was a reporter and the other was there to testify in a forgery case. In other words, neither of us had gone to the criminal side.

- Some guy came into the newsroom last night, holding a copy of my blog column that ran almost two weeks ago. He was apparently pointing to it, asking where I got the information from, and saying it was illegal. Whether he was referring to the column or my blog is not known, but when the editor found out, his concern was that the guy was some kind of stalker-type. Ah, job hazards of a crime reporter.

- A man left me a voice mail, saying I should look into the fact that the city's downtown contamination cleanup is going to cost taxpayers and insurers millions of dollars, and that there's another area at the north end of town. He left no name or number but gave a few dollar figures and said his information "can all be confirmed" and should be investigated. That's all good and well, but, um, I've written nearly 100 stories about this contamination business. That's kind of like calling to say, "There's a rumor that Michael Jackson is under investigation for child molestation, and you should look into it," two days after the trial started.

(FYI: Comments are still disappearing into cyberspace. But if someone e-mails anything insightful, maybe I'll put it in the next blog entry.)

Posted by Layla at 11:27 PM, March 03, 2005. Comments (0)