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Whatever past disagreements I've had with Mickey Kaus, he's absolutely right about this: The LA Times does a piss-poor job covering West Los Angeles. A new paper is needed. And like Kaus says, it should give readers the news they're interested in: "We want to know whom Mayor Villaraigosa is dating, and we want to see her picture. And if John Edwards visits his mistress at the Beverly Hilton and gets chased into a bathroom by National Enquirer reporters--hey, you know, maybe that's a story!" Absolutely. It's critically important that Los Angeles develops more outlets able to provide blanket coverage of the personal lives of celebrities. It's a huge market niche that's been totally ignored by Southern Californian entrepreneurs. Just think what would happen if they began equipping reporters with cameras and recording devices and sending them to follow subjects of interest! As Kaus correctly concludes, the results wouldn't be evolutionary; they've be revolutionary. And not just on the media! Such coverage would electrify California's stagnant public sector. "By covering politics in a way that got at least a few hundred thousand readers to pay attention, you could take the first, big step toward changing the apathetic culture of Southern California (the culture that lets Democratic interest groups fill the void and call the shots)." Kaus has his faults, but he also has his moments of brilliance. And this proposal to reform city hall by taking more pictures of Antonio Villaraigosa's girlfriend is one of them. Bravo. Can someone forward this to Sam Zell?(Via David Dayen, who is inexplicably less impressed. He's probably just jealous he didn't think of this first.)
