'Cripes, it's the media'

The headline is from a keeper quote in today's L.A. Daily News destined for a long life in local newsrooms and political circles. The story by Rick Orlov and Beth Barrett reports that for the fourth year in a row, Mayor Jim Hahn's holiday party for reporters will be paid for by the Los Angeles office of the global PR giant Fleishman-Hillard. The firm has close and lucrative ties to Hahn, as the story shows -- among other things, former Hahn adviser Matt Middlebrook recently went to work for Fleishman, and ex-Fleishman account exec Shannon Murphy then became Hahn's press deputy. The quote is by Doug Dowie, the ex-Daily News managing editor who heads the local Fleishman office, in an email to Middlebrook urging they skimp on the festivities at last year's media party and try to keep expenses to $5,000.

The full Dowie quote: "Cripes, it's the media. Chips and plain-wrap booze."

4:45 p.m. update: The mayor's media party at Getty House in Hancock Park is going up against the 25th anniversary party for the LA Weekly (invitation only) at the Park Plaza Hotel.