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Marc Haefele's cover profile of Controller Laura Chick in the current L.A. Alternative Press ("Control Freak") explains why reporters love Chick and her audits of city departments:
She hands them detailed, often lurid stories of governmental mistakes that come precisely researched and investigated — and which are almost libel proof, since they come on the privileged letterhead of an elected public official.
He also passes along a mouth-watering anecdote about Chick's media relations savvy:
Freelancer Bobbi Murray recalls that she once jumped Chick for an impromptu Yuletide interview in the Silver Lake Gelson’s. "Instead of minding, she gave a great interview," right by the meat counter, Murray recalls. "Then she gave me this great recipe for brisket. Then she followed me out into the parking lot and gave me a recipe for meat loaf as well."
Also recently in the Press: Haefele quotes former LA Weekly publisher Mike Sigman calling it "inevitable" that the Weekly's parent Village Voice will be taken over by New Times or somebody else. And the Press editorializes that New Times' expansion would be "the end of alternative journalism in the United States as we know it."