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Coming up on 100 days of the Donald Trump presidency, it seems like an ideal time to check in with reporters on what it's actually like to cover the new Administration. I'm moderating a panel Monday night (April 17) for Writers Bloc Presents that will delve into the issues and practical challenges that covering Trump poses for news outlets. The panelists are Cathleen Decker, the Los Angeles Times politics columnist here in LA; Dylan Byers, the LA-based senior reporter for media and politics at CNN; and Karlene Goller, a First Amendment lawyer for numerous media outlets who teaches media law at UC Irvine law school and who for 20 years was the newsroom counsel at the LA Times.
It should be a great conversation about the state of press access and freedoms under Trump and how reporters have to do their jobs today. The panel convenes at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Ann and Jerry Moss Theater at New Roads School in Santa Monica. Tickets are $20 through Writers Bloc. Adam Nagourney, the New York Times bureau chief in Los Angeles, had had to drop off the panel and go out of town due to a family situation.
One reason I enjoy events like this is that they are a good opportunity to meet and chat with LA Observed readers person to person. If you attend, please say hello.
Later this week, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books also offers a chance for us to meet and chat a little bit. I will be at USC for the festival this Saturday, April 22, from 2 to 4 p.m. You can find me at the Angel City Press booth, which is located near the Tommy Trojan statue. I'll be signing copies of "Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles" and talking to old friends from previous festivals and, hopefully, some new friends. Come on by. Admission to the festival is free.
LA Observed columnist Bill Boyarsky is moderating a Saturday panel on biography, The Women Behind the Power, which features authors Lisa Napoli, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Leigh Fought and Susan Quinn.
Here is the entire schedule.
