APRIL 21st AT WVRC - BILL BOYARSKY
Senor RUDY began by reporting on – and showing slides of – the recent Rotaract District-Wide meeting. It was a big boost for WVRC – not only was our Club given the Award as the Best Solid Club, but President Tori Hettinger was honored by being chosen as District Governor for Rotaract for the coming year 2005-2006! Congratulations to Tori, and appreciation to CATHY REZOS, for her continuing excellent guidance and mentoring. It is truly said, CATHY, that your efforts are bearing fruit.
While preceded by a really lame joke (but Clean, anyway) PP ERIC LOBERG led us in the Pledge. LENNY FRIEDMAN and PP JIM DOWNIE came forward to lead the song. But first, JIM showed off a new keyboard lent to him by another Rotarian, so he wouldn’t have to carry his regular huge keyboard. While not as exotic or multi-noted as his regular instrument, it served the purpose when we sang “My Country Tis of Thee”.
MYRON TAYLOR provided the Invocation, which he preceded by reminding us all that we should be grateful to Pope John Paul II for his emphasis on Peace, Justice, and Human Dignity. In his prayer, MYRON asked the Good Lord to give those in positions of leadership the wisdom of Mind and strength of Character to act in the interest of all of mankind. "Give us a mind to seek such Peace, and the will to find it." MYRON, as always, your words are meaningful, to be cherished.
We had two Visiting Rotarians, PDG John Colville, from Paramount, where he is in Plastic Fabrication, and Jaimee Sui, a Florist from the Inglewood Club. LENNY FRIEDMAN introduced his “beautiful gem of a wife, Sunny”. JACK HARRIS brought along his son-in-law, Vic Thompson, from northern Minnesota – betcha it’s cold up there! SOL DRESNER was with his daughter, Marcia who lives in the Bay Area. PDG ANDY ANDERSON brought his wife, Pat.
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Lenny & Sunny
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Sol & Marcia
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Jamie & John
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John Colville
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PP STEVE SCHERER reminded us that the Annual Golf Tournament at Los Angeles Country Club is set for Monday, May 9th. It’s a shotgun start at 0800, so be there before then – and no shorts or sandals, STEW. It will cost a bit less than $125, and that includes lunch. PP STEVE or DONN CONNER will sign you up. There will be special prizes, we were assured. These include a Golf Towel (WOW) and one Callaway putter, donated by MIKE GINTZ and City National Bank.
LENORE MULRYAN announced the selection of our two Ambassadorial Scholar candidates. They are Paul Cook, who had a double major in English and Biology, and wants to study law, and Abminobola Cole (who’s from Sierra Leone) and she will be working among the HIV population in Africa. The Committee used a new Interview technique this time, and LENORE felt it was the best process they had ever tried. There was a relative stranger seated next to PP STEVE SCHERER, and upon urging, he rose to be reintroduced to WVRC. This was PP CHRIS GAYNOR – and he was welcomed! Tori Hettinger spoke briefly about the Rotaract Spring Legacy project, which will involve the members washing the trucks at Fire Station #37, while the fireman enjoy a BBQ lunch served by Rotaract. Date is to be announced, and all are invited.
AUXILIARY NEWS – Wed. May 11th is the Ronald Reagan Library Visit. Park at the Westwood United Methodist lot at 0930, and take the bus to the library which is in Simi Valley. Lunch will be at the nearby Elephant Bar restaurant, hosted by CINDY and BOB LUSK. We’ll be back by 3 pm. It will be a great visit – so sign up, with Marge Downie or Pat Anderson.
President-Elect DON NELSON asks our attention to the following:
I know many of our members plan to attend the Rotary International Convention this June. Since everyone is making their own separate reservations, we do not have a means of contacting one another while we are there. I would appreciate it if everyone who plans to attend the Convention would furnish me with the following information –
1. Dates you will be in Chicago
2. Names of those in your party
3. Name of the Hotel and phone number where you will be staying.
4. A list of special events and dates for which you have made reservations.
I will then prepare a consolidated list of this information and furnish it to all attending members in advance of the Convention.
Please also note that PP JIM COLLINS has invited all WVRC members to dinner at Lawry’s Chicago Restaurant at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 19th. (don’t forget to RSVP)
PDG John Colville came forward, and asked STEVE DAY to come to the Podium. John noted that he and PP STEVE had been fellow Presidents in 1997-98. He then presented PP STEVE with the Rotary Foundation District Service Award, for his long-time support and help with Foundation affairs. His leadership is an example to all of us. PDG John also reminded us that at last year’s District Conference, our own GEORGE DEA was recognized as Courageous Rotarian. of our District.
PDG ANDY ANDERSON introduced our Speaker, Bill Boyarsky. Bill was a long-time staff member of the LA Times, where PDG ANDY first met him. After thirty years with the Times, Bill is now semi-retired. Bill began by pointing out that his subject would be Journalistic Ethics, which he described as an oxymoron. (I always wanted to use that word!) He is on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission, so he maintains his interest in Ethics in our city.
The Times is in decline. With the consolidation of the many merchandising chains, advertising revenue continues to grow smaller – and this is the main source of advertising revenues to the Times – and for most newspapers. He cited the poor checking on the story of George Bush and his service in the National Guard – the media simply isn’t being as careful as they once were. As a result, people’s faith in the media continues to slip away.
Bill was City Editor of the Times – his dream job – and a few months after assuming the position, he was asked by the Publisher to provide a story on the opening of Staples Center. There was to be a special issue of the LA Times Magazine devoted to this – so it really was a priority. But he couldn’t find anyone who wanted to write the story, and so told the Publisher. They soon came back to him, saying “is there some way you can work something out?” which translated into - let’s get this done! It turned out that Staples and the Times were ‘in bed’ together, and the Special Issue was a huge scandal – as reported by the New York Times, of course. He did feel, after agreeing to do the story, that he somehow wasn’t as clean as he had been before.
When he started in the newspaper business, there were some perks - free tickets, dinners, even trips – and they were enjoyed by all. But these dried up, as readers learned about these things. They did have Community then – but no longer, since the locals don’t trust the media. Today they even fake stories! There was apparently a famous story about the Villos Poll (or whatever it was called). And to this day it is cited as an example of how polls can be misleading.
Q&A – I asked if it was fair to print a poll showing such a big lead in the Mayor’s race – it seemed to me to be discouraging to the apparent losing side. It’s a free country, and they can print what they wish – but such big leads don’t last. RAY ZICKFELD, I grew up in Chicago – how is the Tribune doing with two major newspapers now? Foreign coverage is still good, but local coverage has slipped. ED GAULD, Is the loss in circulation caused by the National Editions being on line? No, the New York Times is tough, but it is going on everywhere. BRIAN BUMPAS, What about the ‘Love Shooting’ story? The Examiner covered it, but the Times did not, for a month. When they finally had to do something, it was not satisfactory to either side. PP HOMER NEWMAN – Does the Times favor either party? It’s in the squishy middle, opposes some things, but really lacks courage to take a stand – for instance, against the power of the employee Unions. Bill Boyarsky, thank you for a most interesting visit.
