The rest of the long weekend was fittingly sluggish for us. Jen and I lounged around the house, leaving only for a movie or two and to hang out with friends. We did spend part of Saturday at the vet with Stella (our recently-adopted shepherd/retriever puppy, for those of you who don't know), whose strange oral growth luckily turned out to be nothing more than a wart. Overall, Stella is doing great, having been a part of the family for just over two months now. Aside from her occasional choice in dining (a couch cushion here, an ottoman there), Stella's a wonderful dog (for a picture of the now-famous pup herself, go here: http://www.gabeanderson.com/pics/stella.jpg).

-Gabe

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The story involved a man in a Datsun 280z who fled from a routine traffic stop in Rancho Cucamonga. The Highway Patrol and others chased along freeways into San Diego onto Interstate 805, where he finally stopped, approached officers with a weapon in his hand and was shot to death.

Helicopters from several stations followed the three-hour event as it unfolded, breaking into regular programming with live coverage that in the case of at least one station included images of the deadly shootout.

Two years ago, a chased motorist in Los Angeles committed suicide on a freeway in full view of television cameras. At the time, facing a storm of criticism from the public for the crass quality of the coverage, some news executives promised that they would no longer broadcast such events. However, that promise appears to have been forgotten.

Television stations say these freeway pursuits are major news worthy of extensive coverage. In San Diego, for example, the chase and shooting led to the closure of I-805 for several hours, clogging traffic on the busiest shopping day of the year.

But the truth is, the chases are simply an extension of television's preoccupation with crime and tragedy, and with dramatic visuals. Really, it's the journalistic equivalent of "bloody shirt" politics, and it is aimed at the lowest common denominator in viewers. Barring extraordinary news value, a good newspaper puts such events deep in the local section. Why can't television do the equivalent by reporting the event in the body of the newscast, rather than in the front, with teasers?

It is not the reporters, the on-air personalities familiar to the public, who decide this coverage. It is the news executives of the stations who make the call, and these decisions tarnish the public's perception of the reporters.

There are excellent TV reporters in the state capital, for example -- Kevin Riggs, Lonnie Wong, Roy Stearns and Deb Pacyna come immediately to mind -- who routinely cover difficult stories with flair. But the stations that employ these people are little different from their Southern California counterparts when they descend to sensationalism and cover local freeway chases that often lead to tragedy.

A New York movie reviewer once called the public's fascination with gore and violence in films as emblematic of the "post-literate age." Perhaps, this observation applies as well to the viewers who rely on television for their information.

In the end, that says as much about the viewers as it does about the stations they watch. And that, folks, is not a pleasant thought.

With the surplus budget, it's rather difficult to understand why the State Department of Social Services budget is being cut. Director Rita Seanz told division chiefs that training and purchasing funds are to be reduced dramatically as the State is suffering hardship. Beats me.

- Jackie Shelley

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