04/20/04

LC040420

Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --

All's fair in the battle for readers as two Los Angeles
newspapers duke it out, so why don't they just admit it?
They're at war.

Monica Lozano>> Our racks are being covered up with their
racks. Our stickers that are on the windows of the retail
outlets that say "La Opinion Sold Here" are being covered up
with "Hoy" stickers.

Val>> And then, actress Maureen O'Hara shares her memories of
Hollywood's golden days and the films that made her a screen
legend.

All that and more straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.

Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> It's been a while since Los Angeles has had a newspaper
war, but there's one brewing right now. It's between two
Spanish language papers, the long-standing La Opinion and the
new kid on the newsstand, Hoy, meaning "Today". To make matters
more interesting, Hoy is owned by the Tribune Company who also
owns the Los Angeles Times. As Toni Guinyard tells us, the tug-
of-war over a growing base of readers is likely to get nasty.

Toni Guinyard>> Inside the newsroom of La Opinion, the nation's
largest Spanish language daily, editors and reporters are facing
pressures the paper has never faced before. For the first time
since it was established in 1926, La Opinion is competing to
keep its readers in Los Angeles's Latino community.

Monica Lozano>> I believe that people read La Opinion not
because it's the only paper in town, but because they're
satisfied knowing that this is a paper that reports on their
issues, it reflects their concerns, it defends them when they're
under attack, and it has been a partner in their evolution and
their transformation and their empowerment in their society.

Toni Guinyard>> La Opinion is often described as a voice for
the more than four million Latino residents who call Los Angeles
home, but now those readers have an option. La Opinion has
competition, a daily called Hoy. That's Spanish for "Today".
It's owned by Tribune Publishing, the company that also owns the
Los Angeles Times. Tribune once enjoyed a relationship with La
Opinion, but severed the ties to launch the Los Angeles edition
of Hoy.

Monica Lozano>> Well, it's clearly a challenge because the
paper is owned by Tribune. They have the power of the Los
Angeles Times behind them even though they claim to be operating
it independently.

[Film Clip]

Juan Arango>> It's like all babies. I think it was a painful
birth, but we love it and it's been great.

Toni Guinyard>> This version of Hoy represents the third entry
of the paper into a major market. It debuted in New York in
1998, launched in Chicago in 2003. Now that the baby is here,
the fight for its share of attention in Southern California
begins.

Juan Arango>> I don't see it as a battle. None of us here at
Hoy see it as a battle. What it is is basically bringing, in
this specific case, Hispanics and Latinos from the Los Angeles
area another alternative and another choice to gather the news.

Toni Guinyard>> What Hoy general manager and senior vice
president, Juan Arango, characterizes as an opportunity, La
Opinion publisher and CEO, Monica Lozano, calls an unfair
attack.

Monica Lozano>> Our racks are being covered up with their
racks. Our stickers that are on the windows of the retail
outlets that say "La Opinion Sold Here" are being covered up
with "Hoy" stickers. Now it's not happening across the board.
It doesn't happen at every outlet, but there is clearly some
aggressive behavior in terms of the way in which they're trying
to introduce their product.

Toni Guinyard>> Hoy management denies responsibility, claiming
they've been on the receiving end of questionable tactics too.
But the allegations from both sides signal the depth of this
tug-of-war for readers, many of whom don't even know the papers
are vying for their attention.

Felix Gastelum>> Well, it's the same old thing put out by a
different company. That's about it. It has about the same
thing on it also.

Toni Guinyard>> So you don't see a difference?

Felix Gastelum>> Little difference. It's the same old thing.
Just seeing a different name of the company.

Gilbert Garcia>> La Opinion has been around for a long time.
It's a good newspaper, you know. It has always gave people
access to things that they need and need to hear and it's just a
good newspaper. I mean, there's always room for another one.

Toni Guinyard>> Both papers face the task of winning over
readers, proving they are different and do offer what the
community wants and needs. Hoy has a sixty-three member staff
including a team of twenty-five reporters all working to put out
four editions of the paper five days a week. The international
coverage is identical in each Southern California edition, but
the local coverage concentrates on news specific to each zone,
Los Angeles, Orange County, San Gabriel and San Fernando.

Juan Arango>> The local content that it has is absolutely local
and the international content that it has, even though it has
some similarities to the one that we print in New York and in
Chicago, is tailored to the communities that reign in these
areas.

Toni Guinyard>> Hoy's coverage will target the diverse Los
Angeles Latino community.

Juan Arango>> We are a Latino newspaper. We recognize the
broad and vast diversity of the Latino community.

Carla Cruz>> When you actually say what Latinos are, Latinos
are not just Mexicans, just Salvadorans. They're different
areas. The newspaper focuses on just different international
spots so people won't feel isolated. People will actually feel
that, you know, they're part of the community.

Toni Guinyard>> Hoy marketing project coordinator, Carla Cruz,
grew up in East Los Angeles and grew up reading La Opinion.

Carla Cruz>> I was always reading La Opinion. That was the
only thing that was actually ever out, so there was never
another newspaper out. You know, my family grew up with that.

Thomas Milan>> A lot of people buy it here. What the Mexicans
do, they read their news. It's the only way they get their news
because they can't read in English. La Opinion is a Mexican
people for the Mexican people.

Toni Guinyard>> While that may be the prevailing feeling among
many long-time readers, Lozano says times have changed.

Monica Lozano>> We know that we're not just a Mexican community
and, even though this newspaper was founded by my grandfather
with the idea that it be a newspaper for Mexicans on this side
of the border, that was seventy-seven years ago. We have moved
well beyond that.

Toni Guinyard>> The paper's new advertising campaign is proof.

Monica Lozano>> The campaign that we launched has a slogan in
Spanish that means "Read La Opinion and See Beyond". The whole
idea is that La Opinion doesn't just report the headlines. It
doesn't skim the surface of what's happening. It puts up an
image, an image that Latinos understand and can relate to, an
image of a border patrol agent, an image of day laborers
standing on the corner, and it throws out different adjectives,
positive and negative, that shows both sides of the issues. The
idea is that you come to your news from different points of
view.

Toni Guinyard>> It's considered a bold move for La Opinion, a
response by the challenged to the challenger, the old guard to
the scrappy newcomer, each with a different approach to covering
news. Is this about community or is this simply a shrewd
business move?

Juan Arango>> This is about community. I'm not going to fool
myself or anyone that the marketplace is quintessentially in
this whole discussion.

Toni Guinyard>> A discussion about how best to serve Los
Angeles's growing Latino community.

Monica Lozano>> When I think about what does Hoy mean to the
marketplace, I've always said the market will decide how
successful this model is.

Juan Arango>> It's all about the reader. The reader is going
to be our ultimate judge.

Val>> La Opinion stresses its local roots, but it recently
joined forces with two Spanish language newspapers in New York
City. They plan to share content and resources and that sets
the stage for a nationwide clash between Hoy and La Opinion.

Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and
Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts
and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most
interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life
and Times".

Val>> The word "legend" is tossed around pretty freely in
Hollywood, but it definitely applies to Maureen O'Hara. She's
the feisty Irish gal with flaming red hair who could always go
toe-to-toe with the likes of John Wayne. Now the veteran
actress remembers it all and she packs a lot of stories about
Hollywood's golden era into her memoirs. It's called "'Tis
Herself" and Maureen O'Hara shares some of her favorite memories
with Philip Bruce.

Philip Bruce>> It must be such a joy for you to hear how much
people still love you and your work and have grown up watching
you. I'd like to go back to how it all began when you first
came to this town as a kid. You weren't exactly a rookie.
You've been an actress a long time?

Maureen O'Hara>> Yes, yes. I started acting -- well, number
one, I came from a theatrical family. Our mother was a
magnificent operatic contralto and we just loved listening to
her singing. So we grew up on opera and German, recitation and
poetry, and we entered all the competitions in Ireland. There
were six of us. There were two boys and four girls. We just
loved the theater and always intended to be part of the theatre
and we were.

[Film Clip]

Philip Bruce>> Looking back at all the great people you've
worked with, John Ford is a person, I guess, who sticks out the
most.

Maureen O'Hara>> Yes, a magnificent director and perhaps the
cruelest and meanest man you could work with.

Philip Bruce>> He was also a great mentor for you, though, was
he not?

Maureen O'Hara>> Oh, yes. He was a great, great friend and his
son and his daughter were great friends of mine. All deceased
now, which is very tragic. But he was cruel and he was tough
and he mistreated everybody. But you didn't really mind
because, when you watched what he was doing on the set, if you
paid attention, you saw an artist and a master at work.

[Film Clip]

Philip Bruce>> When you look back at some of your great films,
the ones I remember, "The Quiet Man" is one that sticks out to
me.

Maureen O'Hara>> Yes, that was Ford.

Philip Bruce>> Not only did you get to work with John Ford and
John Wayne, but you got to go back home to Ireland to shoot this
film.

Maureen O'Hara>> Oh, yes, that was wonderful.

Philip Bruce>> Of course, your onscreen presence here with John
Wayne was something that everyone remembers. So many people
were rooting for you to be a romantic couple. You never were,
but you were great friends.

Maureen O'Hara>> Oh, buddies. Duke said one time that I was
the greatest guy he ever knew. I wasn't the greatest woman. I
was the greatest guy. I was very complimented by that and we
remained great, great friends even up to his death.

Philip Bruce>> In fact, he became friends with your husband.

Maureen O'Hara>> Oh, yes. They never stopped playing chess.
Night, noon and morning.

Philip Bruce>> You know, you talk about that image that John
Wayne had of you and it's pretty much what the whole world had.
This tough Irish gal, a tomboy. Was that you or were you
playing a part?

Maureen O'Hara>> No. I was a tomboy. I was able to box, I did
judo, I fenced, and I was mad about soccer football. All the
boys in our neighborhood were nice to me because, if they were
nice to me, they got in free to the soccer game because my dad
owned most of the great team in Ireland called Shamrock Rovers
Soccer Team and they knew they'd get in because they're with the
boss's daughter.

Philip Bruce>> And then later on in films, you did some of your
own stunts, didn't you?

Maureen O'Hara>> Not some, all.

[Film Clip]

Maureen O'Hara>> The only thing I didn't do was horseback and
that was done by a lady called Lucille House. I'd manage to
fall off every time I got on a horse.

Philip Bruce>> Well, you've always been so honest onscreen and
in your book you're being very honest about some characters that
we all know and think we know at least. You write about Errol
Flynn.

Maureen O'Hara>> Yes. I had a run-in with him years before I
worked with him where we were doing a big war bond benefit. He
got to sit beside me at the table and all he did was pour drinks
out of a bottle he had hidden under the table and then, as he
got drunk, make kind of very impolite remarks. I told him,
look, if you don't get out of here now, I'm going to stand up
and go to that microphone and I'm going to tell the whole public
here exactly what you're saying and what you're trying to do.
The next thing I knew, I saw him slip under the table and wind
his way on his hands and knees all through the evening affair.
Then he got to the door and, typical Flynn, he gave me a real
nasty little goodbye (laughter), you know.

Philip Bruce>> You've read a lot of these kinds of books
yourself over the years and some have been these tell-all things
and others have been variations. What did you want to do with
this book? What kind of story? You're telling your story,
first of all.

Maureen O'Hara>> Just talk about me and Ireland and what the
Irish are like. I would like to have done a little more detail
about our family and our growing up and our mother and our
father and all my brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles.
You know, we were a fabulous, terrific Irish family, I thought.
But the producer said the book was too long, so they cut a lot
of that out. I don't know, maybe there's another book now to
write.

Philip Bruce>> You know, we look at some of today's stars and
they're such prima donnas. I mean, let's be real. You and I
both know that. Because they have everyone catering to them and
it was a very different game when you were there.

Maureen O'Hara>> Oh, gosh, yes. It was entirely different.
Most of us who became successful had seven-year contracts. That
meant you were under contract to the studio for seven years and,
for seven years, you had to do what you were told and realize
you were damn lucky to have a contract.

Philip Bruce>> Do you miss Hollywood? Do you miss what
Hollywood used to be?

Maureen O'Hara>> I wish Hollywood was again what it used to be,
but I really miss my friends and my mother and my father and my
brothers and my sisters truthfully. And I miss people like John
Wayne. I miss people like Harry Cohen. Everybody says such
nasty things about him, but he was a wonderful man. And I miss
Ty Power and I miss Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda and Brian
Keith. They're all gone.

Philip Bruce>> Well, we miss many of the people that you've
talked about with us here, but we're certainly glad to have you
and your book as another treasure.

Maureen O'Hara>> Oh, thank you.

Philip Bruce>> Thank you so much for talking to us.

Maureen O'Hara>> Have you read the book?

Philip Bruce>> I'm reading the book. I am currently reading
the book.

Maureen O'Hara>> Oh, good. Well, please finish it.

Philip Bruce>> I will.

Maureen O'Hara>> And enjoy it. And if there's anything you
want to question, just call me up on the phone and I'll answer.

Philip Bruce>> I'll take you up on that.

Maureen O'Hara>> I may not enjoy it, but I'll answer it
(laughter).

Philip Bruce>> (Laughter) Thank you so much.

Maureen O'Hara>> Okay. Thank you.

To send a comment or a question to our program, you can reach us
by mail at this address:

Life and Times
4401 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90027

You can also call our viewer comment line (323) 953-5555) or
contact us the fast way by e-mail at kcet.org.

Val>> President Bush recently announced his vision for
America's space program. He said the shuttle would be retired
and replaced by a crew exploration vehicle. He said man would
return to the moon by 2020 and we would use the moon as a
launching point for further space exploration and he said we
would have a human being on Mars.

I came to the Skeptics Society offices in Altadena to find out
what it's Executive Director and science watchdog, Michael
Shermer, thinks of the President's plan. Michael Shermer, nice
to see you again.

Michael Shermer>> Good to see you.

Val>> So what were you thinking when you heard the President
had announced that human beings were going to go to Mars?

Michael Shermer>> Well, initially, it sounds great. I like the
Kennedy-esque sound that it's our destiny to go into space and
colonize Mars and all that. I think we should. I think the
space program has floundered for too many decades without a
destination. I think NASA should be destination-driven and Mars
is the destination. My skepticism comes with the idea of using
the moon as a jump-off point.

Val>> That's right, because he wanted to actually spend a fair
amount of time going back and forth --

Michael Shermer>> -- and money --

Val>> -- and money, to the moon and I guess actually building a
station on the moon?

Michael Shermer>> Yeah, an actual station where you could get
fuel, you can create the liquid hydrogen for the rocket fuel and
so forth, and water perhaps for the station. The problem with
that, I think, is that we all know what happened to the big
complex systems technologically and we also see what happens to
big political plans that get too expensive. They often get cut.

My concern is that we may not even finish the whole moon project
and therefore never make the second leap to Mars. I would
rather see a Mars direct approach. Just go straight from earth
to Mars, send three or four astronauts there and do it within
ten years. I think it's doable.

Val>> But he says that we can learn a lot by putting people on
the moon and establishing a station on the moon, that we can
perfect a lot of systems and, you know, figure out long-term
human survival in space and all this, and that we need that
station.

Michael Shermer>> We would learn a lot by having a space
station on the moon. We would also learn a lot with a space
station in orbit, which we have. We can learn a lot doing all
kinds of things, but we don't have endless money or supplies and
so forth. So you have to pick and choose your battles and I
think this one is too big. I think probably there is a lot of
politics behind it. It sounds good. President Bush doesn't
actually have to spend the money on his reign. It will be
somebody else's problem in years to come.

Val>> Well, he was going to allocate an additional one billion
over five years specifically for this additional station.

Michael Shermer>> That's right. Well, we've also already seen
now that the Hubble Space Telescope is going to be phased out a
little earlier than the leaders were hoping it would be and that
may be a consequence of this other reallocation of funds. So,
again, we don't have unlimited supplies and money, so you have
to pick and choose.

Again, I would rather see a streamlined destination-driven let's
send some astronauts to Mars in ten years rather than what we've
been doing, which is, you know, essentially growing tomatoes two
hundred miles up in the space shuttle, which is fine. There's a
lot of good science that can be done there, but a lot more
science could be done with, I think, a more direct approach.

Val>> Now what about the whole notion that manned space
missions are too dangerous, too costly, that they can be done
very well, easier, quicker, safer, with robots, including going
to Mars?

Michael Shermer>> Definitely true. We can get ninety percent
of the science with robots, much cheaper.

Val>> So why would we take a chance? Why would we send people
to Mars?

Michael Shermer>> Well, because we're people and we like to go
there ourselves. I'm not sure about the destiny of humans to
colonize, but that has been what we've been doing for over a
hundred thousand years. That is moving out from our base camp
into new areas. That's what we do. I think that is the natural
inclination. Who knows what can be done by people that cannot
be done by robots?

Val>> Well, people can die.

Michael Shermer>> But that's okay. There are plenty of people
willing to do it and take that risk.

Val>> Take that risk, really.

Michael Shermer>> Yeah. Ask any of the astronauts. They would
go tomorrow, no matter what the risks are, because they know at
least we've made an effort at this.

Val>> He also said that he does want to complete the
International Space Station.

Michael Shermer>> Well, this is one of those projects that
we're so far down the road that you can't turn back. It was,
you know, a boondoggle --

Val>> -- this is almost the opposite of the other one. The
other one is so far in the future, we may not have to fulfill
it. This one, we're so far into it, we have to fulfill it.

Michael Shermer>> Yeah. You know, it's cost orders of
magnitude more than it should have. Typical big government
project. However, since we're this far along, we really do have
to finish that. I wouldn't be supporting canceling that, but
again, the quicker we can get to a simple direct flight like
going to Mars, I would be in favor of that.

Val>> He's also said he's going to retire the space shuttle and
replace it with this crew exploration vehicle.

Michael Shermer>> Yeah, we should have retired the shuttle
years ago. It's really -- in many ways, you hate to say it
because, you know, we love NASA and space exploration and all
that, but it's really been sort of a government work project in
search of an important mission. The missions they've been doing
are, you know, kind of important and interesting, but not earth-
shattering. How many of us can sort of rattle off the big
events of the space shuttle in the last ten years? Whereas, in
the sixties, we could rattle off each and every triumph of
Mercury, Gemini and Apollo because they were destination-driven.
It was a goal.

The space shuttle, we're going to go up and circle around for a
long time and then come back and we're going to do that over and
over and over and we'll do some interesting things. The Hubble
Space Telescope? This would not have been the triumph it is
without the space shuttle to service it because of the problems
that happened. So, yes, there are some triumphs. But, again,
we don't have unlimited money. If we've got to pick and choose
our goals, that's the one we should do. Mars direct now.

Val>> Mars direct. So if he has designated Mars as where he
would like human beings to end up, but what he hasn't done is
put any particular year or deadline to it. You're saying that
that actually gets him off the hook?

Michael Shermer>> In a way. He doesn't have to own up to it or
answer to it. He just sounds like Kennedy. You know, we're
going to send men there and safely return within the decade.
Something like that. There actually is a program on the books.
NASA has studied it. How to get to Mars and back within ten
years.

Val>> From now? Between now and 2015?

Michael Shermer>> In ten years, yes, that's right. You send
all the stuff there ahead of time. You send the return
spacecraft, the fuel that you'll need to come back and so on
ahead of time before you send the people. So if it crashes or
doesn't get there --

Val>> -- So everything is waiting for them when they're there.

Michael Shermer>> That's right. Then you send the people, then
you come back. It's very doable. It's expensive and you could
do the robots for much cheaper, no question about it, and the
robots are cool and everybody loves them, great PR for NASA and
all that stuff, but there is still something in the American
psyche -- in the human psyche really -- to send people.

Val>> For better or for worse, safer or not safer.

Michael Shermer>> I think so. I think we have to take the
risk.

Val>> Very good. Michael Shermer, thank you so much for your
time. We really appreciate your thoughts.

Michael Shermer>> Thank you.

Val>> And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at
Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.

Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of
the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality
of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of
medicine, health, science and education.

Val>> Next time on Life and Times, it's one of the biggest
industries in the county and a former porn star is fighting to
create a safety net for its workers.

>> But you know what? Service is service. You help people out
where you can, when you can. You apply what you've learned and
give back in life because I'm a former porn star that wants to
go to heaven too.

Val>> That's next time on Life and Times.