Latest posts
-
KCRW’s Unfictional revisits Whitey Bulger’s quiet Santa Monica years — Gideon Brower’s 2012 documentary
By Sasha Park · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, June 2012 In late June 2012, Gideon Brower’s half-hour radio documentary The Couple in 303 debuted on KCRW’s Unfictional. The piece was about the experiences of the neighbors at the Princess Eugenia apartments in Santa Monica — the building where James…
-
November 2011: Conrad Murray’s creditors sue NBCUniversal over the documentary fee
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, November 2011 In mid-November 2011, FishbowlLA covered a complicated media-ethics-and-litigation story: as the documentary Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship was set to air on MSNBC, creditors of Conrad Murray sued NBCUniversal. Murray had reportedly been paid around $300,000…
-
LAPD’s October 2011 social-media policy review — Detective Sal LaBarbera and the cops-on-Twitter question
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, October 2011 In mid-October 2011, FishbowlLA tracked the LAPD’s internal-policy struggle over what officers should and shouldn’t post on Twitter and other social media platforms. The trigger had been LAPD Homicide Detective Sal LaBarbera’s posting of a crime-scene photograph and related…
-
Ed Chernoff’s January 2011 profile — life as Dr. Conrad Murray’s defense lawyer in the Michael Jackson trial media bubble
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, January 2011 In late January 2011, TexasLawyer.com staff reporter Miriam Rozen published a profile of Ed Chernoff — the Houston-based defense lawyer hired within 48 hours of Michael Jackson’s June 2009 death to represent Dr. Conrad Murray. The piece captured Chernoff’s…
-
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck’s 2011 critique of LA media gang-coverage — the shallow-coverage thesis
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, October 2011 In early October 2011, at a panel discussion featuring criminologist David M. Kennedy and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, Beck delivered a sharp critique of LA media’s coverage of gang violence. His thesis was direct: “The coverage here in Los…
-
The Grim Sleeper photo trove and the four missing-persons cases LAPD opened — January 2011
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, January 2011 In early January 2011, the LAPD announced it had opened four new missing-persons inquiries after releasing 180 photos found in the possession of suspected serial killer Lonnie Franklin Jr. — the “Grim Sleeper” defendant. The photos had been published…
-
September 2011: LAPD’s Internet Unit watching Twitter for flash-mob signals — Carmageddon’s 405 ride
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, September 2011 In late September 2011, FishbowlLA picked up a PoliceOne.com story about the LAPD’s Internet Unit and Sheriff’s Department officers monitoring Twitter for flash-mob and large-gathering signals. The most concrete example: the multiple Carmageddon-related freeway-flashmob plans — including a “pretty…
-
The 2011 LA Times APME public-service award for Bell — and what the broader investigation produced
By Maya Trent · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer (2011) · Wayback archive → In mid-July 2011 the Associated Press Managing Editors association announced its annual awards, and the LA Times picked up two major honors — the Public Service award for its Bell corruption investigation and a First Amendment honor for the “Grading the…
-
Anita Busch confronts Anthony Pellicano at his December 2008 sentencing — the wiretapping case in court
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Dan Cox on FishbowlLA, December 2008 In mid-December 2008, former LA Times journalist Anita Busch addressed Anthony Pellicano at his federal sentencing for wiretapping, wire fraud, and racketeering. Busch had been a primary target of Pellicano’s surveillance operation, including the notorious 2002 fish-and-bullet-hole-in-windshield episode at…
-
The November 2008 Feline Butcher trial — holistic-health practice and the celebrity-clientele angle
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Dan Cox on FishbowlLA, November 2008 In mid-November 2008, the jury in the trial of holistic-health practitioner Feline Butcher — whose celebrity clientele included Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, and Queen Latifah — was still deliberating after she faced 17 counts of practicing medicine without…