Orange County Blog

Figures that yesterday---when I wrote this Heard Mentality blog post about the one good reason to watch DayBreak OC---would be the same day KDOC owner Bert Ellis decided to mercifully shoot his broken-legged horse in the head.

Yep---DayBreak OC, the daily one-hour comedy/variety show that began life in September, 2007 with the promise of bringing serious all-Orange County broadcast news to our 3 million residents---has been canceled. Ellis cites the incredibly shrinking economy as reason for the axing, which, according to today's Register, means that more than two dozen DayBreak employees are now jobless. Well, as much as I've criticized DayBreak's utter worthlessness and amateurishness, that's certainly nothing to laugh at.

Also sucks that the DayBreak crew seemed to have been caught totally by surprise by Ellis' decision. Co-anchors Shally Zomorodi and Ben Aaron signed off from yesterday's broadcast teasing stories and interviews that had been planned for today's show. It was hard not to feel a twinge of sympathy for them last night as I watched my TiVoed recording of Tuesday's DayBreak, knowing the news they, at that time, had yet to hear.

Seems odd, though, that Ellis would yank the show so soon a mere five weeks after switching DayBreak from what had been a two-hour 6-8 a.m. format to a reduced one-hour program that aired at 10 a.m. When I interviewed him last month, Ellis told me that ratings for the revamped 10 a.m. DayBreak were “significantly higher” than they had been during its previous time slot. But this was obviously due to the fact that more eyeballs were open at 10 a.m. than they were at 6 a.m. And as far as advertising went, well.....when one of their most-aired spots consisted of people looking directly into the camera and berating viewers for sitting on their couches like lazy slugs because they never finished high school, that wasn't merely annoying, that was insulting.

But Ellis vows (threats?) that DayBreak will return in one form or another. As posted on the KDOC website, Ellis says "As soon as we see a turn-around to this current media recession, we intend to resume our newscast." Considering that most reports I've read have the rotten economy lasting for some time, that could take awhile. But by then, maybe Ben Aaron will actually be funny.....

Also, that R. Scott DayBreak performance I blurbed about in yesterday's Heard Mentality blog, which was to have happened tomorrow, obviously ain't happening now. But you can still see the wondrous keyboardist tomorrow night at the Cellar in Long Beach, when he sits in with the equally fabulous New Fidelity. (Bonus: the amazing Greater California are also on the bill.)

During Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church Obama-McCain interviews earlier this month, the pastor asked McCain to identify the “three wisest people that [sic] you know that you would rely on heavily in an administration.”

McCain quickly named General David Petraeus and Lindsey Graham, a Republican U.S. Senator from South Carolina. Here was McCain on the third of his four choices: “I think John Lewis . . . [he] was at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, had his skull fractured, continued to serve, continues to have the most optimistic outlook about America. He can continue to teach us all about the meaning of courage and commitment to causes greater than ourselves.”

Over at KDOC’s Daybreak OC, which broadcast the Aug. 16 event live and offered commentary during breaks, the Lewis answer stumped everyone but not necessarily because they disagreed with his choice. Hosts Shally Zomorodi and Pete Weitzner looked dumbfounded. Brett Barbe, the local Republican campaign consultant and a usually on-the-ball fellow who has experience working in our nation’s capital, volunteered lamely that the only John Lewis he knew is the former OC state senator who became disgraced ex-Sheriff Mike Carona’s campaign consultant.

But here’s the really puzzling tidbit: Barbe’s commentary counterpart, Frank Barbaro--head of the OC Democratic Party, a veteran trial lawyer, a Democratic National Convention delegate and a Magna Cum Laude USC graduate—was baffled too.

Who is Lewis (pictured)? Just a monumental historical figure who worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement to end segregation. Lewis spoke at the famous 1963 March on Washington when King gave his “I have a dream” speech. A participant in the Freedom Rides (popularized in Hollywood films), Lewis also organized the 1965 non-violent protest across a Selma, Alabama bridge that ended with vicious attacks by redneck state troopers. And he’s been a notable Democratic congressman from Georgia for 22 years.

Shame on you Frank.

-- R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly

Remember this post from exactly a week ago?

Well, the W-I-E-T-Z-N-E-R Watch continues...Daybreak OC web peeps still haven't changed Pete's last name to the correct spelling...really, if Daybreak OC doesn't give a shit about their own people, how is Orange County expected to give a shit about their two-hour daily sitcom that masquerades as a real news broadcast?

Also: Hey, Brad Pomerance! You called me up and left a message to call you back after I posted this post. I did, and have been waiting you to return the phone tag for almost two weeks now...

Guess I missed this, so who knows how long it's been up, but if you go to the Daybreak OC biography page right here, you'll notice the curious spelling of co-anchor Pete Weitzner's name at the top of the page.

That's because, as of 3:50 p.m. on Wednesday afternoon, IT'S SPELLED WRONG. It's not W-I-E-T-Z-N-E-R. You'd think the cardboardy Weitzner himself would have noticed such a glaring screwup of his own name on his station's website. But then again, he may be distracted by beauty contest winner/co-anchor Shally Zomorodi's constant on-camera caressing...

...except Daybreak OC isn't fake news.

‘Scuse us if we’re a few weeks late with this, but our secret inside source was a bit tardy burning the DVD.

But here’s the poop: On May 22, Daybreak OC – the two-hour, nearly year-old weekday morning “news” show that airs on KDOC, a show which seems to exist not for mere ratings alone, but also to prove to lead anchor Pete Weitzner’s life insurance company that he is indeed a live human with a working pulse – aired a segment about a relatively minor brain-fart in the OC District Attorney’s office.

Seems that one Ida Torres had allegedly kidnapped a child from Children’s Hospital in Orange and was on the lam – she was eventually apprehended in New Mexico. Announcing the incident and the issuance of an Amber Alert at a press conference, the DA’s office trumpeted a photo of a woman they claimed was Torres, but wasn’t – turned out the woman was actually Maria Ramos, who was already in custody in the OC jail on assault charges. D-oh! The DA’s office messed up, but they caught their mistake, corrected it, and flashed around the correct photo of Torres.

Not much of a story, really. But non-news news stories are what Daybreak OC does best. So Daybreak devoted a couple of minutes in both their 6 and 7 a.m. hours to this scintillating non-news story, reported by a big ‘ol handjob named Brad Pomerance. Pomerance did some interviews and voice-overs and some on-camera. He chatted up DA spokesflack Susan Schroeder, whose last words were “As you members of the media know better than anyone else, sometimes mistakes happen.”

And then the shit got weird.

Pomerance popped up on-camera and (badly) acted offended by Schroeder’s comment. “WE know better than anyone? WE in the MEDIA?” Pomerance (badly) fumed. “Are we in the news more often the culprits of these types of errors?”

Hells yes, Braddy, and you should know – you work at Daybreak OC, the Emperors of FuckedItUpAgainLand.

So the story has somehow turned from a simple report on a DA mistake into a self-absorbed ego-stroke, where Daybreak OC hilariously tries to appear holy – that the news media are practically all perfect specimens of perfection. But remember – this is Daybreak OC staking this claim.

After Pomerance’s fake hissy fit, the segment flashed a sound-bite interview with Cal State Fullerton communications prof Tony Fellow, who says “Journalists make fewer mistakes than do DAs, judges and lawyers.”

One problem: Daybreak OC identifies Fellow as “Chris Brown, CSUF Professor, Criminal Justice.” Too bad that the poor douche who produced the segment didn’t catch that – or those big-ass letters on the wall behind Fellow that clearly said DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS.

Oh, but it gets better!

A few seconds later, the REAL Cal State Fullerton professor Chris Brown pops up with a quote about the DA’s flub: “It’s still a violation of a person’s rights. You don’t want to be misidentified with a crime that you haven’t committed.” (I bolded that for a reason. You’ll see.)

So can you guess what happened next? Can you guess how Daybreak OC identified the real, actual, CSUF criminal justice professor Chris Brown AS HE'S SPEAKING THE LINE INTO THE CAMERA about how “you don’t want to be misidentified with a crime that you haven’t committed?” In their report about how accurate and never-ever-wrong the news media is? Go ‘head! Guess!!!

“Ida Torres – Charged with Child Abduction.”

Beautiful.