THE HEADWATERS OF MOST LOS ANGELES COUNTY police reporting is a very small pond known as the Norman “Jake” Jacoby Press Room. Named for a legendary City News Service police reporter who retired a decade ago, it sits to the rear of the first floor of Parker Center, the 40-year-old, six-story LAPD “Glass House” headquarters downtown.Most of its well-worn furnishings date back at least to the Korean War, and it reeks like a vacant lockerroom. It is here where most of the city’s stories of misfortune — crime, fire and other disasters — bubble up, where the first draft of L.A. daily journalism’s “first draft of history” often gets written. That’s the draft that distills language like “the officers proceeded relative to the location” into “the officers went to the house.” And “Alighting from her vehicle, the officer related her suspicions to her superiors telephonically” to “the officer got out her car and phoned headquarters.” The result is usually a basic bundle of short narrative — who, what, where and why, sent out by wire to more than 300 client news agencies around town and around the world.
Source: Call Rewrite! | L.A. Weekly