Politicians to Examine Media: California Assembly Committee to Hold Hearings on Media Coverage of the Los Angeles Riots; Journalists Invited to Testify

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A California Assembly committee has scheduled an unusual hearing on the media coverage of the Los Angeles riots, a move that several journalists greeted warily.

Committee staff members said print and broadcast media representatives will be invited to testify, but the body does not intend to use its subpoena power.

The July 31 hearing in Los Angeles by the Assembly Special Committee on the Los Angeles Crisis "will focus on the coverage of news and events that occurred before, during and following the uprising in Los Angeles," a spokeswoman said.

A committee announcement said it would hear from journalists, mediawatch groups and "university-based scholars."

The committee is chaired by Democrat Curtis R. Tucker, Jr. of Inglewood, a community that was hit hard by the burning and looting during the late April riots.

A committee counsel, Angela E. Oh, told E&P that the hearing "is not intended as a critique of the media, but we will be …