Angelenos of the Week: David Beckham and Roger Cardinal Mahony

Kind of an odd pairing… But since we didn’t get a chance to do an Angeleno of the Week last week, we’re double dipping.

And maybe the pairing isn’t so odd. Both had rough yet ultimately victorious weeks.

Cardinal Mahony pulled off a $660 million settlement with victims who were abused by priests in the Los Angeles Archdiocese. The settlement didn’t silence critics — quite the opposite, Yet, the L.A. Times’ Opinion piece refered to Mahony this Sunday as “The Teflon Cardinal,” noting that Mahony’s relationship with the Latino community — which now makes up a large percentage of L.A. Roman Catholics — will help him survive this scandal, unlike Boston’s Bernard Cardinal Law.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t looking good for Beckham this week. An injury threatened to keep up from playing Saturday night in what was to be his L.A. Galaxy debut. But after all that hype, how could he not? So near the end of the game, Beckham leapt on the field and played for 12 minutes. Yup, kick around the ball a few times, make the crowd happy. All pretty staged and inconsequential. Yet, as the L.A. Times’ Bill Plaschke writes, the people (including him) ate it up anyway. And so the Beckham hype continues…

Why the L.A. Times Needs a Political Cartoonist

Big local story: The L.A. Archdiocese agrees to $660 million settlement to victims of pedophile priests.

But with no local cartoonist of its own, Thursday’s Los Angeles Times ran a ‘toon from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the matter — including the image of Cardinal Mahoney in a TV set.

Yep, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a cartoonist tackling a big Los Angeles story. And the LAT doesn’t.

By the way, while researching this post, I came across this 1973 Los Angeles Times editorial in which the paper explains why it would no longer endorse political candidates, among other changes:

As The Times has evolved and changed, so have its editorial pages. Once we were highly partisan; now we call ourselves politically independent.

Our outlook on public affairs is skeptical but progressive. We are convinced by experience that progress in the social order has been achieved and will continue. We prefer trial and error to dogmatism, pragmatism and ideology.

Our profoundest allegiance is to the spirit of free inquiry. Our deepest optimism and strongest hopes spring from our fundamental belief in the spirit of liberty and its secure future in the American democracy.

These are general propositions. They are not easily translated into a particular position on any matter of current public affairs. So we try, in these editorials, to examine a question from all sides, to outline it as best we can in a brief space, and then to present our own conclusions. If thereby we persuade others to our view, so much the better. We hope at least to stimulate the thoughts of others.

We have decided therefore that The Times shall no longer routinely endorse candidates for president, for governor, or for senator. We have decided also to move our editorial cartoonist, Paul Conrad, to the page opposite this page. Consequently we shall increase the space given to Letters to The Times.

The piece goes on to rave about then-L.A. Times cartoonist Paul Conrad. Again, reminding me that the paper sorely misses the likes of Conrad (OK, Michael Ramirez, not so much).

Spotted on Wilshire Blvd.: Pissed-Off Parishoners

Man, I don’t know who Pastor Kwak is, or what he did… but he sure did piss off a group of parishoners at United Methodist Church on Wilshire.

I’ve passed by this group of protestors all week while driving down Wilshire on the way home. Most of their signs are in Korean, but some are in English — and they not only demand that one Pastor Kwak resign, but that he also stop doing bad things to his family and his congregation.

Anyone know the details?

Winner, Most Unusual Converted Denny’s

You can always tell a former Denny’s by the shape of the diner — but even more obviously, by the shape of the sign. Most old Denny’s are sold to new diner owners, who stick their name on the sign (think Twain’s in Burbank) but otherwise keep the greasy spoon nature of the building.

(It’s not just old Denny’s — I still remember riding the red line ‘L’ in Chicago and passing by Loyola University, where an old IHOP was converted into the school’s Fine Arts building. Seriously.)

Then there’s Ebenezer church (above), near MacArthur Park. Sorry, no “Moons Over My Hammy” here. (And are they “always open”?)

In This Radio Fight, No One Wins — Well, Except for The Guy Accused of Sexual Harrassment

When I first moved to Los Angeles ten and a half years ago, I used to enjoy flipping around the radio dial and listening to distant FM signals from San Diego. The market’s powerhouse alternative station, 91X (91.1 FM) came in loud and clear, especially in the summertime — blasting from a Tijuana tower. Same with “Jammin’ 90.3.”

Then came the Calvary Satellite Network. In the late 90s, the religious broadcaster built countless low-power “translator” stations — drowning out distant signals and causing a headache for other public broadcasters.

Now, as the L.A. Times wrote yesterday, the alliance between two ministers that makes up Calvary Satellite Network — Chuck Smith and Mike Kestler — is falling apart — and the reasons behind it are pretty juicy:

Smith’s son, Jeff, had been paying Christian radio stations to broadcast his father’s sermons for years. Kestler and the younger Smith had become close friends. They approached the Calvary Chapel founder with an idea: Instead of handing money to other stations to carry the Calvary message, why not invest in their own radio network?

Kestler would handle technical matters out of Twin Falls, the younger Smith would handle the finances out of Santa Ana, and Chuck Smith would bankroll the project. Calvary Satellite Network was born.

Broadcasting a mixture of sermons and worship music, the network started with two stations: Kestler’s in Twin Falls and another in Yucca Valley, Calif. From 1996 to 2003, Chuck Smith poured an estimated $13 million — much of it from the collection bowls of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa — into expanding the network.

Kestler and the younger Smith snapped up broadcast licenses, built towers and invested heavily in satellite technology that beams low-power signals to remote pockets of listeners. As host of a daily call-in show, Kestler became one of the network’s best-known voices.

The radio system did not carry advertising, relying instead on listener donations, money from preachers whose sermons it broadcast, and monthly subsidies from Chuck Smith’s church.

Calvary Satellite Network now has about 400 low-power stations and 49 full-power stations in 45 states. Its coverage area has 22.5 million potential listeners. It estimates its worth at $250 million, derived mostly from the value of its broadcasting licenses.

As the network grew, so did tensions between Smith and his son. Stations were opened at a ferocious clip, but it typically took years for them to break even.

The elder Smith said his son and Kestler took to siding against him, refusing to listen to his pleas for a more conservative business plan.

In January 2003, he resigned from the network’s board and cut off the monthly subsidies. Apart from misgivings about the network’s direction, Smith said, he had developed moral qualms about Kestler.

A Calvary parishioner, a California woman, had come forward saying Kestler had made passes at her. Smith said he called Kestler about the accusation.

From there, Smith began funding the legal bills of women who came out against Kestler. Then, the story takes an even more bizarre turn: Not only did Smith give up, but he’s handing the keys over to his nemesis Kestler. Whaaa?