Shiels: From Detroit to Hollywood - news anchor traveled to Tehran and elsewhere
KTLA TV's award-winning morning news anchor Frank Buckley stepped off a stage for the second time in a day, this time at the noon hour in the sold-out ballroom of Loews Hollywood Hotel, after emceeing the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce luncheon featuring Mayor Karen Bass. LA's 71-year-old leader had come to be interviewed by Buckley and share news of 'Recovery, Resilience, and Resolve.'
Travel, tourism and the region's upcoming world events were touch-point topics.
'We will be able to pull off next year's World Cup soccer…and we would like a 'car-free' Olympics in 2028 - shuttling people to and from the venues by using 3,300 buses. It is a national effort,' Bass said. When asked about the idea of flying taxis, she shrugged and then joked about the driverless taxis already in use: 'I am still having a hard time with Waymo.'
LA's 46,000 homeless people are no joking matter.
'The world will be coming here and we do not want them to see encampments. And we need to move away from housing the homeless in hotels for a year-and-a-half,' Bass said. As for hotels, there was a discussion about implementing a $30-per-hour minimum wage for hotel and airport workers, which some have described as the 'Olympic Wage.'
Bass also wants the world to know the cleanup and rebuilding after January's devastating wildfires was ahead of expectations.
'People around America thought the entire city was on fire. They did not know where the Palisades, Altadena, or Malibu were.'
The fires also hampered Hollywood's film industry, as did Covid, labor strikes, and competitive tax incentives from other states such as Georgia. In response, Bass, who was once speaker of the California Assembly, is looking for government assistance from Sacramento and is creating an executive order to ease permits and hinderances to movie-shoots and television productions, which reached a low-point in 2024.
'Some people in other parts of the state ask, 'Why should we prop up Hollywood?' But these are working class jobs, not A-list actors. Tailors, caterers, construction…the industry, whether people know it or not, is in their town. Its impact is everywhere.'
Buckley's successful media career, including a turn at CNN, began in 1984 when the Angelino traveled to Michigan for a summer college internship at the Detroit News.
'I did not interview Detroit's mayor then because I was a punk covering stuff, but if you look at the old archives of the Detroit News, you will see 'Frank J. Buckley – staff writer,' or something like that. I did a bunch of articles for the Detroit News,' Buckley told me stage-side. He recalled living in a University of Windsor dorm and traveling across the Ambassador Bridge each day for work. 'Detroit had its challenges at the time, but I was not scared because I had lived in Los Angeles during a very difficult, dangerous time. I was used to having my head on a swivel.'
Buckley was brave to also travel to spend 10 days in Tehran, Iran on assignment for Southern California's KTLA TV.
'We have a large Persian population here and it was of interest to them. What an eye-opening trip. I remember being on the plane with women, and before landing they had to change out of their western clothing to cover up. There were people praying on the plane. But when we were on the ground, and I have found this in my reporting throughout my life, people are the same. We want our families to be safe. We want them to be prosperous,' Buckley said. 'Iranians were not supposed have satellite TV, but they all had satellite TV so they knew what was going on. I found a kid playing basketball who was an NBA fan, so I played horse with him. It was so cool!'
Buckley was not the only reporter covering the mayor's speech, including me, with a Michigan connection. I met Reis Thebault, the Washington Post's west coast correspondent. He grew up in Ann Arbor, and worked in D.C, Boston, and Columbus, while his father, Reid Thebault was a civic leader in Detroit.
The elder Thebault served as the innovative president and CEO of the YMCA for 20 years at a time when the Motor City was poised for transformation – a revitalization he collaborated with various Detroit mayors to be part of.
Contact Michael Patrick Shiels at MShiels@aol.com His new book: Travel Tattler – Not So Torrid Tales, may be purchased via Amazon.com Hear his radio talk show on WJIM AM 1240 in Lansing weekdays from 9 am – noon.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Shiels: Frank Buckley has traveled from Detroit to Hollywood
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