Trump and the consumer reporter
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When consumer reporters go after companies or government agencies, some results are predictable: Their targets sometimes object; their readers often write.
The response to recent Consumer Confidential columns about Donald Trump by reporter David Lazarus has been especially strong, though. More than 200 readers wrote to say thanks, and Trump called to tell Lazarus that he’d see him ‘in court.’
Trump’s reaction was reported in Lazarus’ Dec. 16 column, itself the follow-up to the Dec. 12 column in which Lazarus had written about his attending the free two-hour seminar Trump’s company presents -- which, the columnist reported, is only a ‘preview’ of the three-day workshops that Trump offers for $1,495.
What was unusual about the Trump columns, Lazarus says, is that the overwhelming majority of responses rose to the writer’s defense and thanked him for standing up to the mogul. Typical of the 200+ reader responses to the Trump columns were the notes from Monique Bryher of Tarzana: ‘Your work was good before. Now that you’ve earned his enmity, I like it even more’; and David Chan of Long Beach: ‘Articles like yours are reasons why I KEEP my L.A. Times subscription. Thanks for not backing down.’
And Trump’s reaction was unusually heated for a target of the consumer column. Trump called to complain, and he wrote to Davan Maharaj, who as the editor of Business is Lazarus’ boss (the columnist posted the letter of complaint).
Lazarus has been reporting on behalf of consumers for the past seven years, first at the San Francisco Chronicle, and at The Times since August. His Consumer Confidential columns have run weekly. Usually, Lazarus says, he looks for topics that will have relevance for the broadest cross-section of readers. That means he’s written about psychics and astrologers; rebates on cell phones; AT&T’s doing away with the recorded voice that gave the time of day (the ‘time lady’ ) -- and Trump’s claims that ordinary people can make millions investing in distressed properties. Ideas come from readers, inside sources or even just an ad that appears in the paper (which was how Lazarus learned about the Trump seminar).
He has won awards for his work (from the National Headliner Awards program for excellence in journalism; from the advocacy and education nonprofit group Consumer Federation of California with its News Media Award; from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his coverage of the energy crisis). His writing also has resulted in a variety of laws protecting California consumers.
The day-to-day work of reporting on behalf of consumers might bring, typically, a few dozen responses. Some obviously hot issues bring more: More than 100 readers sent responses to the column on subways vs. monorails, most weighing in on on L.A.’s traffic mess. Occasionally readers defend the subject of his column. But anything over 100 comments, as Lazarus says, ‘reflects a different order of magnitude.’
In this case, the reader reaction was notable in another way: two lawyers told Lazarus that they’d defend him free of charge if Trump makes good on that threat to see him in court.