Dave Sikula writes to ask of me…
This time I have an actual question rather than a comment. Do you have any idea what it is about Los Angeles media and car chases? Seems like at least once a week (if not much more) I see something on social media from my SoCal friends about yet another car chase.
I left L.A. in 1991, before this phenomenon started, and in all the places I've lived since, have never seen anything like it. There are car chases here in the Bay Area, but stations cover them in retrospect (if at all). Why do all L.A. media stop dead when it comes to these things? Are they ratings-grabbers? Is there ever anything new to them? Are they actually exciting? Inquiring minds want to know.
Well, if you're asking why Los Angeles has so many car chases, it probably has something to do with having so many cars. More cars = more car chases.
Why do the stations drop everything and cover them? You said it: They're ratings-grabbers. There must be some evidence that if you're Channel 4 and there's a live high-speed chase over on Channel 2 that you're not covering, a lot of your viewers are going to switch over there to watch it.
Is there ever anything new to them? Sometimes. I think the appeal has a lot to do with the fact that they're live and unpredictable. Very little on television is except for sports — and most sporting events do not feature the possibility that you'll see someone, maybe even an innocent bystander, killed or injured. Also, a lot of police pursuits are on familiar turf. You often see it happening on streets you've driven on. I'm not proud that I find them (usually) fascinating but I'm afraid I do.