It won't mean much to anyone who didn't grow up in Los Angeles but it was just announced that Stan Chambers has died at the age of 91. Stan Chambers was a newsman on KTLA Channel 5 for just short of forever. He was rarely used in an anchor capacity. He was the guy they sent out on location with the truck to cover the fires, the shootouts, the riots, the floods…whatever it was. He had an uncanny ability to always be there and to report in a calm, professional manner. The reporters on CNN who sometimes put hysterical speculation and unconfirmed reports on the air could learn from the example of Stan Chambers. He covered the important stories and never got them wrong.
I got to meet him a few times. The last was not that long ago when he was making the rounds, signing copies of his autobiography. I quoted to him a line I'd use on this blog — "When we had the famous police shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Front, the joke was that every other reporter was covering it from outside while Chambers was in the house with the suspects." He laughed but it was not that far from the truth.