SGV 006: KNX’s Fierce City Hall Reporter, Claudia Peschiutta

KNX 1070’s Claudia Peschiutta is known for many things in LA news: getting beanbagged by LAPD on her day off, yelling “I object!” at the second Lee Baca trial, and calling the Mayor of Los Angeles “Eric” at a press conference... Ok, those are all outliers, but her reputation is well-earned. She turns around compelling, human stories every day while pressing city officials for real information in an era of passing the buck. Claudia is a badass. And she probably has the best reporter Twitter too. 

Perhaps part of what makes her such a formidable journalist for Los Angeles is that she’s actually from here. Peschiutta was born and raised in Monterey Park. Her parents came from Argentina. When the Night Stalker was terrorizing the SGV, she was going to schools in Sierra Madre and San Gabriel. She even wrote for the Arcadia Weekly (getting in with a paper about the Canterbury Tales and a promise to work for oxygen). After she learned how to actually write news, she went to work for a subsidiary of the LA Times. Though she’d have to relearn it all over again when she began doing radio in the early 2000’s. There are no commas in radio.

Does such a goofy break into the industry support the claims of some of her coworkers that she’s “fearless?” Peschiutta says no. Sticking a microphone in front of powerful people is still nerve wracking. But she manages to pull together some of AM 1070’s most defining coverage on their famously brutal turnaround - and that’s what this interview is about. It’s sort of a how-to for getting started in news media and what to expect on the job. We also talk about why local coverage of our Valley (the real Valley) has melted away so much as the news business has consolidated.

And if you - like Claudia - would like to support small time journalism, SGV Weekly has a Patreon.