An internal memorandum from The Associated Press’ Los Angeles bureau urged their staff to place a greater emphasis on covering troubled pop tart Britney Spears. “Now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal,” wrote Los Angeles assistant bureau chief Frank Baker on Tuesday. Baker cautioned that not every rumor about the 26-year-old should be published, but he wrote that “we want to pay attention to what others are reporting and seek to confirm those stories that WE feel warrant the wire. And when we determine that we’ll write something, we must expedite it.”
Lou Ferrara, the managing editor for sports, entertainment and multimedia, defended the memo in an interview with the New York Times. “If you’re an editor in L.A. and Britney Spears is in your backyard,” he said, “you want to know everything about that story.” As for the memo’s specific emphasis on Spears, Ferrara added, “You can exchange Britney’s name with writers’ strike, with Paris Hilton, with the Dennis Quaid hospital problems. You can name any story – we can do a better job in breaking entertainment news.”