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Yahoo!READ AND WEEP: In a perverse way, I’d like to thank embattled News-Press owner Wendy P. McCaw and her bilious right-hand man Travis K. Armstrong for all the uproar now engulfing the News-Press and the whole town. The sad soap opera unfolding at the De la Guerra Plaza digs of Santa Barbara’s oldest paper has succeeded in diverting our attention — if only a little bit — from the gathering storm clouds of World War III now spreading from Lebanon and Israel. Even for the most defiantly chirpy among us, these are scary times indeed. At least for now we have fodder for distraction. But the people we really have to thank are the News-Press Nine — the brave souls who quit their jobs to protest the wreckage McCaw and company are presently wreaking on the community’s daily newspaper. We can also thank the workers who stood outside the paper’s entrance during last Friday afternoon’s impromptu protest and duct-taped their mouths shut to protest the management’s gag orders to keep them from discussing what’s taking place inside the News-Press. About 250 supporters and well-wishers showed up for that grim exhibition of guerilla theater. This Tuesday, another 500 or so showed up at De la Guerra Plaza to again express outrage at what’s happened to their newspaper.
Tuesday’s rally was patched together by
all-purpose environmental agitator and media provocateur
David Pritchett. Pritchett assembled many of the
usual suspects who’d run afoul of the News-Press editorial
pages by violating Travis and Wendy’s notions of how the world
should work. This included three South Coast mayors. But also
included was neighborhood activist Cheri Rae, who
always has had Wendy’s wind at her back and Travis’s sunshine in
her face. Despite strong support from Travis, Rae took him and
Wendy sharply to task for meddling in newsroom affairs. As Rae
asked, what good is the News-Press’s support to her — or
any community activist — if the paper has zero credibility in the
community? Her presence on the podium gave lie to Armstrong’s
attempt to dismiss the groundswell of opposition as merely the sour
grapes of greedy developers and advocates of high-density
affordable housing who are intent on ruining the South Coast’s
quality of life over his emphatic opposition. Pritchett riffed on
one-time Santa Barbara resident Ronald Reagan’s
most famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall,” leading the
crowd in a chant of “Mrs. McCaw, build back that wall.” Reagan was
referring, of course, to the Berlin Wall, then crumbling during the
waning days of the Cold War. Pritchett was referring to the
firewall that’s said to exist at any decent newspaper, shielding
the news department from the pressures of the advertising
department and the whimsical intrusions of the owner. Without such
a wall, it’s hard for readers to distinguish
advertorials from real news and real reporting
from political propaganda. It should be noted that
even in the best of papers, this “wall” is the subject of constant
pressure, “dynamic tension,” being the preferred
euphemism in the trade. But McCaw pretty much leveled the wall at
the News-Press when she issued letters of reprimand for
anybody in her employ responsible for publishing the address of the
vacant lot where former bad-boy movie star Rob
Lowe hopes to build his dream Mega Mansion. There was no
policy in place at the News-Press against listing such
addresses at the time the reprimands were issued. In fact, it was
common practice at the paper to publish the address of all
properties that were the subject of a heated public debate — as the
Lowe property was. But because her reporters and editors did not
intuitively grasp that wealthy Montecito celebrities like
Lowe — who complained after his address was published — were
entitled to preferential treatment, McCaw issued four harshly
worded letters of reprimand, threatening to fire anyone who did it
again. That was strike three. Strike one was trying to spike the
drunk-driving arrest of Travis Armstrong, then the
editorial page editor and editorial writer. Strike two was
successfully killing the story on Armstrong’s sentencing. (For the
record, it’s customary for the News-Press to report on
drunk-driving arrests of prominent citizens, as former UCSB
Chancellor Barbara Uehling can readily attest.)
When McCaw then appointed Armstrong as her acting
publisher — giving him exceptional authority to change news
reporters’ copy — while she and fiancé Arthur Von
Wiesenberger went off to Europe, relations between
Armstrong and the newsroom became so toxic that they could qualify
as an EPA Superfund site. The newsroom responded accordingly with
the bench-clearing brawl we see before us
today.
V FOR VENDETTA: By now much of this is old news. It’s been covered to death by major media outlets throughout the world, including, finally, even the News-Press. The story has legs that just won’t quit, and there’s little sign the attention will let up. This confounds even those caught up in the middle. But there are many obvious reasons for all this attention: You’ve got a rich eccentric owner, Hollywood celebrities, and Santa Barbara itself. Beyond that, there are the broader issues of media ownership. At a time when reporters are getting caught fabricating quotes and making up stories almost as frequently as professional athletes are accused of rape and steroid abuse, the public’s confidence in the press has never been lower. Thirty years ago, in the post-Watergate blip, the public thought reporters were going to save the world from conniving politicians. Today, the public holds reporters in even lower regard than politicians themselves, and often with good reason. In this context, to have reporters and editors quit their jobs — especially in today’s parched and unforgiving job market — in a dispute over journalistic ethics is big news.
McCaw, Armstrong, and their revolving door of spin doctors have provided almost as many explanations for this meltdown as the Bush administration has for the invasion of Iraq. Last Friday, McCaw took to the front page of her paper to blast her newsroom as a hotbed of political bias and personal agendas. People quit, she said, because she would no longer allow those personal agendas to prevail. Before that, we were told the editors who resigned weren’t committed to local news, even though that’s the drum they beat loudest and longest. It’s worth noting that members of the News-Press Nine were responsible for most of the first- and second-place California Newspaper Publishers Association awards the paper just won. Business editor Michael Todd was the guiding hand for the agricultural coverage; reporters Scott Hadly and Dawn Hobbs for the coverage of the internecine food fight that’s destroyed the Sheriff’s Council; Colin Powers for the front-page design. All of them — except Hobbs — have resigned. To be fair and balanced, I must mention that the editorial pages won an award too, even though it’s been the incessantly mean-spirited tone of Travis Armstrong’s editorials — far more than the actual positions he takes — that have so pissed off such a wide swath of the Santa Barbara community.
What McCaw has never understood is how hard her people worked for her, how much they loved the newspaper she bought, and how ferociously dedicated they are to the art and craft of journalism. Most people have never heard of Don Murphy, an intelligent, insightful editor and gentle soul who for 19 years has worked his way up the newsroom ladder. I used to cover City Council and Planning Commission meetings with Murphy back when he was still a reporter. He took such obvious delight in the give and take of Santa Barbara’s democratic process — inane and maddening as it sometimes was — that they could have charged him admission and he would have gladly paid. Few people soaked it in so thoroughly; few people got it so well. Even in small doses, Murphy’s enthusiasm was infectious. Over the years Murphy evolved into the institutional memory of the newsroom, connecting dots that new reporters — always arriving in a steady stream — didn’t know even existed. As an editor, Murphy also understood reporters were not always infallible, and fought to keep the sloppy, the lazy, and the willfully stupid contained, constrained, or out of the newsroom. Now Murphy is gone, the Ft. Knox of local history — at least two decades’ worth — shut down. At age 60, Murphy confronts the very scary prospect of finding a job elsewhere, where none of all that accumulated knowledge will do him much good. His departure is not just his loss. It’s Wendy’s loss. It’s her paper’s loss. But it’s our loss too. As his parting shot, Murphy told the crowd that if he could ever talk to Wendy — which very few people can — he’d tell her that she may have bought the News-Press, but she didn’t buy the people who work for her, and she sure couldn’t buy the news. It’s a good line, and goes to the heart of the matter. For McCaw, it appears to be a simple matter: She bought the paper, so it’s hers and she can do as she pleases with it. The problem is that the newspaper also belongs to the community. And it always will, no matter whose name is on the deed. In this regard, a newspaper is a little like beer. As any barstool scientist can attest, you don’t buy beer so much as rent it. Unfortunately for all of us, McCaw seems intent on pissing it all away.
— Nick Welsh
Double-clicking on any word or phrase in this story will open a reference window with definitions and links to other reference material.
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Nice piece. Keep the news and views coming, Independent, and the pressure on, Santa Barbara.
Teresa
July 20, 2006 at 1:18 p.m.
Thank you for the lovely tribute to Don Murphy. Whoever is lucky enough to hire him in the future will be blessed. As a former co-worker of his, I always considered him one of those completely evolved beings who did not need to live another human life in order to learn more lessons, but rather one who came here to show the rest of us an example of the ultimate human spirit. The loss to Santa Barbara of this man in incalculable. I hope another daily paper starts up just so journalists like Don will have a place to serve the community once again. Wendy McCaw can run the News-Press right into the ground, and she is doing a great job of that, but she can't ruin the spirit of the reporters who will flock out of there if another paper emerges. Melinda Burns, still at the paper, is another saintly reporter, don't you agree?
Kathy Price
July 20, 2006 at 2:41 p.m.
As a former News-Press copy editor who worked with Don Murphy for several years, I want to echo Kathy Price's words. Don was -- and is -- a good reporter and an even better editor. But even more important, and Her Wendyness will never get this -- Don is a genuinely good man. The respect I and others in the newsroom have for him knows no bounds.
Bob Smith
July 20, 2006 at 3:26 p.m.
I echo Kathy's thank you. You have Don pegged to a T. One would be hard pressed to think of anyone more caring more dedicated and more sincere more soft spoken and more knowledgeable or more talented then Don Murphy.
Inside
July 20, 2006 at 3:46 p.m.
The Regan-esque cheer was:
"Ms. McCaw, build back that wall!"
Not "Mrs."
With a nod to basic feminism that a Miss/Mrs./Ms. distinction is obsolete and offensive now in the 21st Century, readers either get the reference, or they don't for the correct cheer.
I had to correct Los Angeles Times as well, where they first published as "Mrs." but did have the time to correct the "Ms." between the time of the first web edition of the article and the final print edition.
And I agree with the two local TV reporters (Palminteri and Cota) who each deliberately counted the crowd and estimated between 800 and 1000 people were present at the rally, including the many seeking shade below the parapets.
David Pritchett
July 20, 2006 at 4:36 p.m.
Kathy Price is right on both counts. (Don and Melinda) Also, Nick Welsh's Garden of Eden analogy hit it right on the head. (for those who just joined this blog, I'm referring to his article last week about people who are blessed with good fortune but who manage to turn victory into defeat)
This blow-up at the News-Press has been a long time coming. Bill Macfadyen, Dave Bemis, Tom Bolton, Joe Cole, Barney, and the list continues of lives disrupted during her ownership. Neal Graffy comments that it's de riguer for new owners to establish new policy, but the discontent which finally hit critical mass a few weeks ago is much more than simply a policy change.
Is there ANYBODY with whom Wendy can get along? And is Travis a true believer or is he just a journalistic hit-man?
As children, we learn (assuming we don't have indulgent parents) the concept of accountability. Most people throughout their lives have to account to someone, but the Wendy McCaws, Donald Trumps, and Hollywood Royalty and others in positions of money/power do not have to punch a clock and worry about getting fired. Think about it: Who at the News-Press would dare stand up to her? It's one thing if you have the money to be out of work for a while, but I'm imagining that many of those people don't so she has a captive crew. There is no due process or room for dissent under her, it's "My way or the highway". So much for free speech.
Unlike her employees, Wendy doesn't have to worry about paying rent, or the fear that if her job is ended, that she might end up out on the streets, so this lack of contact with the real world, whether by circumstance or self-imposed, results in her cavalier "Let them eat cake" attitude. To far, Wendy has not had to be accountable to anyone-at least in THIS life.
I have no way to predict how this will all turn out, but I think of all the creative talent at the News-Press that has been stifled by fear and resentment. Why doesn't Wendy simply publish her own column and separate her views from the news? Ironically and sadly, I think her views about the environment and animal rights are right on the money, and being anti-government and a card-carrying Libertarian years before she bought the paper I share many or her views, but with privilage and freedom come responsibility.
I'm glad that Wendy McCaw is concerned about the welfare of our four-legged counterparts, it would be nice of she would take interest in the welfare of the human animal as well. -Bill Clausen-
Bill Clausen
July 20, 2006 at 7:02 p.m.
Another great Poodle, stimulating of thoughtful responses. Nice to read about others' perceptions of Don Murphy, which certainly gives heft to Bill Clausen's contention that the former Mrs. McCaw (if you're divorced, aren't you a Ms.?) feels that she doesn't have to measure and treat people by ordinary measures of common decency and doesn't have to account for lacking that quality.
However, I do believe Ms. McCaw was held accountable at least one time in her life -- as Craig McCaw's wife. Apparently he felt it was worth a billion or two from his communications company fortune to shed himself of her. Woof! How bad could the relationship have been to feel it worth THAT much? Must have stacked up well compared to jail time, methinks.
The price she's paid, and will always pay, in the Faustian bargain is that as a wealthy blond/e, how would she ever again be sure she was loved for herself and not for her zeroes? What a curse...and somehow, it's difficult to feel any sympathy.
A. Nonny Mouse
July 20, 2006 at 7:58 p.m.
I love how poodles love to point fingers (or paws) but don't look at thier own hands. When you point a finger take a look at your hand because three fingers are pointing right back at you.
Everyone is talking about build the wall between opinion and news and management and news or publishers and news. So lets ask a few questions. When Jerry Roberts was Editor & Publisher of the News-Press was that OK? What about TM Stork as a number of people have said he was a great guy? Or my very favorite. Why is it that the Barking Dog that writes this opinion column in the Independent is also an executive Editor but that’s OK?
Mesa Dog
July 20, 2006 at 11:52 p.m.
I have read in quite a few accounts of Tuesday's rally that De La Guerra Plaza was filled with recognizable representatives of the Santa Barbara left. They must have missed me .. a registered Republican for 40 years who has never voted for a Democrat but who believes in a free and independent press. All Republicans are not rich and certainly don't support someone who uses their wealth and privilege to suppress the news and lie to the public. Ms. McCaw this is Santa Barbara, not North Korea. YOU WILL NOT WIN THIS FIGHT!
doglady
July 21, 2006 at 6:24 a.m.
Sorry to shatter the conspiracy theory about Nick Welsh at Santa Barbara Independent. When his writing, which has a by-line, is under a rather well-known column or feature identified as ANGRY POODLE, that same writing can be considered Opinion material. When his by-line is under a section called News, it is intended to be, duh, news. Nothing is wrong or unethical about the same person writing both opinion and news, as long as readers know which it is intended to be.
Also notice their web site www.independent.com separates all the content among headings such as, say, NEWS, ARTS, LIVING, OPINION, etc. Collectively, that concept is called by other names, a WALL between opinion and news, just like I have a heard a time or ten this week as being an important and disclosed distinction in a newspaper.
And if or when Nick is convicted of driving drunk, be sure someone else in their news department would write it up as news, considering Nick is quite the famous public figure with the popular Angry Poodle Barbeque and so on. But Nick probably also would write it up himself as opinion under his own by-line in the Angry Poodle.
However, even in the unlikely event Nick Welsh ever were drunk and driving, he would be driving his bike and only hurt himself and the shrub that hit him. Besides, his wife does not let him drive the Volvo anyway.
First District Streetfighter
July 21, 2006 at 11:45 a.m.
For those of you who see the News-Press at the barber or coffeehouse or wherever, do know that its coverage of itself is rather pathetic today, seemingly frought with errors of ommission. EdHat (www.edhat.com), a popular and quirky daily web site about very local stuff, already has News-Press beat in the news business.
If the News-Press coverage of its own meltdown is not skewed as they claim, they sure are not trying too hard to counter that growing public belief. Below is the News-Press treatment of themselves, and the EdHat.com treatment of the same news conference, by a "citizen journalist" friend of Ed. Seems like EdHat, with less than one percent of the budget and experience, now is producing a better news article. Also see Lompoc Record today (July 21) for yet another deeper analysis.
And just what is the intent of that News-Press intern writing: "to meet their demands for union representation and other issues."?!?!? And "if certain demands are not met."
What are the "other issues" and "certain demands"? That sounds like Governator Ahhnahld and how he ends a statement with "...and tingks like dat and so on."
Of course, we know that the other huge issues are that are not mentioned in this micro article by the News-Press intern. Perhaps a second huge photo of Jill Zachary, cute as she is, really was not necessary for the news layout today, and the same space in the print edition could have been devoted to a few of those "other issues" somehow conveniently left out of the News-Press article about its own problems?
---------------
from News-Press:
Newsroom workers want demands met by Sept. 5
Bethany Hopkins, News-Press intern
July 21, 2006 8:58 AM
Newsroom employees have given the Santa Barbara News-Press until Sept. 5 to meet their demands for union representation and other issues.
At noon Thursday, 18 employees dressed in black gathered in De la Guerra Plaza for a news conference featuring union representatives.
"We're giving the company 45 days to work this out," said Marty Keegan, lead organizer for the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
The group announced a card, online and telephone campaign encouraging readers to cancel subscriptions if the employees' demands are not met.
Marty Keegan, right, lead organizer for the Graphic Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, stands with a group of Santa Barbara News-Press newsroom employees at a news conference on Thursday. The yellow cards are part of a campaign encouraging readers to cancel their subscriptions if certain demands are not met by Sept. 5.
------------------------
from EdHat.com:
Local News by Local People
Jul 20, 2006
By Colleen Watson
The News-Press workers’ press conference didn’t have the same attendance as the rally two days previous and was much more informal. A small crowd had formed around the employees who stood in black holding up yellow cards. In big bold letters at the top of the card read, "Save the Santa Barbara News-Press." There was then a place to sign the card that stated that the signer supports the News-Press newsroom staff to "restore journalistic integrity to the paper, obtain union recognition and negotiate a fair employment contract." The signer would cancel their subscription if the demands were not met by September 5, 2006.
One of the speaker for the employees was Marty Keegan, International Lead Organizer. The lack of a PA system had the crowd squeezing in on him to catch every word. Although he was rather vague in his answers, he did mention plans to sit down with advertisers to try and gain their support for the employee’s demands. He also mentioned plans to start a delegation of prominent citizens to sit down and meet with the owner and publishers. When asked if the workers would strike, Marty answered with "not if this works."
First District Streetfighter
July 21, 2006 at 11:51 a.m.
What's cool is that the Teamsters and black-clad workers have taken concrete steps to influence Wacky Wendy and Tear-em-up Travis. We were all just yakking about the resignations and canceling subscriptions in a disorganized way. Now there's a plan. I'd like to send a simple message to Travis Armstrong: Please resign. Do it now while you can depart with a shred of dignity. You obviously have writing talent and an insightful mind. You've just been using it to attack people and things you dislike. There was no enlightenment in your columns, nothing inspiring. You could have teased, dissected, expanded, shed light, but instead you banged on a big nasty drum without rhythm or grace. Even messages I wanted to hear were lost in the cacophony. You don't have to work in a place where so many people hate you. You don't have to walk our streets worried someone will recognize you. Fess up and admit you overstepped your bounds and that you've hurt the newspaper and upset the community. Or tell all of us to f*%@k off and start a new life in a different city. Your resignation will go a long way to bringing credibility back to the News Press. Do the Right Thing.
Ms. T
July 21, 2006 at 11:07 p.m.
The following is what I wrote Travis a few weeks ago regarding his putting down Solvang for its concern about the expansion of the Casino and the effects we're realizing that it's having. I took the pre-emptive strike of mentioning that he didn't have to respond to me because he never has anyway. -B.C.
-Dear Travis: Here's why they are carping: The Santa Ynez Valley used to be a quiet place that didn't reek of the drug/alcohol scene of S.B. Now, like S.B., the Valley has decided to go the way of vice-generated profits. (S.B.'s vice-economy being the bar scene)
You rightfully bring up the part about the anti-Casino folks whining about losing $90,000 in taxes while remaining silent about other tax-exempt properties, but here is an angle you may never hear from anyone else as my e-mail takes a left turn:
In today's culture, a culture devoid of straight-talking people out of the Harry S. Truman school, people will pick at ancillary things such as, as you point out, tax exemptions and so forth. I moved up here a year ago and I see the increase in traffic and I feel as though S.B. has followed me right up here. I remember reading the crime blotter in the Valley News recently and out of 11 entries, 5 were Casino-related and out of those, 2 were meth-related. That is why people are angry. Also, I have a question that apparently no one has the guts to ask, and I ask this not in a rhetorical sense, but I really want to know this: Is it impossible for Indians to make a living in any way other than gambling establishments? If the answer is yes, than why must we suffer these Casinos, and if the answer is no, than why isn't this an epic civil rights issue? Is it true that the 60's civil rights movement didn't apply to Indians? And if this is about recompense, let me please share with you that I am half-Assyrian and the Assyrians have endured persecution and death (My great-grandparents were killed during Armenian Massacre and a great-aunt was abducted by the Turks when she was 15 and was never seen again) My mother, Marge Clausen, was born in the U.S. and endured terrible racism as a child and young adult per her brown skin but her parents instilled her with an attitude of not expecting reparations from Uncle Sam and told her to apply herself and do the best she can and she did a pretty good job of it if I do say so myself, despite not having the civil rights protections of today. (She was born in 1927)
I think a lot more straight talk is needed in the issue about which you write. I don't care about the $90,000 or other economic issues vis-a-vis the Casino one way or the other. I just want to live in a place where I don't have to be confronted with the crime and problems this casino is bringing and I think THAT is what is the issue but as I said earlier, many people today won't come right out and say what they feel...I do. Again, if the racism against the Chumash is so bad that they can't make a living otherwise, then you should make it front-page news, if this isn't the case, they should take advantage of the civil rights that are now available, rights won at a high price.
As I close this I'd like to bring up one more point. The Chumash Casino has a great buffet. The food is outstanding and the people that wait on the tables couldn't be nicer and I'll give Armenta his due by saying that the place is kept so clean it's like a 5-star hotel. He's a brilliant organizer. One thing I remember is when I was in their with my sister we noticed one of the waitresses was dead-tired and we said "Why don't you sit down and rest" (there was almost no activity at that time) and she told us that they are not allowed to sit down, period. So much for the people that run the Chumash being compassionate toward their employees, same old story, eh?
You can respond to this letter or not, but I just wanted you to hear another point of view. -Bill Clausen-
Bill Clausen
July 23, 2006 at 10:42 p.m.
I think Mesa Dog raises a really good question, and it's one that's occurred to everyone here at the Independent. He/She is right; I do wear enough hats to give anyone a bad case of multiple personality disorder. I write as The Poodle. I write as a news reporter. I edit as Executive Editor. When we run editorials, I usually write the first draft. Aren't there conflicts involved here, just as at the News-Press? I run into them all the time. The most common problem involves the people out there who won't talk to Nick Welsh the reporter because of something Nick Welsh the Poodle had written or might write.
So are we being hypocrites? I don't think so. If you've read my stuff, I don't think I've been a huge champion of The Wall. Frankly, I don't have a problem with a newspaper owner in general--or Wendy McCaw in particular--having some say over what appears in her paper. What would be the point of owning one if you couldn't use it to shed light and heat? If McCaw wanted to use her paper to crusade on behalf of animal rights, I have no beef with that. The problem isn't the wall so much as it is credibility. It's the hardest thing for a newspaper to achieve; it's the easiest thing for a newspaper to lose; but it's absolutely essential. Without it, you got squat.
At our paper, I think it's understood that we do not pretend in any fashion to produce "objective" news. I don';t even know what objective news is. I do pretend, however, to produce fair news. And I hope we do more than pretend where this is concerned. By fair I mean this: that when the subjects of the story read it, they don't feel sandbagged, they don't feel they were not allowed to respond to key questions or issues. And that they feel their arguments, however foreshortened, are presented.
In columns, by contrast, the gloves are off. Columns are to give vent and expression to bottled up personal whim, venom, insight, inspiration. There is no pretense at balance. Santa Barbara being a small town, columnists need to be able to back up what they say. But columns are columns, and the news is news.
On the whole issue of the so-called wall and rebuilding it at the News-Press I am of very mixed feelings. I think the real wall that exists there is one that needs to be torn down and not built back up, contrary to what many NP critics contend. That's the wall that separates McCaw from the community and the wall that separates her from her staff. I suspect her real problem lies in the fact that she's so immensely wealthy, and that like many people of vast fortunes, feels compelled to insulate herself from the rest of the world by making herself inaccessible and unapproachable. The paper's problem is not so much the rob lowe incident or the travis armstrong incident. Those are the fuse. The dynamite is the powerful sense, accumulated over the past five years, shared by many people of conflicting political ideologies, that they can't talk back to their paper, that their letters will get squelched, and that they can't get the time of day from their local community paper. This--coupled with the paper's gratuitously mean, angry, and belittling editorials--alienated the community from its paper a long time ago. The most recent transgressions, while serious on their face, were the pretext for the explosion.
Getting back to the point, the issue is credibility. There are lots of way to get it; there are even more to lose it. The NP has obviously lost it, and since it's hard to imagine that McCaw will emerge out of her cocoon, a wall that protects the news from her interference is probably a good thing. But the wall is hardly the end of the story. There are papers with functioning walls that lack credibility; there are papers with porous walls that have it. I like to think we have it here. People know who we are; they know what we do; they know that we have a point of view, though there are times I couldn't articulate what that point of view is; they know they can talk back to us and that we'll print their complaints; and they know that we'll try to get all sides. If any of that changes, and the community comes to have doubts on these points, our credibility is down the drain.
Sorry for being so windy
--Nick Welsh, News Editor, news writer, omniscient sage, and Exalted Poodle Dog
nick welsh
July 26, 2006 at 9:45 a.m.
Interesting comments on the "walls," Mr. Welsh. It's given me lots to think about.
Teresa
July 26, 2006 at 2:08 p.m.
To Nick Welsh: You have nothing for which to apologize. While admittedly my politics are in many ways different from yours, your paper has had the guts to publish my letters and letters of a similar nature which stimulates discussion AND you don't have a journalistic mercenary such as Travis who distorts facts. Also, while have never worked at your paper and don't have the birds-eye view that I had at the News-Press, I don't detect the fear and resentment which permeated the News-Press after Wendy took over.
To those of you who still work there and are putting up with the effects of Wendy's leadership, my thoughts and prayers are with you. -Bill-
Bill Clausen
July 26, 2006 at 9:56 p.m.
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