Personal File: Law Suits instead of a Gold Watch

and another thing ...

If Melinda was so biased, why did they run her stuff for five years?

They ran her stories for five years, and she was biased?

She was biased, and yet they ran her stories for five years?

Biased stories.

Run for five years.

Edited by editors, Steepleton included.

And run for five years.

Why?

Why not fire the gatekeepers too?

Very few people left to fire or quit, remember?

Initial size of newsroom:

~50.

To date people who quit/fired:
~31.

Toadies who will never leave, until the Right Rev. Ms. McCaw so ordains:

Armstrong, Steepleton.

--virtual Most Wanted List

Check Wendy out tonight, Melinda, as her bodyguard drives her past you at the Biltmore's entrance. When Wendy sees you, Melinda, catch that sick kind of grin you get with kids who get off pulling wings off of flies. She’ll glow. It’s why she did the press release. No other reason. Do us a favor, Melinda, don’t settle. Force Wendy on the stand under cross examination by a shrink to show the world what makes her tick psychologically.

If the writing by Melinda Burns was so biased, why did the editors keep reviewing it and publishing her writing??

The vigil-demonstration tonight in front of Biltmore Hotel featured 55 people present. The hotel complained about people standing on the public sidewalk with raised voices at 6 pm. Then the Sheriff Deputy cruised by 5 times shining a light on the crowd. Ira Gottleib, attorney for the Teamsters in a tuxedo, paid for admission to the event more than a week ago, but he was denied entrance and the bouncer (yes, a bouncer) announced that they could exclude anyone after Gottleib indicated he already paid.

I admire Melinda's strength and determination. But why would she want to write for such a crappy paper as the News-Press?

The normal route for journalists is to keep moving from paper to paper, getting experience, and then settling at the highest-level publicaiton they can, and in Melinda's case it would be a world-class publication like the Wall Street Journal (editorial pages excepted), or the New York Times.

But what sometimes happens is that journalists fall in love with Santa Barbara so much that they stop their assent and settle in.

But this is a tragedy for Melinda to stay stuck at this loser publication. And you have to admit, it's never been a super duper world-class newspaper, not worthy of her, and now it's pure puke.

So, the disintegration of the NP might be divine providence at work to get Melinda to move onto a newspaper or radio network (NPR comes to mind) that is worthy of her stature as a journalist and a stellar person.

does anyone know what went on INSIDE the Biltmore? Did McCune "graciously accept" and "graciously" defend the journalists? or stay silent?

What Sara McCune did!

See CraigSmithsBlog today, Sunday special edition. This will get more elaboration for a room with that many people there.

http://www.west.net/~smith/blog/index.sh...

Anyone attend the candlelight vigil?

Thank you Craig Smith!

If Melinda Burns was whacked because her work was so biased, then why wasn't Scott Steepleton whacked as well?
As anyone who knows anything about a newsroom can tell you (which leaves out the folks running the NP), it's the editors who control what gets published, not the reporters.
If Burns' work was substandard, he should have fixed her stories or killed them.
It's patently obvious that Steepleton survives not because he has talent or is a leader, but because the Divorcee et al need a stooge who will do their venal bidding.
My guess is that one day in the not too distant future, the associate editor's neck will be in the guillotine. After the blade falls, he will find himself on the outside without a friend in the world -- the exact opposite of the welcome and support nearly all of us refugees have found.
And he will have no one to blame but himself.

How does this work?

from the press release:

"Based on the union’s concerted and public campaign urging subscribers to cancel the paper, the News-Press believes that this theft and vandalism, which hurt its distributors, are attributable to the union."

How does this alleged theft and vandalism hurt the distributors, whom I assume deliver the papers to the news boxes?

Are they somehow personally liable for stolen papers or damaged newsracks?

And if so, which I doubt, couldn't the News-Press show them a little charity by eating these losses over at DLG, because, after all, the union used "threatening and coercive secondary activities directed at its distributors in violation of the National Labor Relations Act?"

Can anybody explain the dynamic here? How are the distributors harmed by stolen papers and graffiti?

If I'm a distributor, am I supposed to sit next to a newsrack all day long to make sure each customer takes only one copy and nobody breaks out with a Sharpie or a sticker?

Vandalism of newsracks has been going on forever. The union's approach has been taking the high road in this. Why would they screw it up by vandalizing some newsracks? What purpose would it serve to give Wendy ammunition? If not the union, then who? Hmmmmm

Hey, we know what the News-Press does... we saw it with Roberts' case. They leaked the documents and then accused Roberts of doing it.

So the News-Press is vandalizing their own equipment so as to have a case with the NLRB and courts against the Union.

The vindictive scorched earth approach at the NP continues. It is patently absurd -- and exposes the true, anti-union reason -- to assert that Burns was fired because Measure D proponents "cut and pasted" her story for their mailer. The hostility is made even more plain by naming Burns in their meritless charge against the union, and attaching her termination letter to its charge, which opens up the NP not only to libel charges, but to abuse of process as well. As others have noted, people have always stolen, and will continue to steal, from newspaper vending machines, and it didn't all of a sudden become a Teamsters issue in July. And yes, Steepleton clearly had responsibility for the Measure D/transportation story, and no one else but Burns got in a jam because of that story, and of course no one got in a jam at all until the NP decided it was time to take out another union rabblerouser.

The "secondary activity" charge is totally off the wall. A union has a constitutional right to ask people not to buy the newspaper, or advertise in it. The NP used to think every malady visited upon it (including the Teamsters) was the fault of Jerry Roberts. Now, apparently, everything that goes wrong is the union's fault, even though the union 1) hasn't really begun to fight, and 2) doesn't officially have the right to bargain, thanks to the cynical stalling tactics that the NP has deployed, with the NLRB's complicity.

The people who distribute the papers to racks are independent contractors who have to buy the papers, then hope they'll sell them all to get their money back. so stealing from a rack really does hurt them, not wendy. these are people who are often working 2 or 3 jobs and delvier the papers because they can get that done before they have to show up at their other job.

The NP has made itself a lot of enemies, so there are a lot of people who might think they are "making a statement" by helping themselves to a newspaper. That's a shame, and should be condemned. Wendy is the Paranoid from Hope, and she blames her (business) troubles on the union, and even if she and the NP are not directly harmed, she gets her jollies sending her lawyers into battle against those she thinks might not be able to defend themselves. Then when they do put up a battle and compel her to answer for her indefensible accusations and inability to credibly link cause and effect, she shrinks in horror and descends into a fresh fit of finger-pointing.

anonymous 10:51,

Thanks for that. I was the one who asked originally.

Whoever steels newspapers owes some independent contractors (that term should have been in the press release) some money.

So the paper is guaranteed payment on every copy it sends to the racks. Are these contractors coordinated through a particular agency, or does the paper hire and then classify them as independent contractors?

You know, if Wendy's gonna cite their hardship, which she attributes to fallout from her fight with the union, and if Wendy will attempt tp benefit from their hardship through her allegations, the least she could do is take the financial blow for these distributors.

Newspaper racks are located in public places so they are easily accessible for obvious reasons. There is no way to prove who is stealing them unless you put up surveillance cameras or have someone watching them. Whether it is kids having kicks, people needing packing material, someone holding the lid open so another person can grab one, or someone involved with the NP situation, it really doesn't matter. I doubt if her accusations would hold up in court anyway unless she has been spying on the racks and can show documentary evidence.

When are we going to hear ads on the radio about the Union boycott of the Newspress?
When are we going to hear that the boycott is having an effect?
I miss not getting the local news and o-bits.
I feel out of touch in my own town . . .

Is BLOGABARBARA the latest Queen McCaw victim? Or perhaps this is just a "temporary" respite......