Former News-Press Reporter Responds to Accusations

I've never had the pleasure of meeting Camilla, but she sounds like another one of the good guys - hard-working journalists all - who found themselves in the middle of a really bad situation. And rather than compromise her integrity or try to produce quality, even-handed work in a very grim work environment where doing so had led to the firings of so many people she knew and cared about, Camilla bailed when she felt she could no longer tolerate the toxic atmosphere cultivated by Wendy and propagated by her evil flying monkeys. Sounds reasonable to me.

Best of luck with your marriage to Brian and your new life, Camilla. But you should consider going back to work at the News-Press, once it's no longer the News-Mess, because it seems like they could use a good person like you.

Cami you were prettier, smarter and had a better looking beau than McFlaw--so, of course, the aging alpha female was going to gun for you. It was just a matter of time!

Your newspaper skills sharp, your reporting instincts on target and your professionalism ABOVE reproach.

I am sorry, just when your life seems so much better, that you have been sucked back into a witch's cauldron. Fight On!

The NewsPress ran a John Zant column on yesterday, Feb. 24 - at least online. (I wouldn't touch the print edition with a stick).

How nice for McCaw! She's figured out a way to fire people AND have them still work for her. Per usual, it's her right to do what she wants with her property. Fine. But, like everything McCaw does, the move completely lacks class. This woman has no class. Zero. Nada.

I no longer have a problem sending personal attacks to this woman and her scum bag boy friend, Arthur von Weaselsandwich, because by continuing to illegally fire good people in this smallish town, she is insulting us in the most disgusting way. She is pulling up people's lives as if they are weeds in her garden.

Frankly, I would love to bump into any of these NP management people in public so I could personally deliver a heartfelt "Fuck You Too".

My sense is this disgusting woman has reached a tipping point where she's unlikely to be welcome in many public places in Santa Barbara - especially after firing two pressmen. May her and von Cocainemeister feel uncomfortable everywhere but the Calixe.

I finished the L.A. Times this morning and turned to my hometown paper to get my local fix.

It took me about five minutes to read. Nothing seems to be happening anymore. I didn’t used to live in a town that was so antiseptic.

In the first section, there were only two local stories. One about the bike race (enough, already) and the other about bus biodiesel. I'm sure what's her name wanted that one. Both written by the editor. Aren’t there any reporters? There were a couple of “staff reports” that looked like press releases. That was basically it for local news. For 18 pages. There was a huge page about it was all the Teamster's fault.

I took a quick flip through the rest of the paper and other than the social page didn’t really see any columns about local stuff from anyone at the paper. I don’t read sports and didn’t really see anything else on a quick scan that I hadn’t already seen in the Times, but done better.

It’s been like this for a couple of weeks now. I’ll give it one more week.

Just read the full page “Facts” the paper wrote about itself. Other than the Lowe thing and the drunk editor has McCaw ever given examples of “the bias”? Maybe I missed them. She seems to have plenty of space. What caught my eye was at the end, “The News-Press will meet the future with innovation and improvements. We hope you’ll agree in the months ahead as these improvements take place.” Hasn’t McCaw been promising improvements for six months? Sounds like George Bush's State of the Union about Iraq. I keep seeing people getting whacked and the paper getting thinner. The website is still ugly and the radio station has the same news over and over and over and over and over and over.

Editor-In-Charge Steepleton wrote ALL the big news in the first section of today's Sunday paper? No way! Someone told me he doesn’t even live here. How does he know what’s really going on? Maybe The Nipper, with his stunning high school editing experience, could pitch in. Couldn’t hurt.

For those of us who are implementing the Cold Shoulder and do not touch the Newspress anymore, is that full-page "facts" ad the same one that first appeared last Wednesday, which was the same internal staff memo that the Independent had published as a leak a week earlier?

The bike tour was legitimate to cover as news, but not the only news for a Sunday edition. The biodiesel story (the only other original article today) appeared in both the Daily Sound and the Independent three days ago, for an action that MTD approved 12 days earlier.

They are filling space with their own internal ads instead of original local news articles.

For those of us needing help translating the NewsPress management's 10 point FACT sheet, this may help:

Translating Management Speak....

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: I'm glad you asked me that.
TRANSLATION: Public relations has written a carefully phrased answer.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: We have an opportunity.
TRANSLATION: You have a problem.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: We have to put on our marketing hats.
TRANSLATION: We have to put ethics aside.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: All of our customers are satisfied.
TRANSLATION: Everyone else has taken their business elsewhere.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK:That's a good question.
TRANSLATION: I don't have a good answer.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: You have to show some flexibility.
TRANSLATION: You have to do it whether you want to or not.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: You just don't understand our business.
TRANSLATION: We don't understand our business.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: My mind is made up. I am adamant on the subject. There is no room for discussion. But if you do want to discuss it further, my door is always open.
TRANSLATION: F%^K you.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: I don't totally disagree with you.
TRANSLATION: You may be right, but I don't care.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: We're going to follow a strict methodology here.
TRANSLATION: We're going to do it my way.

MANAGEMENT SPEAK: Human Resources.
TRANSLATION: A bulk commodity, like lentils or cinder blocks.

Nice job, "Sam," on the translations.

Perhaps next time you should link to the original,from Bob Lewis.

--virtual sincerest flattery

In response to a comment above, Scott Steepleton does NOT live in Santa Barbara County, but instead commutes from Ventura, the same city where he worked for the Ventura bureau of the L.A. Times before being fired for "dishonesty" as Teamsters lawyer Ira Gottlieb brought to light during the NLRB hearing six weeks ago.

So, his character meshes perfectly with that of mean-spirited Travis Armstrong, boy-toy Arthur von Wiesenberger and dumbstruck Yolanda Apodaca, Wendy McCaw's "new management" team.

Still wondering why no professional journalist respects Steepleton or wants to work for him or this pathetic "management team?" The leftover newsroom reporters are just empty shells of true journalists. They remain hired merely because they are not fighting for ethics and allow to have their reporting influenced by McCaw's opinions. They are spineless jellyfish, which is exactly the type of journalists McCaw wants to work for her.

Their competence is unimportant. Only loyalty to McCaw is what matters, the same way a dog is loyal to its master even when the master treats it miserably. That's why the paper's news coverage is so poor and has not qualified to be the paper of record for Santa Barbara County for as long as McCaw's management team has been in charge.

The Santa Barbara News-Press's "new management" team's Mission Statement:

Part 1 -- "How to write non-biased stories at the News-Press."
(A survival guide for remaining reporters who do not want to get fired).

First, read Travis Armstrong's editorials and opinion pieces so you know exactly what Wendy thinks. The editorial pages are your Bible.

Second, make sure any "news" article that you write on a subject for which the newspaper has taken a stance does not "go against" the editorials or opinion pieces. Find sources that will comment in agreement with the paper's opinions, the same way Travis prints only letters to the editor that agree with the paper's opinions.

Third, hoard your paycheck and put as much into your savings as possible, because even if you live by the News-Press guidelines, you can be on double-secret probation and not know it. On a moment's notice, you can wind up living off those savings.

Part II -- How to survive double-secret probation at the News-Press.

First, don't speak to anybody in disfavor with Wendy, either by telephone, via e-mail or in person. This includes all former co-workers with whom you were once friends. Shun them in public, turn away from them if they approach. Don't take their phone calls or return e-mails.

Second, compile a list of people in disfavor with Wendy, update it daily and memorize it. These include religious, community, business and political leaders, outspoken citizens, the homeless and especially the Teamsters Union.

Third, read up on wildlife, including whales, turkeys, feral pigs, and learn to love them and trees. Be prepared to live among the animals and frolic through the forests. This will be the only safe place where you will not be tracked by Wendy's security forces or pursued by the Angel of Death, gown fluttering in the wind, termination letter tightly grasped in her hand.

And enjoy your experience reporting "News-Press style" under the the "new management," because you'll be banned from reporting for any newspaper that values integrity, which is just about everywhere else on the planet. Except maybe for government-owned newspapers of dictators, who only demand your absolute loyalty, and make up journalism rules as they go along.

Part III -- Desperation tactics to try to cling to some semblance of ethics to retain advertisers

As a last resort to gain credibility as a News-Press reporter, just hope that McCaw & Co. take out a full-page ad claiming "The Teamsters did it!" and that everything everybody else says is false and biased, but that the News-Press cannot reveal how they are false and biased because it doesn't want to mudsling.

Don't try to figure out why the News-Press has no forum to communicate its side with the public. Or why a newspaper cannot voice what it claims to be the real truth. Or why the News-Press has to present its side via full-page ads that make outlandish claims and fail to provide any facts to back them up.

Remaining reporters: Keep doing exactly what you're told to, so you'll have at least one experience to remember for the rest of your life: that you were almost a journalist once.

I hadn't read this blog for a few days... I am out of things to say (and not provoked by allegro805) to try to neutralize the Ex's and the possible point of view and The Red Queen. I am truly troubled by the rational writers of the pain. The rational writers (not the obvious hot headed rabble rousers who are all yakety yak) who describe the human (not emotionally heated) feelings. They / you can't help but have some level of frustrationabout this whole toppling.

I have to ask (because it is my thread theme) what will happen? I mean the SBNP will go on with all of the changes good & bad. There are still sales people and other non involved people who have lives and lifestyles to earn and enjoy. If they were having it so bad wouldn't they leave too? There has to be some viability in the castle....

This is a strange situation on all fronts...how does this story end?

A.M.

I hadn't read thei blog over the weekend. There are some very deep feelings involved in the sides of this. What will happen? How will the story end?
I don't mean in the hot-headed, rabble-rouser activist opinion. What about the people who still work there and like it?
The sales people and the graphic designers etc...?

Should they vacate or be afraid? I don't think so. Most of the writings here group everyone in the castle as prisoners of The Red Queen...

What will become of the content "Inmates"???

Sorry for the double post...my computer didn't refresh as fast as the post...I am trying to understand where they are going...?

What about the radio station? Anyone from there been damaged?

To A.M.- Maybe there are some, other than management, who like what is happening at the NP. I haven't heard of any so couldn't tell you. I have said this many times. Leaving is an intensely personal decision. Many who stay do so because they have families and mortgages and would lose too much if they left. Doesn't mean they are happy or like what is happening. They just try to fly below the radar and do their job until something changes. Many have resumes out or are close to retirement so are looking forward to leaving in the near future. I can tell you though that for the most part, the NP used to be a great place to work. We worked hard but had a lot of pride and looked forward to coming in each day. Thanks to Wendy, Travis, Scott and others, those days are gone. That is sad for the paper, employees and community. Everyone loses in the long run.

It's a brutal situation for the people inside. I can think of 10 people, off the top of my head, in non-newsroom departments who have been there 10, 20 years and know nothing else but the N-P. Many have no real skills other than what they've learned there and would be screwed if they left. They're people without college degrees who would end up in retail, making half their current wages, if they left. Those are the people I feel for, because they're the collateral damage in Wendy's war on the newsroom. A damn shame.

Bronstein of 'SF Chron' Comes to Aid of Former Rival Roberts

By Joe Strupp

Published: February 26, 2007 3:25 PM ET
NEW YORK When Jerry Roberts left the San Francisco Chronicle five years ago after it was bought by Hearst Newspapers and effectively merged with the staff of Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, it was no secret that disagreements with new editor Phil Bronstein had led, at least in part, to Roberts' departure.

Roberts had been Chronicle managing editor when the paper was sold, with likely aspirations for editor, but had to give up such hopes after Hearst installed Bronstein, then the Examiner editor, in the top Chronicle post. "It was never anything personal," Roberts said Monday about his dealings with Bronstein prior to his leaving in February 2002. "It was two cultures of two competing papers coming together. I don't think there was ever anything personal."

Bronstein agrees, noting "it wasn't personal, you are going to have different approaches, different directions." He said teaming with a former competitor is always difficult. "Jerry and I are ferocious competitors and take our competition seriously," he said. "There were two newspapers that had competed ferociously for years."

Fast forward five years and either time, distance, or journalistic ethics have brought the two former competitors together for a unified cause. Bronstein plans to be one of several speakers at a fundraising roast for Roberts, who is raising money to fight an arbitration case filed against him by owners of the Santa Barbara News-Press, his former employer.

"To have Phil stand up there and make fun of me to help raise money shows that we are on the same side," Roberts said. "No matter what professional differences may have existed, we share the same set of fundamental standards and values on this."

Etc. etc.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/...

Sarah Sinclair has landed on her feet and Wendy McCaw has picked up a tough new competitor.

http://www.santamariatimes.com/articles/...

To Pale Writer and other like minded:

Please lay off on making derogatory comments about the writers who are still working at the News-Press. Those who have been employed in the newsroom prior to the July meltdown (with the exception of slimy Steepleton) are blameless in this mess.

Remember that the eight writers who have been fired are all fighting to get their jobs back -- regardless of the fact the MaCaCa still owns the paper.

The pre-meltdown newsroom staff are dedicated journalists who have many years vested in serving this community.

The ones who should be ashamed of working at the News-Press are those people who took jobs AFTER the meltdown. Especially those claiming to be honorable journalists. These are the people who must be truly desperate -- I hear many of them moved to SB from far away places to take these jobs. How pathetic!

To Pale and Flush,

It's not as black and white as either of you make it out to be.

There are good people in there who arrived BEFORE AND AFTER the meltdown.

Let's not forget that the newsroom vote for the union nearly three months after the meltdown, in September, was 33-6. A bunch of new people had arrived by then and supported the union.

I agree with hold on. It's like the war in Iraq, you may not support the war, but you support the troops (no matter when they enlisted, before or after the war started).