Anna Davison Let Loose

I'm not sure what angers me more, Anna's firing, or the fact that that third-rate hack Steepleton is still there, larding it over far better journalists and human beings.

Anna was nothing but a pro, that rare writer who could deliver with a light touch (read her stories on Sam the ugly dog) or be serious and thoughtful. She could do any story, really, and make it sing. And, truth be told, I suspect that most of the men in the newsroom are secretly in love with her. I hope she doesn't mind.

As for Scott, dim-witted lackey and jerkwad supreme, I take solace in one thing: his career is dead. Once Wendy is done wiping her butt with him, he's gone, and he'll never work in newspapers again. No self-respecting journalist would want that scumbag in his newsroom. Enjoy it now, Scottie.

As for you, Anna, you're our kind of woman. We're rooting for you.

Why was anna fired? Is it because wendy didn't like her zoo story yesterday?

You might want to double confirm that Todd and Davison are dating before you publish that. Those of us who know them would describe their relationship as a close friendship.

i'll just go ahead and take that out now. the multiple sources for that info seemed solid, but i wondered whether it was appropriate. in the end, i felt that any connection between todd and davison was noteworthy because it could possibly be a motivating factor. but people's personal lives should remain personal.

Uh... just a comment: leaving "journalism101's" comment up there makes it clear what you've taken out of the content of the story...

Anyway, the SBNP management are all scumbags, and I hope everyone screwed by them eventually gets the monetary rewards they deserve... as well as peace of mind.

That's a sweet picture of steepleton...but I thought he had dark hair? He'll never be out of the newspaper business completely...not as long as the industry still needs people to throw papers at 3 a.m.

Doesn't look like the union is offering any protection to the reporters.

Excuse me, the photo with the accompanying story, when did they hire Homer Simpson?
What are his duites?

Anna Davison once called me from the same phone that Todd uses. Therefore, they are something.
Cause and effect, thus conclusion. This is as good a news reporting and confirmation that readers should expect further with Steepleton in charge.

Short of filing a lawsuit in the appropriate venue and collecting back pay and punitive damages, what else would one expect the Teamsters Union do to?

Cybersabotatge and property destruction might be fun, but the union don't do that.

We all are doing quite well, though, at destroying the reputation and credentials of the asswipes who enforce the tantrums of The Wendy.

I stopped reading the News Press some time ago, but I've also recently convinced others to cancel their subscriptions after pointing them to other media sources for the stories the NP won't dare publish. The behavior of the NP management has been disgraceful and embarrassingly unprofessional. I do not understand how the management can be so out of touch with basic common sense and the community mindset they claim to serve.
Good luck to Ms. Davison and also Mr. Guiliano who was fired today.

Who's Mr. Guiliano?

Bob Guiliano, an assistant editor. Here's a blurb from Craig Smith's blog:

"Today, Friday, Bob Guiliano, the assistant city editor was also terminated. Guiliano, who was fired just shy of three months after he began working for the News-Press, was greeted at the door by associate editor Scott Steepleton as he arrived for work and told he was being let go. Steepleton would give no reason when Guiliano asked why, other than to say that it was "performance related," although by all accounts Guiliano had done exceptionally well at the job."

This is all getting to be blah blah blah blah

Actually, "Blah," if you read Craig Smith's latest update you'll see that what this is all getting to be is anything but "blah blah blah."

It's about as "blah, blah, blah" as Nixon's paranoia-driven enemies list, Bush-Cheney's nefarious hit jobs on Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, and Bill O'Reilly's routine muggings of progressive-minded thinkers. Thus it is not naive to believe that clarity and justice will eventually prevail in spite of the wanton disregard for both from McCaw and her cronies.

Steepleton is an inveterate liar and hatchet man. Every Wendy/Millstein combo needs at least one.

I wonder if the Wendy team will try to influence UCSB due to the hiring of Roberts. There are a lot of theoretical walls too at UCSB... between donors and the Nexus, KCSB, researchers, etc. But the place is not perfect, there is seepage through the walls. Roberts job at UCSB could be made a bit uncomfortable if Wendy dangles big gifts to UCSB, although the situation could never get as dire as the July News-Press massacre.

This just in...

It is being reported that the insulated mug Steepleton caries with him, as depicted in the above photo, is always filled with warm butter.

Also, insiders confirm Steepleton uses a straw to drink butter from a mug simply because he is a weird-o.

Finally, the photo in question was once thought to reveal Steepleton carrying a cell phone. Our investigation uncovered that the device was, in fact, Steepleton's television remote control, which he unwittingly brought to court.

Sadly, but predictably, Dawn Hobbs and Melissa Evans will be gone soon. It has come to my attention that both, along with Ana Davison, received poor performance reviews from Steepleton. Their dismissals will be justified on the these clearly retaliatory reviews.

What I find curious is that the stooges at the News-Press seem unable to understand the concept of "pattern." They could, conceivably, claim that the firing of union supporter Melinda Burns was based solely on her alleged bias and/or incompetence. Although her distinguised career and numerous awards would appear to belie this, it's possible an NLRB judge could accept the N-P's claims on their face.

But now the paper has fired Anna Davison, and appears ready to dismiss fellow union supporters Hobbs and Evans. It would be ludicrous, on its face, to suggest that these dismissals are anything but retaliatory and, thus, illegal. The N-P would have clearly shown a pattern of behaviour that supports the fired reporters' claims.

The inability of the N-P "leadership" and hired guns to understand (or at least anticipate) this is further evidence that Ms. McCaw is incapable of hiring competent help. Attorney Millstein ("a cease-and-desist order is a form of dialogue")and PR malpractioner Huff are laughably incompetent, fools of the first order.

Ms. McCaw may be obscenely wealthy and obsessively vindictive, but her inability to hire competent people and deal with the world as it is (rather than what she perceives) will be her undoing. It won't be tomorrow or even this year, but it is inevitable.

Ahem: I meant PRmalpractitioner.

If Mr. Moreno is correct, then Tom Schultz and Barney McManigal are likely to be given their walking papers soon thereafter, if not concurrently.

If and when that happens, there will no longer be any excuse for anyone to subscribe to the News-Press. Even when the it was at full strength, it could not compete with the L.A. Times in covering news of the state, nation and world (The LAT A section is often larger than the entire SBNP).

I ache for those who feel they have no choice but to stay on.

I concur with Mr. Moreno that Mrs. McCaw's downfall is inevitable. History will not treat her kindly and that thought eases my pain whenever I reflect on the changes of the past year.

Wanting to believe that there is such a thing as karma, I await the day when it is revealed that Ms. McCaw's lunacy was her subtle way of helping her former staffers beat the high cost of housing in the South Coast when they all win multi-million dollar legal settlements for being fired out of retaliatory, vengeful actions by the birdcage- liner's management. I also look forward to sending $5 tips on Christmas to Travisty and Scooter for their delivery services of the paper when it is under new management...

Someone in the community told me that Scott Steepleton's wife, Charlotte Bouechler (sp?) who also works in the newsroom, was just made an editor in the Lifestyle Department.

Is this true? And does it have any connection to Steepleton testifying for the company at the NLRB hearing?

Guess McCaw's pattern has become clear:

1 Pay people money -- von Weisenburger, Apadoca, Steepleton and Armstrong -- to testify to delay union certification for lots of nonsensical reasons;

2. Pick off the veteran reporters one by one in the meantime, with Davison being the most recent, but not the last.

Awful.

For what it's worth: My Mom would frequently write Anna Davison complimenting her on her columns, and Anna would always write my Mom back. This may not seem like a big deal but when you're a semi-invalid as my mother is, it's very nice to have someone take the time to acknowledge your humanity as Anna has.

-Bill Clausen- News-Press Alumni, class of 2004. (What's Mrs. McCaw going to do, sue me for signing my name?)