Media Madness

In an email to Mayor Marty Blum, former News-Press editor Bob
Giuliano said the real reason for his termination was that owner
Wendy McCaw was upset that Mayor Blum was quoted too many
times in an article Giuliano approved. Giuliano said he
was fired on 1/22, soon after he defended the article, written by
reporter Anna Davison, on the removal of street trees in the 400
and 500 blocks of State Street. Davison was also fired. Giuliano
included these allegations in a complaint filed with the state
labor board. McCaw’s spokesperson Agnes Huff declined to
comment.

Amid the ever-growing field of Peter Pan-related projects, the
one announced last week by the Santa Barbara
Theatre (SBT) for production in late December 2007 at the
Lobero has a unique claim to fame: truly important music. SBT
principals Albert Ihde and Ellen Pasternack have obtained the
rights to the first U.S. production of Leonard Bernstein’s Peter
Pan since its Broadway run in 1950, which featured Jean Arthur and
Boris Karloff. This neglected classic is now available in a 2005
recording, with music conducted by Alexander Frey, and Linda Eder
singing the part of Wendy.

A crowd of 100 filled Victoria Hall on 2/22 to hear
former Marine intelligence commissioner Scott
Ritter and media critic Jeff Cohen speak.
Ritter promised the hushed audience that American forces will
invade Iran, despite its relative harmlessness. Cohen excoriated
cable TV news for its inability to report controversial topics due
to its subjugation by its corporate owners.