KHTS & Signal reporting, ctd — The SCV Talk Archive

The comments keep coming in from our exclusive interview with Carol Rock. But some push-back and corrections from readers are important to note. First up, Gail Ortiz, who says the City did not use its advertising bucks as a weapon against KHTS in 2010 when the radio station endorsed David Gauny for City Council:

Both Carl Goldman and I have said many times to those who have said the city pulled its advertising from KHTS that this never happened. We have never pulled our advertising. I would appreciate you correcting this misinformation on your blog.

and Goldman says the same:

Jeff.. Gail is correct.. I have stated on numerous occasions the City never pulled it's advertising from KHTS ... (and Buck never threatened to pull his either, nor has Lee Rogers...)...

I apologize for perpetuating the misinformation through my reader on this point.

But on the larger point, you have to look at this situation from the news-reader's perspective. We, well some of us at least, like to get to know our news reporters. We trust their reporting. And KHTS, unlike the Signal, provided some real continuity by employing old hands like Carol Rock, people who really know this valley and have covered it for years.

And we liked Mark Archuleta who wrote fearlessly and without reservation. What a breath of fresh air compared to the usual fawning and shallow coverage!

Yet KHTS fired them both. Three weeks before the election.

Do I need to explain why this makes many in the SCV uncomfortable and skeptical? KHTS raised the bar on local reporting, and then they fired the people who raised it. They inflicted this wound on themselves.

Another reader defends KHTS:

I believe Carl Goldman that it was for financial reasons. They replaced two people with one person (Perry). I think that's proof enough.

Beside that, people are basing their argument and KHTS' reputation on this election cycle. What about when my kid was locked down at Sierra Vista a couple days ago? KHTS had it all over the place. The Signal? Another AP story to join the thousands of others that populate their website and paper. I'm beginning to think there are more international and national news stories than local ones. KHTS has the breaking news as it's happening and I think most can agree that in this day and age of on the fly reporting, waiting hours for local news to pop up on the Signal's website or waiting until the next day (sometimes 2 days) is archaic. The fact that I can go on their website AND tune in on the radio to know about all the happenings in our city is something that I'm sure most cities like ours would find enviable.

Besides, this will all be moot when everyone forgets election day even happened a couple months from now.

But reporting important information before an election is a news organization's job. If KHTS wants to be taken seriously as a news source in this valley, they need to not only provide up-to-the-minute coverage of breaking news, but in-depth reporting on issues valley residents care about. And here's the thing: they did. Until they fired Rock & Archuleta mysteriously three weeks before the election, that is.

Another reader, and former Signal journalist, says we're all misunderstanding Creekside:

Jeff, It's not Georgia that's the problem with The Signal, it's the city of Santa Clarita. The paper is in effect a City Hall newsletter and the management on the editorial side as well as the business side are too busy cozying up to the city. The Signal is woefully provincial as are too many people in Santa Clarita, so the bizarre behavior of the newspaper, doesn't look so bizarre to them because they don't know any different. But for real, the problem is not Georgia.

I disagree. I know some of the editors at the Signal and they care about news. They have inquisitive and sharp minds. They ask the questions the readers ask. They enjoy writing and they are real news professionals.

But year after year after year, they, and their staff of cub journalists are squelched and muzzled by their corporate overlords in Georgia. That's why we see the routine replacement of publishers, every 18 months or so. It's not because The Signal is an organ of the City, it's because the paper isn't making enough money for its master's in Georgia.

Another reader:

Glad you are following the KHTS situation.

Buck McKeon knows where the bodies are buried.

That is why he has stayed in office so long, as corrupt and ineffective as his tenure has been. He should have been voted out years ago.

But he pulls the right strings, and here he stays. Here's hoping the 25th district makes this time different and votes him out.

The Buck McKeon as Boss Hogg scenario is probably the most popular one in this valley. Let me just say this: his former deputies' attempt to control local Republican politics was abhorrent to me, and I'm glad Bob Haueter is gone. But he hasn't changed, even though his wife lost to Scott Wilk. And so this dynamic won't change until he is voted out of office or he retires. That's a job for local Republicans to do; liberals like me haven't supported McKeon for a long time.

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