I had a Daily Brief mostly written for today, but out of disgust with the Signal & KHTS in the last several weeks, I'm not going to post it. A silly little protest, sure, but how can I point my readers to those sites whose integrity has been so compromised this season?
I have always supported and praised the Signal against attacks from all corners of the SCV. For years, Dave Bossert has called the paper "Bird cage liner," and he's mocked not just the paper, but its hard-working writers and journalists. I always figured that it's all we got, so we should support the paper & its writers, calling balls and strikes when necessary and in a constructive way.
Now though, I just don't care. The management of the paper appears to lie to its columnists and, as today's emails prove, us. Its executive editor conveniently remembers an old policy just in time to spike Gary Horton's column endorsing Lee Rogers, but then, without pause, publishes two McKeon-endorsement pieces the Friday before election day, one from Buck McKeon himself.
I mean, look at Executive Editor Schaff's email from Tuesday, it's crystal clear:
I’d like to clarify a few things. It’s one week before the election and the last day (today’s paper Tues.) that we are publishing any political endorsement related columns related to the election either written by columnists or candidates in order to give opposing sides time to respond. We welcome discussion of non-endorsement election issues by columnists through our Sunday publication and then that’s it until the election.Emphasis mine. And then look at what's published in the Signal today, the Friday before the election! One column from a conservative columnist and one from the candidate himself:
It's like they think we're stupid rubes, unable to piece things together.
And that's not to mention Carl Goldman's editorial from last week on KHTS, when he was in full defense mode over his bungled firings of Carol Rock and Mark Archuleta. That's been posted on every SCV media site imaginable, yet there's been practically zero reporting on what happened that precipitated the editorial, to the point where even Signal commenters are confused about what's going on.
Speaking of KHTS, I'm glad Carol Rock spoke out to Roll Call this week about the real substance of the Oct. 5 meeting KHTS held with Buck McKeon's office. Even if you don't like/trust Mark Archuleta, Rock's character, motives and integrity are unimpeachable; she's been a journalist for decades.
And it's worth quoting her here at length just so you can see the supplicating attitude the people running our media have toward Buck McKeon:
“Carl’s opening statement was an apology. We were blindsided by that,” she said of the jarring exchange.
According to Rock, Thomas and McCurley took turns lobbing insults at them both, charging the duo of being in the tank for Rogers and blindly publishing opposition research as credible news.
“There were a lot of accusations made of us by McKeon’s staff,” she said of the contentious sit-down — a situation made all the more uncomfortable by what they saw as Goldman’s willingness to sacrifice his employees to stay on McKeon’s good side.
“I have integrity. And that was just thrown under the bus in that meeting by Mr. Goldman,” Rock said of the vote of no confidence her ex-boss handed down in full view of the Congressional aides.It literally makes me feel ill to read this stuff. It makes me not want to blog on the SCV any more, but that would just amount to letting them win.
They, the Signal, KHTS, McKeon's office, and others, are happy with us being ignorant or not sophisticated about local news. Publishing verbatim press releases, softball interviews, and light coverage of controversies is what they've always done, and it's all they're comfortable doing. We all recognize that. Muting voices that are critical, however, is something new and substantially different.
I'm not quite sure what to do about all this; something needs to be done, but what? I approached another local blogger about organizing a real and sustained boycott of KHTS & Signal advertisers, but he thought that would just result in a "buycott." I doubt NFN's readers alone would have much of an impact but maybe it's worth a shot.
I'm reaching out to some contacts at the LA Times about this, but they spare precious little space for SCV news these days. There is some hope in the Ventura County Star, a real newspaper, because they will now be watching McKeon too as CA-25 now includes the Simi Valley. Let's hope Timm Herdt, an excellent reporter, is taking notes.
I suppose we'll just continue doing what we've been doing: agitating, looking for sources elsewhere, writing our own thoughts down and interviewing our own sources. It's all we can do, and it's worth it because we have a stake in this valley too, and this wonderful, free tool of the Internet that can reach way beyond the Signal or KHTS's footprint.
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