I checked the Rough & Tumble site first thing today for the latest in coverage of California politics and public policy, and I saw the Los Angeles Times item about the walkout at the Santa Barbara News-Press.
My first thought was: Wow. What would it take to get all those people to leave a newspaper? My next one was: Wow. How stupid is that newspaper's owner.
According to the Times, the six resigned in protest after being told to kill a short article about a drunk-driving sentence given to the then-editorial page editor (now publisher). Another dispute involved the owner's reprimand of a reporter and three editors for publishing the address where actor Rob Lowe planned to build his "dream home." The final straw was when the new publisher announced that he'd also directly oversee some news coverage.
Could that happen here?
No.
1. We've always said that we will print the names of all felony drunk-driving arrests in Tracy, which includes even our own children, who are now of legal age — and, I might add, have managed to stay out of trouble!
2. We'd print the address of anyone, even a friend who begged for privacy, who had convinced our planning commission to build a 10,000-plus-square-foot home despite a neighbor's protests. Hello. It's public record and probably pretty good copy.
3. Our publisher doesn't oversee news coverage. I do. I'm part of the family that owns this paper. But I'm the editor.
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