Editor's Notes

We got the grant!

2008-09-02T14:25:00.000-07:00

The American Society of Newspaper Editors has selected the Tracy Press and Millennium High School for an ASNE Partnership grant. The money — $2,500 — will be used for video equipment and software.

The grant is part of an ASNE initiative to promote the next generation of digital journalists and news consumers, funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The Millennium class, meanwhile, will create an online newspaper, a key component of which will be video journalism. And the Tracy Press also will add video to its site, thanks to this grant.

All suggestions for software and equipment accepted here!

Week 4: A copy editor

2008-08-30T10:09:00.002-07:00

For the scoop on Jon Mendelson's take on this day's class, go to his blog, Second Thoughts.

2008-08-30T10:09:00.001-07:00

Week 3: A photographer

2008-08-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Glenn Moore is scheduled to talk about newspaper photography — and also take a look at the class cameras. And we'll have a surprise for Mr. Eddy!
- Cheri

Week 2: A reporter

2008-08-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

Aaron Rognstad, our newest reporter, shared his experiences as a reporter, both for newspapers and the military.

Here's his notes on today's class:

Jack asked me what the most important things about being a journalist were, and I told him to make sure the information you write is accurate and free of factual errors. I told the students to always double-check spellings of names (something I should do more of!) and to make sure they get the technical details correct. Most importantly though, I stressed integrity and honesty in your writing, because without that, a journalist isn’t worth his word, and that’s everything in journalism.

I also went a little into my background and how I came to be a journalist. I told the class it was the military that got me into reporting, and I expressed a desire to be a war correspondent at some point down the road. I told the students if they want to a future in the journalism biz, they should immediately try to write for their student newspaper and get published as soon as possible to begin to get experience and some clips under their belts. I also told them to get on with their college newspaper when they go off to university, and then after that to get an internship. I stressed these stepping stones as crucial to landing a job as a reporter some day.

Any questions comments about the class today? Feel free to leave some!

Millennium's journalists

2008-08-07T16:44:00.000-07:00

Mr. Eddy asked me to talk today about newspapers in the 21st century, but I started by talking about Gutenberg, who invented the printing press in 1447, and I described the growth of the newspaper industry through the Industrial Revolution, the emergence of radio and TV, and the technological revolution.

Finally, when I got to modern times, we talked about what's changed for newspapers in just the last 10 years, besides technology — demographics, reading habits and revenues.

I tried to convince everybody that newspapers aren't toast. While we haven't been quick to respond to change, we're now seeing the hybridization of print and digital media, and we're still cheap (for readers), convenient and easy to read, arguably trustworthy in our newsgathering and open to community journalism. And we're the best watchdog of government and freedom of information there is.

The five, bright students in this class want to start an electronic newspaper and a blog. They want to ask questions, write stories, take photos, take video and more. I think it's going to be fun!

Andrew Sanabra (left), Jorden Holden, Danielle Lamb, Dane Tran and Matt West.
(Photos by Anthony Brenes)

Feel free to post comments or questions here!

Hello, Millennium students

2008-08-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

I want to revive this blog. Thursday will be my first meeting with Jack Eddy's Millennium High School journalism class. The class topic is "The Newspaper in the 21st Century."

More info, coming soon!

Sunshine experiment in Palo Alto

2008-03-16T15:39:00.000-07:00

San Francisco Bay Guardian

he Palo Alto City Council is conducting a unique experiment in its efforts to comply with the Ralph M. Brown Act, which requires government bodies to conduct business in a public way.

Palo Alto now posts e-mails from council members on the city's Web site (www.cityofpaloalto.org/council), providing easy access to all with Internet capabilities. The e-mails were first posted online following a 2003 settlement of a Brown Act lawsuit against the city of Palo Alto by two local newspapers — Palo Alto Weekly and The San Jose Mercury News.

Eight private e-mails were in question, disclosing the votes of a closed city council session, and while the city never admitted guilt in violating the Brown Act, language in the settlement established the practice of posting council e-mails on the Web site and making them available in council agenda packets prior to meetings.

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, questions the merits of the system.

"Some people would look at this and think it is a giant and serial violation of the Brown Act — but I wouldn't necessarily say that," Scheer told the Guardian, noting that the prohibition on serial meetings bans such an approach. But he said that this is an interesting experiment, as long as council members don't deliberate by e-mail. But assistant city manager Emily Harrison told us the messages avoid Brown Act violations by sticking to basic questions about agenda items, which the public can scrutinize.

The city of San Francisco has no such system in place, and e-mails to and from the Board of Supervisors is available only through direct request. Frank Darby, the city's Sunshine Ordinance Task Force administrator, said that the city had never looked into putting one in place.

"We are not required to post e-mails [under the Sunshine Ordinance]," Darby said. However, he added, the city "constantly monitors" itself to ensure that it is in accordance with the Sunshine law. "There may be some people who disagree and feel that maybe we should put every e-mail online — but currently the Sunshine Ordinance does not require that e-mails be made available online."

Main Street America

2008-02-13T14:32:00.001-08:00

You've heard all about the demise of newspapers. But what about community newspapers, those weeklies, twice-weeklies and three-times-a-week papers that report on local news?

This just in from the National Newspaper Association: Readership of community newspapers has increased slightly — from 81 percent in 2005 to 83 percent in 2007.

"We know community newspapers have a different story to tell than some of the big dailies," says Steve Haynes, president of NNA and of Haynes Publishing Co. in Kansas.

Read more here.
(Photo of Tracy Press intern Evan Gong)

Similar public records cases

2008-01-28T14:24:00.000-08:00

These two cases, which are similar to the Tracy Press' pending suit over a councilwoman's e-mails, recently crossed my desk. One is settled, and the other is before a state supreme court.

• A state district judge in Texas has ruled that the city of Dallas must release e-mails requested nearly two years before by The Dallas Morning News, including messages from a city official's BlackBerry and personal e-mail account.

"This is a really important decision," said Charles Davis, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. "One of the arguments we're seeing emerge among public officials is that certain delivery platforms or technological devices should be, by their very nature, private, because they own them, or they keep them in their pocket. The delivery platform doesn't make any difference. It's what the content of the message is. If the content of the message is about governing, then it should be public."

• The Ohio Supreme Court has taken a case in which a retired prosecutor has sued a state representative for e-mail and text messages from private accounts that pertain to state business. Attorney General Marc Dann has said that both are public documents if they deal with government business, even if they come from private accounts

Congress passes Open Government Act

2007-12-27T12:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a reason to cheer!

Congress has passed the Open Government Act, the first significant reform of the Freedom of Information Act in more a decade. President Bush is expected to sign S. 2488, which would create a tracking system and hotline for requesters, waive fees if federal agencies miss deadlines, create a FOIA ombudsman and make it easier for the public to recover legal fees when litigation helps the release of records.

Press Club takes notice

2007-12-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

The San Francisco Peninsula Press Club weighs in on our appeal for a councilwoman's e-mail, with links to our opening brief to the appeals court and friend-of-the-court brief.
HERE'S THE LINK.

CNPA, CFAC join Tracy Press in challenge

2007-12-07T23:29:00.000-08:00

This is the first year I've broken away from the newsroom to attend the annual meeting of the California Press Association, a 130-year-old newspaper association. I was determined to go to San Francisco today, to thank those in attendance who have supported us in our lawsuit against the city of Tracy.

If you've followed our stories, you know that the city recently hired a Sacramento attorney to fight the Tracy Press’ lawsuit that seeks e-mails sent in 2006 by Tracy City Councilwoman Suzanne Tucker to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The California Newspaper Publishers Association, California First Amendment Coalition and Associated Press have filed briefs in support of the Tracy Press, as have a dozen newspapers and newspaper companies: San Francisco Bay Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Copley Press, McClatchy Company, Bakersfield Californian, Herburger Publications, Bay Area News Group-East Bay, Sierra Nevada Media Group, The Record, Metro Publishing Inc. and the Riverside Pres-Enterprise.

In their amicus briefs, they state that the lower court’s ruling creates a loophole through which government and elected officials can exchange information outside of the public view.

Last August, the Tracy Press challenged a San Joaquin Superior Court ruling, when the court backed the city’s contention that Tucker could withhold from the public her e-mail exchanges with the lab. On Oct. 18, the Sacramento appeals court ordered the city to explain why the Tracy Press has no right to the e-mails.

Last week, the attorneys for the Tracy Press filed their response with the appeals court. If you'd like a copy of the opening briefs, e-mail me at cherim@tracypress.com. For my blogs on this case, see those labeled Public Access.

Crimes of Grammar

2007-11-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

Those of us who work with words for a living — and maybe others? — noticed this misplaced modifier in the program for Monday's Veterans Day program in Tracy. (It was in all-caps, but I'll spare you that.)

"Sergant First Class Valentino Vaughn, U.S. Army unveiling of the name of SFC Tung M. Nguyen, U.S. Army, killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom by the members of the Tracy City Council."

Sergeant is misspelled, but the real crime here is that the members of the Tracy City Council appear to have killed someone during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

But no. The City Council members merely unveiled the name on the Tracy War Memorial.

Spelling champs!

2007-11-11T20:47:00.001-08:00

Friday's Tracy Unified School District's spelling bee for seventh- through ninth-graders ended p with these four winners, who will go on to the San Joaquin Spelling Bee: Caitlin Dong (left), Hector Sanchez, Upinderpreet Gill and Arashpreet Gill. Photo by Diane Dong

To read my Editor's Notes column about being a judge, go here.

Visitors to newspaper Web sites on increase

2007-10-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

I haven't written in my blog but once this month. I've been busy, but maybe I can make it up in November.

Here's a start: Reuters just reported that the number of people visiting U.S. newspaper Web sites rose 3.7 percent during the third quarter, according to an industry group, even as their print editions reported lower advertising sales.

I know that the number of visitors to the Tracy Press site grows every time I check Google Analytics. I just looked at the number of pageviews for the last 30 days, it's up to 402,761.

Something's happening out there!

Journalists on stamps

2007-10-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

Postmaster General John E. Potter today previewed images of the stamps that will immortalize five journalists who risked their lives reporting some of the most important events of the 20th Century.

The five "American Journalists" stamps honor Martha Gellhorn, John Hersey, George Polk, Ruben Salazar and Eric Sevareid.

"These distinguished journalists risked their lives to record the events that shaped the modern world," Potter said during his presentation at the 2007 Associated Press Managing Editors meeting in Washington, D.C. "Their body of work stands as a towering monument to the importance of a free press. It is our hope that Americans will use these stamps to honor these outstanding individuals who have served the cause of journalism so well."

Other journalists who have been commemorated on stamps include Edward R. Murrow, Ernie Pyle, Walter Lippman, Henry Luce, Nellie Bly, Ida M. Tarbell, Ethel L. Payne, Margueritte Higgins and publisher Adolph S. Ochs.

Is that the Tracy Press?

2007-09-19T15:22:00.001-07:00

Wayne Thallendar, newspaper adviser at Tracy High, took this photo at the season's first football game, with coaches from both Tracy and West high schools.

Update from CNPA

2007-09-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

September 14, 2007

Industry supports Tracy Press’ records fight

The Tracy Press will file today a writ petition on an adverse Public Records Act ruling that denied it access to records concerning the public’s business solely because the communications were initiated from or received by a private email account. CNPA and many of its members, large and small, are joining an amicus brief in support of the newspaper. To encourage broad support, a special low fee has been established for community newspapers.

The Tracy Press sought access to emails between certain counsel members and the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Communications involving one counsel member were sent from and received by her home email account and were withheld. The court held that an email about government business, received by a city council member in her personal email account, is not a public record. The reasoning appears to be that an individual council member is not a "local agency," therefore that person's possession of an email, without more, cannot be ascribed to the full council or to the city.

Duffy Carolan and Rochelle Wilcox of Davis Wright Tremaine are writing the industry brief. Because the brief will be filed Monday afternoon, Duffy (415) 276-6585 or duffycarolan@dwt.com or Rochelle (916) 962-0677 or rochellewilcox@dwt.com must receive your commitment to participate no later than noon on Monday, September 17.

Please contact General Counsel Tom Newton at (916) 288-6015 for more information about this important effort.

Faithful readers

2007-08-28T13:57:00.001-07:00

Warms my heart to see all these people reading the Tracy Press this morning. Marvin Rothchild, who used to teach at Tracy High School, reads every weekday morning to residents of Tracy Convalescent Hospital. I think it's time to get a computer in there so Marvin can read the TP Web site on the days we don't publish. Photo by Glenn Moore

Public access denied

2007-08-24T13:53:00.000-07:00

Three months to the day after a hearing in Superior Court, Judge Lauren P. Thomasson has issued her ruling on the Tracy Press Inc. v. City of Tracy, City Council and Suzanne Tucker.

The judge denied our request for e-mail records sought in the California Public Records Act.

We're disappointed in the ruling, but we plan to appeal. For background on the case, see my "public access" postings. A news story is in the works.

I've scanned the ruling and posted the pages, below. To read them, you'll have to click on the images to enlarge them, and then hit your back-arrow button to come back to the blog. It's funky, I know, but the best a nontechie editor can do!

Judge's statement

2007-08-24T11:00:00.000-07:00

Have Your Say

2007-08-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

We recently added a requirement to register with your name and e-mail address before you leave a comment on stories. What do you think of that policy? Feel free to leave your opinions, anonymous or not, on this blog.

All comments, questions welcome

2007-08-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Published today in the Tracy Press

Dear Tracy Press readers,

If you’ve been in Tracy for a few years or more, you’re used to changes in your hometown. Tracy has seen some mighty big changes, and so has this 109-year-old newspaper. What hasn’t changed - since the 1940s, at least - is the family that owns and runs the Tracy Press, our location downtown, our commitment to local news and you, our loyal readers.

Today we announce changes in our publication. Starting Sept. 5, we will deliver three papers a week, on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays - with seven days of news online at www.tracypress.com.

We don’t take this change lightly. We know some of you would prefer to have the paper delivered to your home every day. But it’s a new world in the newspaper business, and we’re embracing it as quickly as we can, with the resources we have. Economic necessity is driving this decision as much as the changing realities and challenges of the business we’re in. If we could deliver the printed newspaper every day, we would. But it no longer makes economic sense for us to do so.

You can be assured that we will always try to make the Tracy Press the best it can be, with three generations of our family working every day. As always, your comments, good and bad, are welcome, and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

Bob & Cheri Matthews

What's meat got to do with the state Constitution?

2007-07-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

A Stockton lawyer has asked me to sign an affadavit that promises that the Tracy Press didn't alter a photograph we ran a month or so ago of a man lifting a large bucket at a cultural event in town. Apparently, there's a workers compensation case and a question of whether the man really did lift that vat of raw red meat.

I've refused to sign the affadavit, because to do so would waive my rights to the California Shield Law — Article 1, Section 2, California Constitution — which provides legal protections to journalists from releasing unpublished information obtained during newsgathering.

If I were to sign the affadavit, the lawyer might be satisfied and ask for nothing else. But it opens the door to be asked to testify in court with an eyewitness account, which would jeopardize the newspaper's status as an independent observer.

The answer to the question of whether we altered the photograph is simple: No. It is against our ethics policies to alter photos. In addition to the guidelines we enacted in 2005, we also follow those set forth by the National Press Photographers Association. I've pasted those guidelines below:

Photojournalists and those who manage visual news productions are accountable for upholding the following standards in their daily work:

Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects.

Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities.

Be complete and provide context when photographing subjects. Avoid stereotyping individuals and groups. Recognize and work to avoid presenting one’s own biases in the work.

Treat all subjects with respect and dignity. Give special consideration to vulnerable subjects and compassion to victims of crime or tragedy. Intrude on private moments of grief only when the public has an overriding and justifiable need to see.

While photographing subjects, do not intentionally contribute to, alter, or seek to alter or influence events.

Editing should maintain the integrity of the photographic images' content and context. Do not manipulate in any way that can mislead viewers or misrepresent subjects.

Do not pay sources or subjects or reward them materially for information or participation.

Do not accept gifts, favors or compensation from those who might seek to influence coverage.

Do not intentionally sabotage the efforts of other journalists.

Ideally, photojournalists should:

Strive to ensure that the public's business is conducted in public. Defend the rights of access for all journalists.

Think proactively, as a student of psychology, sociology, politics and art to develop a unique vision and presentation. Work with a voracious appetite for current events and contemporary visual media.

Strive for total and unrestricted access to subjects, recommend alternatives to shallow or rushed opportunities, seek a diversity of viewpoints, and work to show unpopular or unnoticed points of view.

Avoid political, civic and business involvements or other employment that compromise or give the appearance of compromising one's own journalistic independence.

Strive to be unobtrusive and humble in dealing with subjects.

Respect the integrity of the photographic moment.

Strive by example and influence to maintain the spirit and high standards expressed in this code. When confronted with situations in which the proper action is not clear, seek the counsel of those who exhibit the highest standards of the profession. Photojournalists should continuously study their craft and the ethics that guide it.

Digital file standards: Photographers, editors or graphic artists will not alter or manipulate digital photo files in any way other than to color correct or correct camera-based flaws in the image. All changes to files will be to create the most accurate representation of the image as it appeared as possible. No photos will be digitally altered to add or remove content that was not in the original photo file. Photo illustrations that are clearly identified as such will have some leeway, as they are created by the photographer in an artistic manner and may have digital manipulation to enhance the artistic appeal.

Photographer Glenn Moore

2007-07-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool photo of a photographer.

By Alice O'Neil

Call me crazy

2007-07-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor:
I am a longtime Tracy resident. Actually, I've lived here my whole life — 32 years. I saw the front cover of the Tracy Press and saw a woman with her breasts out for the whole world to see, and a little girl with her.

I am appalled at the fact that the Tracy Press would assume that this is a good representation of Tracy. As long as I have been here, I have never heard of Playboy being a glorification of Tracy.

I am completely embarrassed by what I saw. I am a mother of five, and I am not fat and stupid, as I saw people messaging on the Internet. I think it was a bad call on the part of the Tracy Press to write this story and will be be cancelling my subscription.

What else is Tracy Press going to put on the front page for my children to look at — porn? Wow is all I can say.

- Saddened in he Suburbs

Dear Saddened,

Thank you for writing. I've gotten phone calls and messages from many women since we ran the story about the Playboy model. Most of them didn't leave their names or didn't want to talk, so I haven't had a chance to write down my thoughts or express them out loud. So bear with me here, if you will.

I welcome the comments and the criticism of the story (and photos), but I am sort of surprised. Maybe I have become more tolerant since I've turned 50, but I thought the story was newsworthy. It's not every day that a Tracy mother of four becomes a Playboy icon.

Please know that I consider myself a feminist. I've worked hard to maintain my independence all my adult life. I majored in journalism and minored in women's studies in college in the '70s; my role models were Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. The main reason I didn't go into TV journalism was that I didn't want a career that required good looks; I wanted one where I'd use my brain.

I don't consider the woman we pictured on the front page to be a representation of my hometown, nor do I consider the robbers who have agonized small businesses in north Tracy to be heroes. But sometimes their stories make the front page. And well, they all are part of our community.

News is a lot of things. It's what's happening, and it's what people are talking about. Sometimes news gives us something to talk about; certainly, it's not always serious. If my children were young and read the paper that pictured the woman wearing the low-cut shirt, I'd use the opportunity to talk to them about my values — and how they differ from this woman's. Depending on their age, I might talk to them about the history of magazines like Playboy. I might talk about women's liberation.

I never meant to glorify this woman — or to condemn her. I truly believe that, like everyone, she has a story worth telling.

One more thought. In 2007, we have all sorts of women to learn from and look to — for all sorts of things. We make choices about our lives. We can have children, or not. We can have careers, or not. We can show our cleavage, or not. We have a woman as speaker of the House of Representatives; soon we might even be able to vote for a woman for president. Or not.

Anyway, I'm sure you get my drift, and you may be shaking your head and thinking I'm truly the crazy one.

But I'd like to talk more about this — if you want.

Cheri

In another part of the world

2007-07-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was shocked to see an account of Roger Strunk's death on Philippine news sites as the top news and also under Entertainment News on Friday.

Here in Tracy, many of those of us who knew Strunk were saddened by his unexpected death. We didn't realize that in the country where he'd lived with his late wife, the beloved actress Nida Blanca, he's still considered a prime suspect in her 2001 murder.

GMA News asked if they could use our stories and photos in coverage to be used on their television stations. I was happy to oblige, but I had to ask: Why was this big news in the Philippines?

"Mr. Rod Strunk is still big news here in the Philippines because the hearing for the Nida Blanca case is still ongoing," Hannah Petrache politely replied.

While several sites used parts of our stories, some did their own reporting, even quoting Matt Robinson, the city of Tracy's spokesman.

A woman who has a blog called "Midlife Mysteries" posted "Rod Strunk is Dead," and wrote, "Finally, the wheels of justice have turned. Or has it?" The woman, Cathy, said her mother was Nida Blanca's oldest friend in the Philippines, and she had written the front-page story in the Philippine Daily Inquirer after Blanca was killed.

Asian Journal also had this, which I found interesting:

“Everything will go with him to the grave,” Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said, reacting to news of Strunk’s death.

"I only heard it from the news. We have not received any official communication from the US government," Gonzalez said, adding that the government had a filed a second extradition case against Strunk. "Now that he's dead, his extradition [and] murder case are already moot and academic."

RIP, Roger.

Word of the Day

2007-07-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

triskaidekaphobia \tris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh\, noun: A morbid fear of the number 13 or the date Friday the 13th.

What a news day

2007-07-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

1 a.m.: A Tracy police officer stopped me on my way home tonight after work but didn't ticket me. He didn't lecture me about speeding or going through a red light. He just told me to take it easy, and then he followed me for the next eight miles.

Did he know what a long day I'd had? This had to be one of our biggest news days of the year: Another Tracy soldier was killed in Iraq. Homeland Security crossed Tracy off its list of locations for a bio-lab. Severed gas line at Valpico Road and MacArthur Drive shuts down traffic for hours. Body found behind the Tracy Inn. Man in county tests positive for West Nile virus. Skeletal remains found in Amador County may be a murder victim from SJ County.

But the best story of all: Gladys Schmolck turns 104 in Tracy this week. If you read nothing else, read this story.

Finally, if you're reading this blog, you've likely noticed our Web site looks a little different. We are using new software, and we're able to post stories and photos much faster. Stay tuned for lots more changes in the next few weeks!

Damsel in distress

2007-07-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how I stumbled on this site, but apparently there's a film in the works about the American newspaper in peril. Check it out.
http://stopthepressesdoc.com

2007-07-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Editor's Notes

2007-07-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

From the Tracy Press/ Friday, 06 July 2007

Everywhere I look these days, the news looks bad. Stock values in newspapers have dropped. Ad revenues are down. Paid newspaper circulation is in the tank.

Sitting here in Tracy, I know better than to be smug about the massive newspaper mergers and layoffs in the Bay Area and beyond. While I’d like to rest on the laurels of delivering 19,000 hand-folded newspapers five mornings a week in my hometown, I know I can’t.

Why?

The message is clear: Newspapers need to adapt to the new media.

I feel like I’ve been adapting to some sort of new media my entire life, beginning with television.
At my first real job, just as I was cutting my teeth writing headlines, we got the word that all smoking in the newsroom was to be banned, because — clear the throat here — the computers would arrive by the end of summer.

I can’t remember whether it was the smoking part or the computers that got people more riled in 1979. But grumbling about change has been the rule at every newspaper job I’ve had in the past 25 years.

And now it’s this newest of the new media, brought to us by our friendly computer technology, that appears to be threatening the old newspaper game.

But wait. The Tracy Press knows something about the game. And if we need to adapt, or even reinvent ourselves, we can.

Remember when we went from being a three-days-a-week paper to five, six, seven and back to five days When we added color When we threw out our film, closed the darkroom and got digital cameras When we changed the size of our paper from broadsheet to tabloid When we stopped billing for subscriptions

Now we blog. We allow online comments and forums. We have a MySpace account. We’re putting breaking news on our Web site. And we’re talking about video.

All of that has nothing to do with newsprint and everything to do with some pretty exciting new media.

Things are changing, sure. But the good thing is that people are still reading — even more than before — and they care about what’s going on, especially in their own corner of the world.

We have amazing customer loyalty and bright, committed people who work for us as employees and as volunteers. We also know how to hold government accountable and, in my not-so-humble opinion, how to gather news and information better than anybody in town.

If nothing else, the Tracy Press has generations of committed readers and 109 years of brand recognition.

I think we’ll be able to keep the community engaged going into the future — if not with daily deadlines on paper and ink, then continuously, with pixels on screens.

Maybe the news — and new media — isn’t so bad.

The Tracy Press and you

2007-06-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

I asked for this— photos of you and the Tracy Press. Here's the first I've gotten. Behind the paper is blogger Mike Pihlman, father of Our Town book reviewer, Kristen Pihlman.

Shameless marketing or just despair?

2007-06-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

(Photo by Alice DeLaurier-O'Neil)

Rarely do we gets photos of photographers, but this is Tracy Press Photo Editor Glenn Moore resting last weekend during a Mount Diablo hike. He calls the photo, "Despair."

I've decided that if anyone sends me a picture of someone wearing a Tracy Press hat or T-shirt or even holding an issue of the Tracy Press, I'll put it in this blog. Send away!

Can you spell these words?

2007-06-06T10:25:00.000-07:00

Here's just some of the words our national winner spelled:
• serrefine
• compunctious
• corrigenda
• affiche
• corinne
• rascacio
• schuhplattler
• laquear

Hope for newspapers

2007-06-05T18:17:00.000-07:00

The father of the 13-year-old Danville boy, Evan Odorney, who won the national spelling bee contest last week, was quoted in the San Jose Mercury News saying something that should give journalists hope for the future of newspapers.
“One of the tricky things about smart kids like this is they don’t watch a whole lot of television," Mike O'Dorney said. "They read the paper."

Time to blog again

2007-05-29T18:59:00.000-07:00

Just posted by Peter Scheer, lawyer, journalist and executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition: "Tracy case tests the power of government officials to avoid disclosure of their e-mails on public business. Fed up Tracy residents should refuse to pay the officials’ legal fees."

By the way, there was a hearing May 23 on the Tracy Press' public records lawsuit against the city, and we are awaiting Judge Lauren Thomasson's ruling.

Ugh — mistakes

2007-05-18T17:17:00.000-07:00

We make mistakes just like everyone else, but here's a really bad one from the Ottowa Citizen — http://www.regrettheerror.com/2007/05/citizen.html

Outsourced reporting from India, oh my!

2007-05-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a trip and found printouts and clippings of this Associated Press story waiting for me on my desk. Apparently, a Web site has hired journalists in India to cover news in Pasadena (although now I see the publisher has postponed his plan because he's been so overwhelmed by the resulting media storm that he hasn't had time to train the new reporters).

How will these noncommuters from Mumbai and Bangalore cover the city government beat from the other side of the world? They'll watch the televised council meetings on the Internet and e-mail the stories they write after watching. And they'll do it for far less money than an American reporter would be paid.

I can't say it any better than Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor, who told AP, "Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don't know the institutions but aren't even there to witness the events and nuances. This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism has become."

This is sports

2007-05-08T18:32:00.000-07:00

We're still looking for interns to help our hard-working, one-man sports department — Chris Roberts.

Intern Night at the TP

2007-05-08T16:26:00.000-07:00

We had a full room for our Intern Informational Night and met a lot of soon-to-be journalists.

Standing is Danielle MacMurchy, staff reporter extraordinaire.

Federal shield law is needed

2007-05-04T09:22:00.000-07:00

This week, companion bills called the "Free Flow of Information Act" were introduced by Senators Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and
Representatives Richard Boucher, D-Va., Mike Pence, R-Ind., John Conyers, D-Mich.,
Howard Coble, R-N.C., John Yarmuth, D-Ky., and David Weldon, R-Fla.

Here's the text of the bill (the House and Senate versions are identical) as introduced and a section-by-section analysis. Thirty-two states, including California, already have shield laws. Federal courts, however, have no uniform standards to govern when testimony can be sought from reporters. By passing this act, Congress would establish balanced ground rules for reporters as they seek to bring forward information on matters of public interest.

Paint the TP purple

2007-05-02T18:19:00.000-07:00

Anybody notice how our flag is purple this week?

New challenges, old ethics

2007-04-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

A woman who identified herself as a parent called the newsroom Monday to tell us we should read a certain comment left on our Web site.

Someone using the name of the West High School student arrested three days earlier on suspicion of making a bomb threat, making terrorist threats and creating a disturbance on a school campus had posted something that looked to be another threat.

“I was the one who set the bomb up,” the comment read. “The bomb is still located inside the school. To tell you the truth, there is more than one bomb. I set one inside the clock tower and another inside the school district.”

Online comments are uncharted terrain, as we’ve found in the less-than-two months since we’ve added this challenging function to our newspaper Web site.

Information, however, is nothing new for us. The job of newspapers is to gather news and information, and sometimes that information arrives unsolicited, as it does in the online comments.

Rarely, though, does information put us in the kind of situation it did Monday, where we find ourselves becoming part of the story that we also have to cover.

When we read the comment at 1:30 p.m. Monday — about 10 minutes after it was posted, as it turns out — we called Tracy Unified School District Superintendent Jim Franco and faxed a copy of the comment to his district office, which contacted the police.

Then we drove to West High with cameras and notebooks in hand. School had let out at 1:30 p.m., so there were few students milling about. We waited about 15 minutes before we noticed Franco and a campus security guard looking inside the clock tower.

Two hours later, long after the threat to public safety had presumably passed, the police called to ask us for a copy of the e-mail address that had accompanied the comment.

Until this point, everything we’d provided to the school district had been information made public on our Web site, except for the Internet Protocol address, which showed that the comment had been made using the school’s computers.

I called a newspaper attorney in Sacramento to talk about whether we should give up the e-mail address, something I’ve told readers in the past would not be shared.

Telling the police that we wouldn’t give up the unpublished information without a subpoena isn’t all that different from demanding a search warrant before letting an investigator onto private property. Of course, even with a court-issued subpoena, newspapers legally don’t have to give up unpublished information.

Why?

All unpublished content — photos, reporters’ notes, tapes, data, eyewitness observations, unnamed sources, e-mails and addresses — is protected in the state Constitution under the California Shield Law.

We take this legal right seriously, because it sets us apart from the government and entities we write about. It puts us on the side of the people, who provide information to us — and all media — without expecting that it will be used for something other than newsgathering.

If we’re so quick to hand over information to the police, without regard for the ethics of doing so, how can we expect the public to trust us with the information they give us in the future? We don’t want to lose that trust.

I found it interesting that William Dean Singleton’s MediaNews Group followed this news story in its San Joaquin Herald with the headline, “Police upset over response to threat.” It contained more false statements made by the reporter than truth, quoted only one side of the story and editorialized about the part the Tracy Press played in the “lost investigation time.”

MediaNews owns or controls almost every daily newspaper in the greater Bay Area, except the Tracy Press and the San Francisco Chronicle, the latter of which is owned by media giant Hearst Corp. Hearst and MediaNews’ attempt to consolidate in the last year was slapped down by an antitrust lawsuit, followed by a settlement agreement just this week.

I think it’s important for people to realize that the future of newspapers in the Bay Area under Singleton’s control isn’t just a monopoly situation. Under MediaNews, newspapers are becoming more the mouthpiece of government than the communities they serve. They have little regard for the rights of the people and the press and the laws that protect them.

Sadly, the California Shield Law has little future unless it is exercised.

Cheri Matthews, editor of the Tracy Press, can be reached by phone (830-4201) e-mail (cherim@tracypress.com) or blog (www.editor-matthews.blogspot.com).

Good news for Bay Area journalism

2007-04-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

The lawsuit against the Hearst Corp., which owns the San Francisco Chronicle, and William Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group, which owns every other daily newspaper in the region, ended this week in a settlement. Clint Reilly filed the federal civil suit a year ago in an attempt to block the would-be competitors from sharing monopoly control of the Bay Area's daily newspaper establishment.

The deal blocks any future business deals between Hearst and MediaNews. Read more on the San Francisco Bay Guardian Web site.

Tracy Press subpoena

2007-04-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

I want to let everyone know that I'm following the comments on the bomb threat story, and I can see that I need to write about the decisions we made yesterday regarding the release of unpublished information. Coming soon: An Editor's Notes column.

Legendary journalist Halberstam dies

2007-04-24T13:07:00.000-07:00

Pulitzer-prize-winning author and journalist David Halberstam, 73, was killed in a car crash in Menlo Park early today.

What's your (local) news IQ?

2007-04-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

Sad but true. In a poll released this week, respondents were less able than those polled in 1989 to name the vice president, their state’s governor and the president of Russia. More than half of those in the most knowledgeable category listed as news sources cable TV shows such as the “Daily Show,” the “Colbert Report” and the “O’Reilly Factor.”

If you want to see how you fit in the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press' survey, you can take the test yourself. You might be surprised.

Or maybe, thanks to your loyal reading of the Tracy Press, you'd do better on a test with all local questions. See how you do with these:

1• Do you know who the mayor of Tracy is?
a. Dan Bilbrey
b. Tom Benigno
c. Brent Ives

2 • Who is the longtime city attorney?
a. Debra Corbett
b. Dan Hobbs
c. Mark Connolly

3 • What form of government does this city have:
a. Council-manager government
b. A mayor-council government

4 • In the latest population count released by the state Department of Finance, Tracy had how many people:
a. 65,000
b. 80,000
c. 120,000

5 • How many casualties has Tracy had in the Iraq war?
a. Six
b. Five
c. Four

6 • Is there a U.S. congressman or state assemblywoman from Tracy?
a. yes
b. no

7 • How many high schools are there in Tracy's city limits, including alternative and charter schools?
a. Two
b. Three
c. Four

Good luck! If you want, you can leave your answers on the comments with your e-mail address, and I'll send you the answers. And if you have questions for me to add, leave those, too!

No competition

2007-04-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

I went to the firehouse dedication today with my camera, but luckily, Glenn also showed up on his day off, so readers won't have to settle for my shots.

Meanwhile, Glenn's already posted photos of me on his blog, so here's the only shot of got of him. One of these days, I'll get something without his camera in front of his face. Maybe.

(By the way, thanks for helping me lighten my shot, Glenn.)

Silly editors

2007-04-14T16:08:00.000-07:00

While I'm at it, here's a shot of two of the Tracy Press editors at a news meeting — Eric and Jon.

2007-04-05T12:50:00.000-07:00

Tracy Press sues city

2007-04-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

In case you missed this in today's paper, the Press filed a lawsuit Wednesday to obtain e-mails that Councilwoman Suzanne Tucker sent to the Lawence Livermore National Laboratory — e-mails the city attorney argues are private.

I think the California Public Records Act and California Constitution, along with Proposition 59, make it clear that the records sought should be made public.

If you want to see the actual petition for writ of mandate, go to the wiki I just created.

Meanwhile, if anyone wants pdfs of the actual petition and "points and authorities," e-mail me at cherim@tracypress.com.

City councilmembers' e-mails

2007-03-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a first: Public e-mails for elected officials in the city.
This action, of course, doesn't excuse Councilwoman Suzanne Tucker from releasing her past e-mails in which she conducted the public's business, according to the California Public Records Act.
"The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the
agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give
their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know
and what is not good for them to know. The people insist they may retain control
over the instruments they have created."

— California Public Records Act

mayor.ives@ci.tracy.ca.us
suzanne.tucker@ci.tracy.ca.us
evelyn.tolbert@ci.tracy.ca.us
irene.sundberg@ci.tracy.ca.us
steve.abercrombie@ci.tracy.ca.us

Correct Me If I'm Wrong

2007-03-21T21:57:00.000-07:00

I don't know if anyone else will find the Chronicle's podcasts of phone messages left with Editor Phil Bronstein as hilarious as me, but if you do, we could start running audio of the anonymous voicemail left on my office phone. Entertaining stuff!
(By the way, you don't have to have an iPod to listen to this, but you may need to download iTunes, which is free.)

Sunshine Week Part 2

2007-03-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

Here’s to open government — and a little poetry

The Tracy Press has raised some eyebrows over its efforts to shed the light on Councilwoman Suzanne Tucker’s e-mails to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about a proposed bio-lab and open-air explosions — something she and the city have refused to provide.

First we asked nicely, with an e-mail of our own. Then we asked officially, with a public records request. Then we asked again for disclosure, through a local attorney and a San Francisco attorney who specializes in First Amendment law.

You can read the nine-page letter sent this week to Deputy City Attorney Bill Sartor, below, on the next blog posting.

As we come to the end of Sunshine Week — an annual celebration of the nation’s freedom of information laws — it doesn’t hurt to be reminded of why open government, accountability and the public’s right to know matter so much. Having access to government information empowers the public and makes communities stronger.

Newspapers all over the country have called for more sunshine on the public’s business with laws that improve access to public records and allow the public to keep watch on government at all levels. We support those efforts in California and in the nation.

Locally, with your help, we’ll keep an eye on agencies and officials who spend public money — from council members and county supervisors to school board trustees — so that they will keep their decision-making open. And we’ll remind you, the people, of your rights, which are guaranteed by the First Amendment and California’s Brown Act, Public Records Act and Proposition 59, the state’s “right-to-know” provision in the Constitution.

And now for some poetry

While I’m passionate about First Amendment issues, I can also get fired up over good poetry — good being a keyword.

Poetry rarely finds a place in newspapers these days, but back in the day, it was a staple on the printed page. As U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser said, “Readers enjoyed it. They would clip verses, stick them in their diaries, enclose them in letters. They even took time to memorize some of the poems they discovered.”

Poetry, Kooser said, is a perennial expression of our emotional, spiritual and intellectual lives.

And yet, we have so little time for it.

Starting today, we’ll offer a poem a week on our Voice pages, compliments of Kooser and a project called American Life in Poetry — Reintroducing Poetry to American’s Newspapers. The project is supported by The Poetry Foundation, an independent literary organization; and by the University of Nebraska and Library of Congress.

Kooser, also a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, chooses the poems and writes a brief introduction with each. The poems are short and packed with simple truths that readers can understand and appreciate.

I hope you find them as insightful as I do.

Cheri Matthews, editor of the Tracy Press, is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and California Newspaper Publishers Association. She can be reached by phone (830-4201) e-mail (cherim@tracypress.com) or blog (www.editor-matthews.blogspot.com).

Sunshine Week, Part 1

2007-03-15T18:53:00.000-07:00

Bill Sartor

Deputy City Attorney

City of Tracy

325 East Tenth Street, P.O.Box 419

Tracy, CA 95378-0419

Re: Public Records Request by Tracy Press of January 9, 2007

Dear Mr. Sartor:

Karl Olson, of Levy Ram & Olson, and I have been retained by the Tracy Press to obtain the writings of Council member Suzanne Tucker consisting of her e-mails. By letter of January 18, 2007 the City indicated its position that Council Member Tucker’s communications by her private e-mail address are in her capacity as a private citizen and not as a council member, and therefore exempt from disclosure. Karl Olson and I have been retained to obtain these records and establish that the City’s position is legally incorrect. It is my hope that this letter will persuade the City that its position cannot be legally sustained and attempting to defend that position in litigation that will be filed will result in the needless expenditure of taxpayer money in defense of a position which violates the California Constitution and is adverse to the public’s best interest.

The Public Records Act could not be more clear: “access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business is a fundamental and necessary right of every person in this state.” (Government Code Section 6250) The Public Records Act was enacted in 1968 “to safeguard the accountability of government to the public, for secrecy is antithetical to a democratic system of ‘government of the people, by the people (and) for the people.’” (San Gabriel Tribune v. Superior Court (1983) 143 Cal. App. 3d 762, 772.) The Public Records Act ‘“was enacted against a ‘background of legislative inpatiency with secrecy in government…” The Legislature had long been attempting to “formulate a workable means of minimizing secrecy in government.””’ (CBS, Inc. vs. Block (1986) 42 Cal.3d 646, 651.) These same principles are enshrined in Article 1, section 3(b) of the California Constitution, which was placed in the Constitution when voters passed Proposition 59 (with an 83% majority) in 2004. Article I, section 3(b) give the public a constitutional right to public records. Article 1, section 3(b)(1) provides: “The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business, and, therefore, the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials shall be open to public scrutiny.”

With the above basic principles in mind, but discussing the legal issues specific to Council member Tucker’s refusal to provide any writings, I want to review the information we have. The Tracy Press has obtained records from the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration in response to a request by the Tracy Press, and records from the City of Tracy in Response to a Request by Carole Dominquez. What follows is a brief summary of these documents relative to Council member Tucker’s activities and written communications. First, it needs to be noted that all communications by Council member Tucker are from the same e-mail address: sstucker@comcast.net. For brevity I will be referring to Council member Tucker as “Tucker”. No disrespect is intended.

The City has turned over written communications from its consultant, but none from Council member Tucker that were not copied to or sent directly to the consultant and therefore in the consultant’s possession. So we have been provided only with what the City could get from its consultant and what the Department of Energy would provide, but Council Member Tucker has refused to provide any written communications to TT&B, its members, other council members, City staff or even LLNL. It is therefore the City’s position that all the following e-mails would be protected from disclosure by Council Member Tucker. In fact, she refused to disclose them but LLNL did.

September 7, 2006 at 5:48 p.m.: “Suzanne Tucker, Tracy City Council” e-mails Stockton Record editorial to Steve Wampler of LLNL and asks “have the BSL4 folks talked to the Stockton Record….they wrote this opinion on Friday, August 18, 2006.

September 8, 2006 @ 8:10 a.m.: Steve Wampler of LLNL sends Tucker “Long promised, finally delivered—Press release about the development of the foot-and-mouth assay”. (Department of Energy Records)

September 11, 2006 @ 10:06 a.m.: Steve Wampler of LLNL forwards to Tucker an article from the East Bay Express on the LLNL bio-lab. (Department of Energy Records)

September 18, 2006 @ 1:28 p.m.: Tucker e-mails to Steve Wampler Sarvey’s resolution opposing bio-lab.

September 19, 2006: Tracy Press does editorial urging Council to take a position on Bio-lab.

September 19, 2006 @ 8:07 a.m.: Tucker, her “organization” named as “Tracy City Council Member” sends Steve Wampler of LLNL a Tracy Press article on the bio-lab.

September 19, 2006 @ 10:32 a.m.: Tucker forwards Tracy Press editorial to Steve Wampler at LLNL saying “it sounds like they want us to take a position…have you met with those folks…” (Department of Energy Records)

September 19, 2006 @ 11:13 a.m.: Steve Wampler of LLNL e-mails Tucker that Susan Houghton, Public Relations for LLNL contacted the Tracy Press and is trying to set up a meeting. (Department of Energy Records)

September 19, 2006: The City council refers the bio-lab issue to TT&B.

September 20, 2006 @ 11:15 a.m.: Tucker e-mails Steve Wampler of LLNL re “drama last night” and referral to TT&B and attaches Tracy Press article.

September 20, 2006 @2:37 p.m.: Steve Wampler of LLNL e-mails Tucker that “referral ideal sounds excellent to me”. (Department of Energy Records)

September 20, 2006 @ 10:08 pm Tucker e-mails 12 members of TT&B with a press release by LLNL rated as “important” that was provided by Steve Wampler of LLNL.

September 20, 2006 @ 10:25 p.m. Tucker again e-mails 12 members of TT&B with more information from the “Homeland Security Website”.

September 20, 2006 @ 10:31 p.m. Tucker again e-mails 12 members of TT&B and copies Dan Hobbs with the e-mail concerning “Proposed Sites for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility” with web site information and attachments.

September 20, 2006 @ 10:39 p.m. Tucker again e-mails 12 members of TT&B with more information with Press Release attachments concerning the “next round of cuts” for the bio-lab selection.

September 20, 2006 @ 10:43 p.m. Tucker again e-mails 12 members of TT&B with a “Fact Sheet” from DHS concerning the bio-lab.

September 20, 2006 @ 10:47 p.m. Tucker again e-mails 12 members of TT&B concerning the BSL-4 timeline and attachments “NBAF Timeline”.

September 20, 2006 @ 11:08 p.m. Tucker again e-mails 12 members of TT&B about how “Community resistance can swing decisions...” concerning the bio-lab.

September 21, 2006 @ 8:01 a.m. Tucker e-mails 12 member of TT&B with “Frequently Asked Questions about Biodefense”.

September 21, 2006 @ 8:03 a.m. Tucker e-mails 12 member of TT&B with “What the community in Kentucky is saying about the BSL-4 application there…”.

September 21, 2006 @ 8:04 a.m. Tucker e-mails 12 members of TT&B with “..a good 2004 article from the NY Times on general info about Biolabs…”.

September 21, 2006 @ 8:11 a.m. Tucker e-mails 12 members of TT&B with an article from the Boston Globe regarding a bio-lab there.

September 21, 2006 @ 9:58 a.m.: TT&B Consultant Boyd e-mails TT&B members, city staff and Tucker about the Bio-lab referral and the Special TT&B meeting set for October 4.

September 21, 2006 @ 10:27 a.m.: TT&B Consultant Boyd e-mails TT&B, staff and Tucker with link regarding BSL-4 research facility at Site 300.

September 21, 2006 @ 12:03 p.m.: Julie Yuan-Miu e-mails Consultant Boyd, TT&B members, the City Manager and Victoria Caldeira concerning handouts about the BSL-4 facility.

September 22, 2006: Consultant Boyd e-mails TT&B, Tucker and the School District Superintendent to verify the use of the conference room for the special TT&B meeting.

September 23, 2006 @ 8:20 a.m.: Tucker forwards Tracy Press article to TT&B members and the Mayor.

September 25, 2006 @10:22 a.m.: TT&B member John Palmer from Souza Realty and Development e-mails TT&B and Tucker that the Director of Public Affairs of LLNL will attend the October 4, 2006 TT&B meeting.

September 25, 2006 @12:29 p.m.: The City Clerk e-mails current e-mail addresses to TT&B member to Tucker and other members of TT&B.

September 25, 2006 @12:41 p.m.: Tucker e-mails the City Clerk with copies to the TT&B consultant, Assistant City Manager and Director of Parks and Recreation that certain persons need to be removed from TT&B membership notice list.

September 25, 2006 @ 4:42 p.m.: City Clerk e-mails Tucker an assistant to the City Manager with copy to another Assistant to the City Manager and the Director of Parks and Recreation that some person are left on the TT&B mailing list because they want to be informed.

October 20, 2006: Tucker e-mails TT&B members about community group pullourweeds.com.

October 2, 2006 at 5:23 p.m.: Tucker e-mails TT&B to forward Tracy Press Article on bio-lab.

October 2, 2006 @ 9:53 p.m.: TT&B Consultant e-mails members, City Manager, Assistant City Managers, Director of Parks and Recreation, the City Clerk and Tucker with a flyer for the October 18, 2006.

October 3, 2006 @ 10:43 p.m.: Brian Green, Chairman of TT&B e-mails to TT&B members, School District Superintendent, City Manager, Parks & Recreation director and Tucker an article for the Tracy Press Voice on the bio-lab.

October 19, 2006 @ 10:06 a.m.: Assistance City Manager e-mails TT&B members and Tucker with information regarding challenging an ordinance.

October 22, 2006 @ 11:06 p.m.: Consultant to TT&B e-mails City Manager, Assistant City Manager, TT&B members and Tucker with a draft agenda for November 15 Forum.

October 23, 2006 at 11:52 p.m.: TT&B Consultant e-mails Houghton of LLNL re agenda and format of November forum.

October 24, 2006 @ 4:08 p.m.: Houghton of LLNL e-mails TT&B Consultant with concerns about forum and copies John Palmer of Souza Realty & Development and Assistant City Manager. (Department of Energy Records)

October 24, 2006 at 4:19 p.m.: Houghton of LLNL forwards prior e-mail to Tucker saying “I don’t know if you can affect change on this, but we are rethinking our participation.”

October 24, 2006 @ 4:40 p.m.: Susan Houghton of LLNL e-mails Tucker that she hopes the session can be modified, and that the consultant is ‘steering this into a negative direction..” Houghton threatens to pull out. (Department of Energy Records)

October 24, 2006 @ 4:52 p.m.: Tucker responds to Houghton of LLNL e-mail saying that “I expressed the same concern….” and that she would follow up with the Assistant City Manager and Mayor.

November 5, 2006 @ 10:44 p.m.: Consultant to TT&B e-mails City Manager, Assistant City Manager, TT&B members and Tucker with flyer for November 15 Forum.

November 17, 2006 @ 7:02 a.m.: TT&B Consultant e-mails TT&B member re forum.

December 19, 2006 @ 9:41 a.m.: TT&B Consultant e-mails TT&B members, some city staff, and Tucker about new web site.

December 21, 2006 @ 9:32 a.m.: Tucker e-mails Steve Wampler of LLNL that “there was some interesting discussion at TT&B last night…”

December 21, 2006 @ 12:23 p.m.: Tucker e-mails Steve Wampler of LLNL that “I talked to John Upton a few minutes ago…he is doing a follow up on the TT&P discussion.”

December 21, 2006 @ 4:19 p.m.: City Parks and Recreation invites TT&B members, City Staff, City Manager and Tucker to Mayor’s Youth Support Network meeting.

December 21, 2006 @ 5:05 p.m.: Tucker forwards to Steve Wampler of LLNL document produced by Bob Sarvey for TT&B. (Department of Energy Records)

December 21, 2006 @ 6:28 p.m.: e-mail from Tracy Press to all council members making Public Records request for all records to or from LLNL. This e-mail may have been blind copied to some unidentified person at LLNL as no LLNL recipient is identified. (Department of Energy Records)

December 22, 2006 @ 8:31 a.m.: Tucker forwards Tracy Press records request to Joan Feller and unknown person at LLNL. (Department of Energy Records)

December 22, 2006 @ 9:52 a.m.: TT&B Consultant e-mails members re Mayor’s Youth Support Network.

December 28, 2006 @ 9:30 a.m.: Tucker requests City Clerk send her minutes from City Council meeting where the bio-lab issue was referred to TT&B.

December 29, 2006 @ 2:29 p.m.: Tucker e-mails John Palmer of Souza Realty and Development, John Bazinett and Brian Green of TT&B and the consultant for TT&B discouraging TT&B from making any recommendation.

January 5, 2007 @ 10:35 a.m.: TT&B Consultant e-mails agenda for January meeting to TT&B, city staff and Tucker.

January 9, 2007 @ 9:08 a.m.: Steve Wampler of LLNL forwards to Tucker Tracy Press letter to editors favorable to Ives and LLNL bio-lab. (Department of Energy Records)

January 11, 2007 @ 7:42 a.m.: Tucker, with caption on e-mail “Suzanne Tucker, Tracy City Council” e-mails Joan Feller Tracy Press article re LLNL Site 300. This e-mail may have been blind copied to some unidentified person at LLNL as no LLNL recipient is identified. (Department of Energy Records)

January 12, 2007: Carole Dominquez submits a Public Records Act Request requesting “any and all communications between Councilwoman Suzanne Tucker and any and all TT&B committee members”

January 12, 2007: Tucker e-mails the City Clerk indicating all her writings, even those to the TT&B Committee members, are protected by the California Public Record Act.

January 15, 2007 @ 8:16 a.m.: John Palmer of Souza Realty and Development e-mails TT&B re Public Affairs for LLNL. Second page is missing.

January 15, 2007 @ 8:23 a.m.: Consultant for TT&B e-mails John Palmer of Souza Realty and Development and TT&B re EIS schedule.

January 15, 2007 @ 8:27 a.m.: Prior e-mail is forwarded to School District, Tucker and City Manager.

January 16, 2007 @ 6:55 p.m.: TT&B Consultant e-mails TT&B and Tucker re Site 300 tour.

January 16, 2007: Consultant Boyd e-mails the City Clerk concerning “tucker emails” attaching “Mayor’s Youth Support Network, Public forum, Public Forum: get the word out!; FW: Update of NBAF”

With the above history, I want to address the arguments that you make in your January 18, 2007 letter.

Definition of Public Record:

In your letter of January 18, 2007 you take the position that council person Tucker was acting in her capacity as a private citizen. The e-mails showing her direction of TT&B, description of capacity as “Tracy City Council”, actions in using e-mails to advocate for the bio-lab and many other factors make this position unreasonable. She was clearly acting in her capacity as a member of the City Council on City business.

The Public Records Act defines the term “public record” very broadly: “public records’ includes any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the people’s business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics.” (Government Code Section 6252(e).) The Attorney General has defined “public record” even more broadly: the definition of public record “is intended to cover every conceivable kind of record that is involved in the governmental process and will pertain to any form of record–keeping instrument as it is developed. Only purely personal information unrelated to ‘the conduct of the public’s business’” is exempt from the definition of “public records,” such as “the shopping list phoned from home, the letter to a public officer from a friend which is totally void of reference to governmental activities.’” (San Gabriel, supra, 143 Cal. App.3d at 774.) So if Council member Tucker had e-mailed Steve Wampler on December 21, 2006 her grocery list so he could pick up some groceries for her, rather than just saying she was going shopping, maybe the grocery list might be private, but the rest of the e-mail would still be public record. However since Council Member Tucker claims a blanket privilege not to disclose any e-mails, we need not address that level of detail.

Emails, Notes, Drafts and Memoranda that are Not Retained:

The City is taking a different position as to e-mails by Council Member Tucker than it does as to all other requests. LLNL and the City have both produced e-mails in response to Public Records Requests with no argument that e-mails need not be disclosed. You are taking the position, however, that e-mails by Council Member Tucker are completely exempt from disclosure. Which is the Tracy policy?

These e-mails are much more than just a telephone message or face to face communication. Frequently documents, schedules, plans and detailed discussions occur. The produced e-mails establish these facts.

In litigation the City will have to explain why e-mails are retained and disclosed, except as to Council Member Tucker.

Deliberative Process Privilege Exemption from Disclosure:

The e-mails show this claim of privilege, which was overruled by the 2004 adoption of Proposition 59 (Cal. Const., art. I, section 3(b)), is also badly taken. The ballot argument in support of Proposition 59 specifically stated that it was intended to “allow the public to see and understand the deliberative process through which decisions are made.”

Even if there were some merit to a claim of Deliberative Process Privilege, the e-mails reveal no deliberation, but instead manipulation of TT&B and close collaboration with LLNL personnel to further the bio-lab. Council Member Tucker has refused to disclose e-mails with LLNL, TT&B, City Staff and third parties that cannot be reasonably argued to have anything to do with deliberation even if such a privilege existed post Proposition 59.

There has been no effort to determine what documents might be subject to this privilege, instead Council Member Tucker has claimed all her e-mail writings are exempt. That is the position the City will have to defend in litigation.

California Constitution:

Article 1, Section 3 of the California Constitution, enacted by Proposition 59, states in part as follows;

b) (1) The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people's business, and, therefore, the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny.

(2) A statute, court rule, or other authority, including those in effect on the effective date of this subdivision, shall be broadly construed if it furthers the people's right of access, and narrowly construed if it limits the right of access. A statute, court rule, or other authority adopted after the effective date of this subdivision that limits the right of access shall be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

Council member Tucker’s e-mails are certainly writings. She was acting as a public official. It does not matter if she uses her personal e-mail or an old manual typewriter. How she creates the writing, where she records it, or how she transmits the writing does not exempt it from the California constitution. In fact, this right of the public is to be broadly construed against Council Member Tucker’s position. Your position is that because Council Member Tucker uses her own personal e-mail address and computer to type and transmit the writings, that they are exempt from the California Public Records Act and the California Constitution. I do not think a court will sustain that position.

In conclusion, I would hope the City of Tracy would not choose to draw the line in the sand to defend Council Member Tucker’s right to conceal all her e-mails. The agency seeking to withhold information has “the burden of demonstrating a need for non-disclosure.” (CBS, supra, 42 Cal.3d at 651-52; New York Times Co. vs. Superior Court (1990) 218 Cal.App.3d 1579, 1584; Braun v. City of Taft (1984) 154 Cal.App.3d 332, 345.) Exemptions from disclosure “are construed narrowly to ensure maximum disclosure of the conduct of governmental operations.” (New York Times, supra, 218 Cal.App.3d at 1585; San Gabriel Tribune, supra, 143 Cal.App.3d at 772-73. Article I, section 3(b)(2) of the California Constitution-added by adoption of Proposition 59 in 2004-gives the above cases constitutional stature. It requires that a statute or other authority “shall be broadly construed if it furthers the people’s right of access, and narrowly construed if it limits the right of access.”

We are not satisfied to receive only those communications to third parties like the Department of Defense, or those select e-mails in the possession of consultants retained by the City who have complied with the law and disclosed what they have received. We are entitled to receive ALL e-mails between any of the current council members, including Council member Tucker, former Mayor Dan Bilbrey, City Manager Dan Hobbs, and LLNL since January 1, 2006 regarding the proposed bio-agent laboratory as well as any test bombing the Lab will do at Site 300. If you will indicate that Council Member Tucker will comply, we will not need to file any action. If the City’s position remains that Council Member Tucker is somehow solely exempt from the law, we will file an action to compel her and the City to produce the documents. Please let me know within a few days of the March 20, 2007 Council meeting the City’s response.

Very truly yours,

__________________

MARK V. CONNOLLY

Letter from California

2007-03-13T10:42:00.000-07:00

In the Kingdom of the Garage Door Opener

I don't know what town writer Verlyn Klinkenborg is writing about today in the New York Times, but it could be Tracy or Escalon or Ripon. It's a nice piece — worth reading.

24-hour journalism

2007-03-03T15:04:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me today that I used to be able to come home after putting the newspaper to bed and actually unplug. Of course, that was years ago. Before cell phones. Before e-mail. Before blogs and comments on the Web site.

Oh, I might have gotten a phone call at home every so often. Or I'd find some messages on my desk Monday morning. But I could take a break. Have a life.

No more. I'm obsessed, and readers are obsessed.

This morning, before I even got dressed or fed my horses, I got up to check my e-mail. My inbox was exploding, as usual. I killed out the junk and found several e-mails from people I consider good friends, even though I hardly ever see them in real life. They warned me about some of the comments on our Web site. And they were right. The profanity had hit an all-time high.

Just about that time, our webmaster was stepping into her ski boots at Bear Valley, hours away. I called her on her cell phone. And sure enough, she answered it and walked me through the steps to moderating the online comments.

Phew! But now I can't walk away from my laptop. The sun is out and I can't go outside.

Did I call this 24-hour journalism? Wait? Where's the journalism?

Anonymous Postcards from Tracy, California

2007-02-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

Someone just gave me a link to PostSecret, a blog that describes itself as an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets on one side of a homemade postcard. Some of the cards are funny or touching, while others are just silly. But the site — and the concept — is interesting.

We have our own experience with postcards here at the Tracy Press. We've gotten handmade postcards from the same person almost every week for probably 10 years. The postcards are handwritten, sometimes with words and graphics clipped out of the paper and glued to the postcard. Then the whole thing is carefully covered with wide tape, so it looks laminated.

We’ve never used the postcards as letters to the editor, because they're never signed. But we know something about the writer, who is a faithful reader of our editorial page. He/she finds many of our writers to be too conservative and isn't a fan of President Bush or the former Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.

A few months ago, someone else in town got one of the mystery postcards at home and called the police, reporting it as hate mail. We’ve never called it hate mail, even though the writer doesn’t seem to like us much and calls us conservative yuppies. (By the way, postcard-writer, we've endorsed Gore and Kerry for president, never Bush.) We look forward to the next installment, carefully crafted from a Tracy Press reader.

Here's one of the recent postcards:

Here's to readers

2007-02-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

This week was one of the biggest news weeks I can remember, with a missing man whose car plunged into the canal, a police shooting of a man on a bicycle, the funeral of a 17-year-old killed in a car accident and an explosion and fire that consumed six apartments on the night of Valentine's Day.

We got initial tips for many of the stories from the radio scanner, with alerts from the fire and police departments and California Highway Patrol. But much of the information we couldn't get from the authorities came from readers. The online comments, in particular, led us to sources we wouldn't have found otherwise.

The aerial photo, above, came in this morning from a longtime reader, John Silva, who carries a camera when he goes paragliding over Tracy. It shows the aftermath of the fire at the Sycamore Village Apartments, which is about three blocks from where John lives. Thank you, John, and thanks to all the readers!

MediaNews Monopoly

2007-02-04T16:08:00.000-08:00

I'm interested in this latest piece of media news, not only because so many Bay Area newspapers have been swallowed by MediaNews papers (Oakland Tribune, Tri-Valley Herald, San Jose Mercury-News, Contra Costa Times, San Mateo County Times, Monterey County Herald, Vallejo Times-Herald, need I go on?). I'm interested, because our tiny, family-owned newspaper company, Tracy Press Inc., owns and operates two weeklies in the Santa Cruz mountains.

The news — that MediaNews has bought the Santa Cruz Sentinel — was announced Friday by MediaNews chief executive Dean Singleton, from the company's Denver headquarters. It's the Sentinel's second sale in two months.

"We are delighted to acquire the Santa Cruz Sentinel and expand our reach in this very competitive region," MediaNews chief executive Dean Singleton said Friday.

Oh, and here's something I just read in the Bay Guardian, for those who want to know more about the web of connection between the Bay Area's two giant chains.
And this from Between the sheets.

Anonymous darts cause commotion online

2007-02-02T13:03:00.000-08:00

Here's tomorrow's column today:

This week started early Sunday with two comments posted on the bottom of our police log on our Web site.

Had we heard about the crash? Were we going out to the scene?

It was those early comments online that pushed us out the door and over to West High School to see what had happened late the night before. Now, at week’s end, I’d venture to say that everyone in Tracy knows a student died and three others were seriously injured in the tragic accident Jan. 27.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes at the Tracy Press, we’ve had technical turmoil that turned to angst. The “comment” function was added to stories online less than a week before the accident at West High. The idea — to allow readers to leave notes, almost like instant letters to the editor or an online bulletin board. I’ve noticed on other newspaper sites that commenters seem to like to chime in with a final word on stories, with a, “Good job, Jake,” or “Boy, are you biased, Betty.”

Little did we know that this new function would produce an explosion in feedback, turning into a public forum where a full range of emotions would be expressed — and managing to wreak havoc on our computer server.

Before Sunday, the Tracy Press site averaged 1,100 hits a day. When we posted the first photo and story about the accident Sunday afternoon, the comments started rolling in, and so did those hits. By Monday, the hits increased tenfold, to more than 10,000. Page views (the number of times users request a page) went from 5,000 to more than 43,000 that day.

Rapid-fire comments were being posted on stories at a rate of one a minute, producing instant-messaging. That’s about the time that Steve Reichgut, owner of SolutionsIC, which hosts our site, had to disable the commenting for a few hours to relieve the overloaded server. The increase in traffic, he said, was massive and the number of comments phenomenal.

On Tuesday, the commenting barely took a breather. One story gathered more than 200 comments online, with tears flowing and tempers flaring.

And that’s where the technical became personal.

Many of comments were wonderful tributes to the teen who died. Some of the memorializing was pure poetry. Other comments, however, were toxic diatribes that assaulted the senses. Members of the community worried — and rightly so — that the families of the young victims would be hurt by the comments. Some said it was irresponsible for us to allow this and pleaded for us to take down all the comments.

On the street, we also heard from parents — some angry at the uncensored comments and others happy to discover a place that served as an outlet for their children’s expression.
Some were merely aghast at the poor writing skills of the commenters.

We started to monitor the site for more than profanity, all the while discussing and debating with everyone, from the publisher to the webmaster, about which posts crossed the line. Cuss words were obvious, but what about criticism? Those who posted comments were quick to point out the insensitive posts, and we removed some of them.

As City Editor Eric Firpo told a reader, “I know that fails to satisfy a lot of people who are offended by some of the postings, which seem tasteless at best. But we’re reluctant to start censoring based on taste, or hurtfulness. Where do we draw the line there? That line is different for everybody and would satisfy no one.”

So it’ll be a never-ending judgment call for individual posts, and we’ll keep monitoring, even when the commotion dies down.

I don’t know where all this is heading. This is new territory. Someday we may look back and cringe at our rudimentary methods of connecting the town through personal comments pasted on online stories.

But community conversation at a time like this, I think, can be good, perhaps, even healthy.

• Cheri Matthews, editor of the Tracy Press, can be reached by phone (830-4201) e-mail (cherim@tracypress.com) or blog (www.editor-matthews.blogspot.com).

Remembering Molly Ivins

2007-02-01T08:25:00.000-08:00

One of my great mentors, the feisty and funny Molly Ivins, died last night, and I can't go another minute without paying tribute here to her. We ran her columns in the Tracy Press for many years, and about five years ago, I was thrilled to listen to her speak at Smith College in Massachusetts.

What's the most important message I got from this Texas journalist?

"Raise more hell."

Comments on a tragedy

2007-01-28T13:52:00.000-08:00

This is a first. Just this week, we added a "comment" function on the bottom of our stories posted on the Web site. And just this weekend, we got our first story tips on those very comments. The tips have led to information about a fatal car crash at West High School late Saturday night involving four West High students.

Reporter John Upton and photographer Glenn Moore are now at the scene, where a memorial to student Mike Ucci has been set up at the school's flag pole and counselors are on hand to talk to grieving students. A candlelight vigil is planned for 7 tonight.

Thank you to all the citizen journalists who have provided information and to the thousands of Internet users who are visiting our Web site.

Tracy Press, personified

2007-01-24T19:39:00.000-08:00

I got this e-mail today and almost deleted it before I read it.

Just wanted to say Hi to everyone over there, my name is Tracy Press! Bet I am not the first one to write to you to point something like this out. I am English (I live in the county of Essex) and just found out there is a newspaper with my name on it so wanted to say Hi. Thanks for reading this.
-Tracy Press

I asked her/him to send a photo! (It's a her, I see.)

Private time, public business

2007-01-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

Got a funny call at home this weekend from an advertiser who told me there was a mistake with her ad in Saturday's paper, and she was sure I would have caught it, being the editor and all.

I explained that editors are responsible for what's in the news pages, not the ads, and then my husband (the publisher), intervened and whispered, "Tell her, we'll refund her money for the ad."

Now comes the funny part. I told her about the refund, and here's her response:

"Just get that Suzanne Tucker to give up her e-mails, and you can keep your 273 bucks."

Of course, it's probably going to cost us more than that, if we have to take Vice Mayor Tucker to court to get her to give up her e-mails written to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory regarding a proposed bio-agent laboratory a mile from Tracy.

We've asked her, informally and formally, for the e-mails, buoyed by our belief that we have the law on our side. The California Public Records Act, for one, requires “writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used or retained by any state or local agency” be made public no more than 10 days after it is requested.
The California Constitution also includes a section that reads, “the writings of public officials … shall be open to public scrutiny.”

In case you've missed our stories about Tucker and her elusive e-mail, here's the latest story.

As always, feel free to comment.

All the news that's fit to wear

2007-01-14T17:23:00.000-08:00

While I'm on the "what to do with newspapers" bandwagon, here's an artist who makes jewelry out of old newspapers and sells them on NewspaperJewelry.com. She uses the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Tampa Tribune and other newspapers with "interesting patterns," she told Editor & Publisher. And she sells the earrings, cufflinks, necklaces and bracelets for anywhere from $49 to $2,500.

Now that's the kind of recycling I like to see!

A taker!

2007-01-12T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here's Laurann Dong of Tracy wearing her just-folded newspaper hat. Looks good, but did she use the Tracy Press?

Photo by Diane Dong

Not so funny!

2007-01-11T21:04:00.000-08:00

I read the comics while I rode BART back from the city today and didn't notice our mistake until I got this e-mail:
Hello Cheri, I was really disappointed when I opened my Tracy Press to the comics page this morning. The comics in today's paper are not today's comics. I don't know if they are tomorrow's or maybe even Saturday's, but they were not today's. This is OK with some comics, as they are not serials. But for comics such as my favorite serials, Baldo and For Better or For Worse, it is not so good. It is like skipping a chapter in a book. ... What comic strips will you put in the paper on the day that these comic strips are from? Will you repeat them again?

Yes, the humans have erred . Apparently, we got our days mixed up and printed Friday's comics today (Thursday). So that means we'll print today's comics tomorrow (Friday).

Confusing and embarrassing. Our apologies to Zits, Baldo, Dilbert and the whole comics gang.

Meanwhile, I love hearing from comic-strip aficionados, some of the most passionate newspaper readers out there.

This reminds me that when "Fox Trot" ended syndication recently, we had to choose a replacement quickly. We're trying out "Mutts," because it supposedly appeals to a similar, young demographic. Plus, we didn't have any other animal comic strips.

All comics comments accepted here!

What a newspaper's good for

2007-01-10T13:00:00.000-08:00

Ever make a pressman's hat out of a folded-up newspaper? If you make one and send me a photo of someone wearing it, I'll put it on this blog — and in Our Town.

I haven't tried this with our tabloid-sized TP, so I'm not sure if a Tracy Press hat would fit a modern-day pressman.

If you want to try it, here are some instructions from the Salt Lake City Deseret News.

Another word of the year

2007-01-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

Somebody asked me recently if he was going to be "plutoed." Huh, I asked? Then I saw the same word when I read that the American Dialect Society chose its word of the year — plutoed.

To pluto is to "demote or devalue someone or something." Remember what happened to the former planet Pluto last year?

I like it! We'll see if this word appears in the Tracy Press sometime soon.

By the way, the American Dialect Society chose "truthiness" last year as its top word, which Merriam-Webster declared as its 2006 word of the year a month ago.

Other words considered by the society of wordsmiths: murse (man's purse), flog (fake blog) and macaca (an American citizen treated as an alien).

News vs. advertising

2007-01-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

I’ll come right out with this one: I’m not a fan of ads that masquerade as news.

I think readers deserve to know the difference between commercial newspaper space and the space we devote to news. That’s why whenever there’s a question as to whether an ad looks too much like news, we put the words “Paid Advertisement” on the top of the ad.

Or we should. This week, a two-page spread for “Golden State quarters” from a company called the World Reserve Monetary Exchange accidentally lost its advertising disclaimer when it was resized in our production room. To make matters worse, the entire package mimicked the news so much, with its headlines, graphics and bylined story, that it confused some readers, who thought our newsroom staff had written the copy.

One man said he thought we’d been duped into believing what we wrote — that we had only 48 hours to get a piece of a private hoard of never-circulated quarters.

Another, a local coin collector, said we should know that we can buy the same Golden State quarters from the U.S. Mint for less than what this private company charges. And he was pretty sure that anyone who bought the novelty coins wasn’t going to get rich, as the ad suggests.

So I did what any good journalist would do and called the 800 number on the ad to find out more about what the World Reserve Monetary Exchange was selling — the rolls of quarters, “available only to Californians.”

The woman who answered the phone first asked for my ZIP code, to prove I was a California resident. While she checked to see if 95376 is truly in California, I pulled out my calculator. If I bought a roll of 25 quarters for laundry next door at the Bank of America, I would shell out $6.25. But these special quarters, the woman on the phone told me, would cost $21.10 for a roll, including processing and postage. She preferred to sell me 10 rolls, she said, and I’d better hurry with my decision, because the offer was only good for another 48 hours.
I made a mental note to check on that offer after two days.

Now, I’m no expert on the value of coins — circulated, never-circulated, golden or not-so-golden — and I haven’t the faintest idea what would happen to those values if I were to bury a roll of these special quarters for my great-great-grandchildren.

But I do know about ethics. Which brings me back to separating news from advertising. The Society of Professional Journalists, an organization that urges conscientious journalists to seek truth and report it, tells us that we should always distinguish news from paid advertising — “and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.”

I’m sorry that we didn’t do that Wednesday on pages 12 and 13 of the Tracy Press. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of credibility in a newspaper, and I’m afraid we lost some of our value this week

Editing Wikipedia

2006-12-20T10:45:00.000-08:00

Make that 1943 for the family ownership. The paper's first issue was, indeed, 1898.

It's easy to edit Wikipedia but not so easy to figure out who first posted the item on Nov. 14. Looks like somebody with the name neomandude60.

Hello, neomandude!

Wikipedia and us

2006-12-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

I noticed this morning on Google Alerts that the Tracy Press has made the big time. Somebody recently listed us in Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. I really like the second line.

Can anyone explain how items are added to Wikipedia? Who wrote this, and would you have written it the same way?

Take a look!

The newspaper of Tracy, California that's been run by the Matthews since 1898. Bob Matthews is the publisher and Cheri Matthews is the editor. It's probably the only San Francisco East Bay newspaper not owned by MediaNews Group.
The Tracy Press endorsed Republican Richard Pombo when he was defeated by Jerry McNerney in the 2006 midterm election and the same year endorsed Celeste Garamendi, the sister of Democrat John Garamendi, when she was defeated by Republican Brent Ives for mayor. Its editorials are usually more conservative than its articles.

2006-12-19T18:54:00.000-08:00

Photo by Enrique/Tracy Press

You are Time Magazine's Person of the Year

2006-12-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this, pat yourself on the back. Time has named You, the blogging, googling, youtubing, myspacing, vlogging (my son just taught me that term this morning) masses as its Person of the Year.

Certainly, You have changed the way information has been gathered and disseminated for the Tracy Press. Your e-mails, blog comments and responses to our Web site have changed the way we do our jobs. You've provided ideas, information and news content.

I think Time Magazine is definitely on to something with this year's choice. What do you think?

Perfect rainbow moment

2006-12-15T14:35:00.000-08:00

Sue Spencer took this photo last week of a perfect rainbow over the Tracy Press office.

I can't let a good photo go to waste, so here it is!

Access to information

2006-12-13T17:33:00.000-08:00

Oh, if only all public agencies provided information like this. Les Garcia from the San Joaquin Sheriff's Department just e-mailed this notice:

"We've added a new feature to assist the public and media with access to information of inmates currently in the San Joaquin County Jail."

Check out "Who's In Custody" on the sheriff's department Web site.

Now if only reporters had easier access to inmates at California's state prisons for face-to-face interviews.

Not-so-honored tradition

2006-12-13T11:30:00.000-08:00

For years — 30, at least — we've printed the names of honor roll students when Tracy schools send them to us. Since we started the Saturday Our Town section, we've made an effort to run whatever lists the schools send us. Lately, though, I've noticed that most schools aren't sending us honor rolls as often as they used to, for whatever reason.

Today I read that the principal of a high school in Needham, Mass., has decided not to send the town's newspaper the names of students who have made the honor roll. That decision has made national news. Apparently, in the last month in Needham, two students were killed in car accidents, and in the last two years, four students have committed suicide.

"In my opinion, this high-expectations-high-achievement culture has a dark side to it," Needham High Principal Paul Richards wrote in a press release. "As principal, I've heard a message loud and clear that stress is a primary concern for parents. ... The publishing of an honor roll has been identified as a potential contributor to the focus on grades."

What do you think? Do you think the principal has gone too far? Do you like to see honor rolls in the Tracy Press? Or do you agree that it contributes to student stress?

I'd love to hear from parents of schoolchildren and school administrators.

Word of the Year

2006-12-08T16:27:00.000-08:00

This just in: Top 10 words of 2006, according to Merriam-Webster. Heard any of these words lately?

1. truthiness
2. google
3. decider
4. war
5. insurgent
6. terrorism
7. vendetta
8. sectarian
9. quagmire
10. corruption

Here's part of the Associated Press report:

After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is — "truthiness."
The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster.

"Truthiness" was credited to Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert, who defined it as "truth that comes from the gut, not books.

Bloggers, unite

2006-11-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

We're looking for other local bloggers who wouldn't mind if we linked to them from the Tracy Press Web site. Do you have a blog in Tracy or about Tracy? Let me know!

Reverse circ plunge: Give readers what they want

2006-11-16T17:15:00.000-08:00

The last comment mentioned an article in Editor & Publisher. I haven't found that article, but I did find this one. Interesting. We've done what the author Mark Moore has suggested — we've gone tab, almost-free and short (as in story lengths). I can't imagine dropping our editorial page, though. What's a newspaper without that?

Survival mechanism: Should newspapers delay release of content?

2006-11-14T18:58:00.000-08:00

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, suggests that "Newspapers are not dead yet, but their hoped-for rebirth as Internet ventures requires a new strategy to create value in their journalism." Scheer proposes that newspapers agree to a 24-hour delay in release of their content, free, on the Web.

Yes, it's an idea worth considering. But in a competitive newspaper environment, as we have here in Tracy, would our competitors agree to such a standard? I doubt it.

Meanwhile, we continue to put our news on the Web site without the online advertising revenue to support it.

Any comments on Scheer's column?

Slideshow feedback

2006-11-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

I got a handful of positive comments about the slideshow on Thursday and Friday, and we've sold six CDs. They'll be available in our office Monday, if anyone still wants copies.

Here's a portion of an e-mail I got that shows the only negative comment so far.

I will compliment you on your slideshow of the candidates. I wish this would have been available so the rest of us could comment, but apparently that was not in the plan. I hope it wasn’t a plan and just an oversight.

With all the clamor about getting the public involved in the process, limiting time on items from the audience, baseless accusations that the public is not being heard and the accusations of secret backroom developer “deals,” holding on to this information until after the period of time for public comment as letters to the editor has expired doesn’t seem right to me. Why it almost looks alike a back room deal between the Press and TRAQC.

A sneak preview

2006-11-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

This is for Friday's paper. The candidate slideshow should be up on the Web site soon!

Editor’s Notes

Some unsolicited insight

As I write this, a man holds a sign at the corner of 11^th Street and Tracy Boulevard to protest the Tracy Press congressional endorsement editorial. I’m OK with that. He reads the paper, which I like, and he's entitled to his soapbox.

One of the callers who told me about the sign-man asked why it is that the newspaper took a stand on the Pombo-McNerney race — or any other race.

Good question. Like most newspapers, we maintain a strict separation between the editorial pages and news operations. Reporters are not supposed to have bias — or, at least, show it — in the stories they write, and the same goes for those of us who edit news copy. Our obligation is to be fair and accurate in our presentation of the news.

A newspaper’s endorsement of a candidate or an issue isn’t some kind of weird ego trip, despite what some might say. It’s an expression of the opinion of the publisher and editorial board, which, at the Tracy Press, is made up of a handful of the newspaper’s family members and managers. Those opinions show up on the editorial pages, where readers are encouraged to share their viewpoints, too.

Publishing endorsements is a traditional role for newspapers. Back in the early 1900s, the Tracy Press ran front-page pitches for presidential hopefuls. Many newspapers proclaimed their political leanings in their nameplates. Most have altered their names over the years, such as the Arizona Republic, which used to be the Arizona Republican. But some, like the Santa Rosa Democrat, have kept their names.

That early political zeal died down, of course, and it wasn’t until 1990 that the Tracy Press started publishing endorsements for local candidates on its opinion pages — now called Voice.

We’ve always had a front-row seat on politics and a leadership role in the community, and at the very least, we figure our independent views can serve the purpose of provoking thought and discussion. At the same time, we try to get out as much information about the candidates and the issues as we can so readers have something on which to base their decisions at the ballot box.

Last Saturday, we ran eight pages of Q&As from the City Council and mayor candidates so that Our Town readers could get to know them better. Also, on two separate evenings last month, we held public forums in a school gymnasium with the candidates for Congress, state Assembly and City Council and mayor. The forums were televised and have been aired nearly every day on the city’s community-access cable Channel 26.

Just this week, we thought of something else we could do, and when the two mayoral candidates showed up for their face-to-face interviews with the editorial board, we asked them if they’d be willing to participate in an experiment for the sake of open democracy. We audiotaped the 1½-hour sessions, edited them to roughly 40 minutes each and put them on our Web site, with photos.

We also made CDs of the interviews — the uncut, audio portion — and have them available for readers in our front office. The price is a $1 (minimum) donation to the California First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit public interest organization dedicated to advancing free speech and open-government rights.

One of our objectives in opening the window to this process is to show you what we asked the candidates and what they answered. We hope you’ll take a look and a listen and let us know what you think.

Who knows? By the time the next election comes around, we’ll probably be webcasting. And the protesting sign-man will probably still come around.

Slideshows

2006-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

We've started something new, and I'd love some feedback from readers.

To check it out, go back to the Tracy Press home page and click on "Slideshows" about halfway down on the far-left column. That will take you to our very first slideshow. Click on the red "West Building Demolition" link, and you'll see "End of an Era," photos that Glenn Moore shot on Oct. 21 and 22 at Tracy High School, when the old West Building saw its final days. To start the slideshow, press the small arrow near the far-left bottom corner of the photo.

We plan to shoot the Halloween parade on Saturday for another show and, this time, we'll use audio, too. So watch for that in the next few days.

Let me know what you think!

Editor's Notes column

2006-10-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

Here's what's running in Saturday's Tracy Press:

Seeing stars again

The Voice pages are packed during election season, and bringing up a topic not related to the races is asking for trouble right now.

But this is nothing compared to what happened when I thought the newspaper could exist without its daily horoscope.

The women who answer our phones at the Tracy Press have now tallied 50 calls of complaint — sometimes howling diatribes — about the disappearance of the daily prediction of events. Several weeks ago, in an effort to gain space for news stories, we dropped one comics page, which had been home to the signs of the zodiac. We moved some puzzles to the first pages of classifieds and added a weekly horoscope.

Who knew that a daily dose of astrology is more important to some readers than the police blotter or the obituaries or — imagine this — the latest developer agreement in town? Not me.

One woman, a Capricorn, explained that her daily habit is really a necessity. When she read her weekly horoscope in the Tracy Press this week, it left her defeated. It said, “News you will receive hits you very hard, Capricorn. But there is nothing you can do to change the situation, so you just have to work through it.”

Now she has to wait a week before she gets another message, when she’d really like some advice for how to get through the next few days of — something bad.

Then there was the woman who stopped in our office after West High’s homecoming parade Friday to ask if there was a chance the horoscope would be in today’s paper. The last one she’d read had said her relationship would fizzle — and it did — and now she wants to know what’s coming next.

For Cindy, whose last name will go unmentioned because she reads the paper when she’s supposed to be working for one of the largest employers in town, the horoscope is her morning ritual.

“We just have a nice little chitchat about our horoscopes in our department before we start our day,” she writes, using her work e-mail. “It wakes us up, and we move on.”

One of the women in her office says she knows how to deal with her husband after she reads her horoscope. Another says she just likes to be entertained.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but by the end of October in an election year, politics ceases to be entertaining to me. I’m tired of the TV ads, the mailbox junk, the survey calls and the computerized messages left on my answering machine.

I could really use a horoscope to read today. Here’s what I’m imagining I’ll find: “You could make at least 50 readers happy today.”

So here you go. If you really want to know what’s happening, skip over the news and go directly to Page 35.

• Cheri Matthews, editor of the Tracy Press, can be reached by phone (830-4201) e-mail (cherim@tracypress.com) or blog (www.editor-matthews.blogspot.com).

More horo-calls

2006-10-17T18:39:00.000-07:00

Just got this update on the horoscope calls:

Here's an update on the "tally" marks. We started a new sheet when we gave you the one last week. So the second sheet was started on 10/10/06, and as of today at 5:01p.m., you may add 13 more readers who miss the horoscope.

Also, I've fixed the "comment" button on this posting, so comment away!

Astrological musings

2006-10-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

The women who answer our phones have tallied 33 calls of complaint that the daily horoscope has disappeared from the paper. Who knows how many others are unable to face their days without the daily dose of astrology?

But I'm learning from the comments that have drifted upstairs that the daily horoscope isn't a necessity of life. It's just a harmless habit, one that lots of folks enjoy.

Cindy, whose last name will go unmentioned because she reads her horoscope when she's supposed to be working for one of the largest employers in town, said the horoscope is her morning ritual.

"We just have a nice little chitchat in our department before we start our day, and it wakes us up, and we move on," she writes, using her work e-mail.

One of the women in her office says she knows how to deal with her husband after she reads her horoscope. Another says she just likes to be entertained.

I don't suppose the news plays the same role as a useful and amusing horoscope.

Horoscope homesickness

2006-10-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since we dropped the daily horoscope from the Tracy Press. We dropped several other features at the same time to make more room for news, and we added a weekly horoscope, which runs in classifieds on Tuesdays. But it's the daily horoscope that's generated the most calls.

I plan to take a close look this week at those responses. I have to admit surprise. At the risk of alienating dedicated readers, I'll admit that I consider the horoscope to be space-filler. I believe in all sorts of things, from UFOs to global warming, but I don't give credence to horoscope writers who tell me that I'll have unexpected good luck today or that I need to exercise discretion. They say I'm a sensitive but tough Taurus. Duh! Isn't everybody?

I'd like to hear directly from daily astrology readers. Do you miss Horoscopes by Holiday? Was it the first place you turned in the newspaper? Should we bring it back?

Is a daily newspaper necessary?

2006-10-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

Perhaps you've considered that question, especially if you're a longtime reader of the Tracy Press. Looking at the history of our paper, it's gone from being a weekly to three days a week, from three to five days, then six and seven days a week, back to six and finally to five days a week, which is our publishing schedule in 2006.

The main reason for dropping the Monday paper last year, of course, was financial. Newspaper operations are expensive ones, and for us, a family paper, Monday advertising revenues weren't coming close to covering the costs of delivering on those days. Plus, we noticed that a considerable number of home subscribers weren't picking up their newspapers on Monday mornings.

Our publishing schedule is a constant topic of conversation for us. That's why I found a story in this week's Editor and Publisher (subscriber-only — sorry!) magazine to be so interesting. It gives credit to Hazel Reinhardt of Media Management Center for suggesting that small-market newspapers would be better off publishing five or six days a week instead of seven. That was considered heresay in the 1990s, the article says. But seven-day publishing is losing favor, as more and more papers are looking at dropping Monday and even Tuesday papers.

Meanwhile, I wouldn't have time to blog on a Sunday, as I'm doing today, if I had a Monday paper to put out. Instead, I'll take the day off (what a concept!) and update the Monday Web site later this evening.

Back to blogging

2006-10-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Blogging is a lot like running a newspaper. Every day starts with a blank slate, and every night, ink meets paper, while the presses roll out a new edition. And if the newspaper doesn't make it to every front doorstep, the phones ring wildly the next morning.

WHERE'S MY TRACY PRESS?

Wait.
It's not the same with my blog.
I didn't update my Editor's Notes blog for two months, and I got, maybe, two comments.

But I'm back now, with new blogging software and a slightly new look. I even went to a seminar on "Figuring Out Blogs and Whatever's Next" at the USC's Annenberg School of Journalism. And I'm going to put what I learned to use.

I like this forum, with its potential of connecting with readers. So thanks for visiting. Feel free to comment. And come back often!

- Cheri

Journalists protest pressure to reveal sources

2006-08-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Journalist groups on Saturday protested the jailing of a video journalist and other recent federal court rulings pressuring media workers to divulge information to the government.

From the Associated Press:
The news media becomes an information-gathering arm of law enforcement when journalists are ordered to give up confidential sources or unpublished material, said Tony Overman, president of the National Press Photographers Association.

"When news sources believe that statements or actions observed or reported by journalists find their way into the hands of police or prosecutors, those sources will be less willing -- or flat-out afraid -- to cooperate with the media," Overman said at the press conference in San Francisco.

The photographers association and the Society of Professional Journalists announced they would help pay for the legal defense of freelance video journalist Joshua Wolf.

A federal judge in San Francisco ordered Wolf jailed this week for refusing to hand over unaired video shot during a July 2005 protest in which a police car was vandalized and an officer was injured.

Wolf's defense lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes, said jail officials blocked him from seeing his client until Saturday, five days after his incarceration, and that Wolf remains steadfast in refusing to surrender the footage.

"It smells and appears to be punishment, which is not what the civil contempt order is about -- it's about coercion," he said. "If he can't make phone calls to his mother or have visits from his mother, and he is denied visits from his attorney, it would seem that's all punishment."

Posted by cmatthews at August 6, 2006 08:39 AM

Comments

The question of reavaling sources is an interesting one. In terms of investigative reporting, it is crucial to the ability of the press to function that they are able to protect the anonymity of their sources.

However, when it comes to the realm of political opinion, the press has no responsibility. For instance, the recent attack letter by Nicholas Villagomez could easily have been identified as coming from a field representative of Greg Aghazarian. That was clearly a hit piece planted by Carl Fogliani, a political campaign consultant whose work is shared by Richard Pombo and Aghazarian. Including that simple statement would have changed the meaning of the entire letter and Mr. Villagomez chose to hide that fact.

Cheri, this campaign is going to get very dirty. This is only an early skirmish. I find it interesting that Pombo, Fogliani and Wayne Johnson seem to fear McCloskey more than they do McNerney. Pete gave them trouble in the primary, forcing them to born a lot of money. He is still giving them trouble. You should think about the fact that there might be a connection between the issues that Pete is focusing on, corruption and the Marianas, and the scope of the effort that they making to discredit him. If there is nothing to that story, as Fogliani continues to parrot, then why are they making such a fuss?

Posted by: Wes Rolley at August 11, 2006 08:46 AM

Wes, I looked at the Marianas issue and found that the dots, timelines, and everything else really didn't line up to implicate Pombo in anything unethical. The allegations of corruption just haven't led anywhere either. We found that relative to other members of congress, like Dem. Rep. Miller who carried out far more extravagant travels with family members during approximately the same time period, Pombo's decision to rent an RV and along with his family go on a tour of parks he oversees seemed pretty low key. All of it was approved by those in Congress overseeing these types of activities. If there is a problem with it, then Congress should amend its rules. For Miller, McCloskey and other's to make this their case that Pombo is corrupt is pretty lame. If they can't do better than that, they have nothing. I'm not sure why Pombo's camp is over reacting to it, but the game of politics is never easy to explain, and all tactics that political consultants like Wayne Johnson seem to do is reinforce the cynicism that causes people to not participate in the voting process.

Posted by: Bob Matthews at September 27, 2006 08:49 AM

test

Posted by: test at October 1, 2006 03:53 PM

Curious what the Tracy Press is doing to help get rid of Pombo. With wind energy (not to mention a lack of corruption) an obvious boon to the local economy, perhaps McNerney's connections can be of use to us? Will you officially endorse him? Or at the very least, ignore Pombo's publicity machine?

Thanks!

Posted by: Dave Rayster at October 9, 2006 04:00 PM

Temperatures hit record highs

2006-07-25T18:10:00.000-07:00

For the first time in my adult life, the recent headlines have held little luster for me. Meaningful news has been delivered only by doctors in a rural hospital in Montana, where my mom is very sick. I guess you could say I'm out of the loop, and I'm thankful for the reporters, editors and photographers I have working for me.

Meanwhile, I'm getting angry e-mails about the photo of the dead calf we have on today's home page and newspaper cover. I'm collecting all opinions, and I'd like to write a column.

Posted by cmatthews at July 25, 2006 02:44 PM

Comments

First of all, Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery for your Mom.

My first thought at reading the complaint letter in today's edition of the TP was, “Oh, boohoo”, I think some people are a bit too sensitive to be reading a newspaper, where they may learn about some of the harsh things going on in the world around us. The photo was not gruesome in any way, beyond the fact that it depicted a dead cow.

Posted by: Jim Freeman at July 27, 2006 10:12 AM

Glad to have you back and sympathize with you regarding your trip to Montana. I hope things turned out well in that respect.

With respect to the dead cow on the front page. I wouldn't worry about it. People complain about anything for no apparent good reason.

It amazes me that people will shell out as much as $15 per head to go and see the latest blood and meyham at the theater, pay huge sums of money to watch what amounts to pornography on television and yet a picture of a dead cow on the front page of the paper turns their stomach?

Give me a break please! Has this world suddenly gone completely insane or have I simply not been paying attention to what has been going on?

It's kind of like the article I wrote regarding the gutters and drains in the subdivision that contains Zanussi Park.

One person complains about me lurking around and learing through fences, even though I was driving my car. Another complains of the gutter in another side of town, which I was not addressing at all. Then one of our local writers impunes I am a lord from Austria and insults all of the people involved by accusing them of pimping.

So don't worry about the nonsence that people come up with. I have become use to it.

Take care.

Dave

The great newspaper consolidation of '06

2006-07-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

The Associated Press reports that Clinton Reilly, a millionaire real estate investor, is suing to prevent McClatchy Inc. from completing a $737 million deal to sell three of the Bay Area newspapers it picked up in its recent acquisition of Knight Ridder Inc.

The proposed deal "will result in the defendants' control of every major newspaper in the greater Bay Area," Reilly's attorney, Joe Alioto, said in a statement. That will result in higher rates for subscriptions and advertising, more-limited news and editorial coverage and decreased newspaper quality, he said.

For some food for thought, check out John McManus at Grade the News.

Posted by cmatthews at July 15, 2006 03:47 PM

Comments

Kudo's to one of the only "family owned" papers left in this state...
Interesting the priority of concerns started with higher rates for subscriptions, then concern over advertising rates, and then finally limited news and editorial coverage. That would have been my first concern....

Mum no more

2006-07-14T18:08:00.001-07:00

I'm still scratching my head over writer Robert Novak's column Thursday, in which he breaks his silence -- sort of -- about the sources for his July 2003 column that identified CIA officer Valerie Plame.

Up until now, Novak, whose syndicated columns run in the Tracy Press, would never say whether he'd appeared before a grand jury or ever revealed his sources. I assumed he had and debated canceling our contract for running his column. While other reporters were either jailed or threatened with jail time for refusing to give up the sources who had leaked classified information to them, Novak, who had been the first to write about Plame, appeared to sit comfortably.

This week, Novak wrote that he'd testified before a grand jury in February 2004, that the special prosecutor by that time already knew the names of his sources, and that his sources (including White House adviser Karl Rove) had granted him legal waivers to testify. He names only two of those sources; his super-secret source remains shielded out of journalistic obligation, he wrote.

One last tidbit is that Novak said he'd figured out the identity of Ambassador Wilson's wife all on his own. He'd gotten Plame's name from an entry in "Who's Who in America."

Of course, the "leak" wasn't her name at all; it was the fact that Joe Wilson's wife was a CIA operative.

Meanwhile, Plame has sued Rove along with Vice President Dick Cheney, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.

More meltdown in Santa Barbara

2006-07-14T18:08:00.000-07:00

Reporters at the Santa Barbara News-Press are silently protesting today following the resignation of a sixth editor at the paper. Owner Wendy McCaw published a front-page note to readers Thursday that characterized the paper's turmoil as a disagreement about local coverage.

The Tracy Press has an Associated Pres story today that reports that some of the departed insist ethics are at the heart of the matter, while the newspaper's ownership say a focus on local news led to the exits.

R-rated Annie?

2006-07-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

I just got this letter and wonder if other readers agree. What do you think?

"I am finally disgusted enough to write about the layout of the Tracy
Press. In the Wednesday morning edition, I found the disgusting letter to 'Annie's Mailbox' amid the comics. The content of that letter was R-rated at best. This column contains sexual innuendo at least three times a week. I find this trend disturbing and distracting when reading the comics with my children.

"Moreover, you run advertisements encouraging parents and children to read the paper together. However, I don't take my children to PG-13 movies, and I shouldn't have to come across that sort of material while reading the paper with them. My son, who is nearly 11, often reads this column before I can get to the paper and rip out that section. He doesn't need to be curious about this type of material at his age!

"Please put this column on some other page or delete it."

Posted by cmatthews at July 10, 2006 07:47 AM

Comments

The reader is more than within his or her rights to edit the paper for his or her own children, or even cancel a subscription. In fact, last time I checked, that's exactly the kind of role a parent should be playing in the life of a child — establishing boundaries, instilling moral values and determining what is and is not appropriate.
However, that is not the job of a newspaper, its editors or its writers. Bowing to the most-sensitive readers in any community would lead to a blank newspaper. Let the parents be parents and the newspaper be a newspaper.
On a personal note, I wouldn't be opposed to taking out the Mailbox and putting in a couple of other comic strips, but mostly because I find many of the people needing advice simply lack common sense.
Thanks for the posting...

Posted by: J. Mendelson at July 10, 2006 06:32 PM

Glad to have you blogging again, Cheri.

Posted by: Ed Gable at July 11, 2006 10:09 AM

Have I been missing something? PG? R? Must read it again. My opinion of "Annie's Mailbox" is much like Jon Mendelson's. The writers lack commmon sense. I'm glad parents read the paper, especially the comics, with their children. But what do you do with Garfrield's oversexed but underfulfilled owner? How do you --or does anyone-- explain "Bizarro"? What about Bucky's bad attitude in "Get Fuzzy?" I wonder if the letter writer thinks positively about the horoscopes? I am most offended by the daily body count in the news from Iraq. What do you say to a child about that?

Posted by: Mike McLellan at July 11, 2006 10:25 AM

I learned to read via the newspaper and supermarket tabloids. I can remember being 6 years old and sounding out Nos-tra-damus in a "Weekly World News" story about his predictions that "marked the end of the world was near." Newspaper stories taught me about "adultery," "sodomy," "homosexual," and others words I'm sure my mother wasn't ready to define for me at that age but did.
But, it was the Bible that gave me the rudest awakening as a child.
At 8 years old, it taught me that no matter how good I was, I could never go to heaven. The family Bible was quite old, printed long before Vatican II, and it had a glossary section that served as a quick reference guide for the curious Catholic. Reading it, I came across a challenging word I'd never seen before: illegitimate. The Bible defined the word as a child who is the product of unmarried parents. The entry went on to say that such children, borne of sin, were not eligible for entry into heaven.
The next day, I discussed heaven with my mom and who in our family was there. I matter-of-factly told her that I was sad not to meet those relatives. She assured me that I would get my chance when I got there.
Imagine the look on a mother's face when her 8-year-old says, "No, I don't get to go to heaven because I'm illegitimate." I could see her blood boil. "Who told you that?" she demanded to know. "I read it last night in the Bible. The Bible says that illegitimate children can't go to heaven, and I know I'm illegitimate because you've never been married."
She said something under her breath, told me that the Bible was really old and that I should pay it no attention. When I went to bed that night, I noticed it was gone from my bedside table.
Up to that point, the Bible had been my best source for salacious reading (it full of tales of sex, murder and subterfuge) -- stuff children who, like me, weren't allowed to watch movies rated higher than PG or TV shows that aired after 8 p.m., never were exposed to. After that, the sanitized facts of newspapers dulled by comparison.

Posted by: Tonya at July 12, 2006 10:51 AM

Editor's Notes

We got the grant!

Week 4: A copy editor

Week 3: A photographer

Week 2: A reporter

Millennium's journalists

Hello, Millennium students

Sunshine experiment in Palo Alto

Main Street America

Similar public records cases

Congress passes Open Government Act

Press Club takes notice

Top stories of 2007

CNPA, CFAC join Tracy Press in challenge

Crimes of Grammar

Spelling champs!

Visitors to newspaper Web sites on increase

Journalists on stamps

Is that the Tracy Press?

Update from CNPA

Faithful readers

Public access denied

Judge's statement

Have Your Say

All comments, questions welcome

What's meat got to do with the state Constitution?

Photographer Glenn Moore

Call me crazy

In another part of the world

Word of the Day

What a news day

Damsel in distress

Editor's Notes

The Tracy Press and you

Shameless marketing or just despair?

Can you spell these words?

Hope for newspapers

Time to blog again

Ugh — mistakes

Outsourced reporting from India, oh my!

This is sports

Intern Night at the TP

Federal shield law is needed

Paint the TP purple

New challenges, old ethics

Good news for Bay Area journalism

Tracy Press subpoena

Legendary journalist Halberstam dies

What's your (local) news IQ?

No competition

Silly editors

Tracy Press sues city

City councilmembers' e-mails

Correct Me If I'm Wrong

Sunshine Week Part 2

Sunshine Week, Part 1

Letter from California

24-hour journalism

Anonymous Postcards from Tracy, California

Here's to readers

MediaNews Monopoly

Anonymous darts cause commotion online

Remembering Molly Ivins

Comments on a tragedy

Tracy Press, personified

Private time, public business

All the news that's fit to wear

A taker!

Not so funny!

What a newspaper's good for

Another word of the year

News vs. advertising

Editing Wikipedia

Wikipedia and us

You are Time Magazine's Person of the Year

Perfect rainbow moment

Access to information

Not-so-honored tradition

Word of the Year

Bloggers, unite