good days at the santa barbara news-press

Then there's a major chasm here. With no exception, I know no one in any newsroom who would dare take a stand on an issue unless it affected them, and even then they exercised discretion.

 

Different experiences, I guess....I've certainly f-bombed a boss under the heat of deadline, but that's a little different, I guess, than yelling "fuck you" to the actiing publisher.

But the SB scene has been recounted by several observers, the editor was apparently highly respected. I certainly believe it happened that way.

 

I'm not doubting that and without siding with DP, I'd have to say the SB must have been a great place to work before this fiasco. At MOST papers everyone would have looked the other way when the F-bombs started flying. That or had some hallucinogenic version of the event.

 

Without siding with annoyed, I'd have to say that's much what I thought.

It's easy for people to say, "Yeah, I did that" after the fact.

The only reason there's any doubt in my mind is so many people ended up quitting.

 

I will point out here that California Newspaper Publisher's Association awards were announced yesterday and Santa Barbara took first or second place in seven categories for the 25k-75k range. This is a pretty competitive category and that's a pretty good showing for 2005. So yes, it's a good paper.

1st in Editorial Pages

2nd in Lifestyle Coverage

2nd in Investigative or Enterprise Reporting

2nd in Environmental Reporting

1st in Front Page

2nd in Page Layout & Design

2nd in General Excellence

 

Aww, isn't that cute, all the smug smirking Mr. Publishers get together to give one of their own a nice gentle pat on the ass. : :

That'll show those uppity journos!! What the hell do they know!! How dare they speak up against Ms. Publisher, who just wants to run her bidness the way she sees fit??

 

Laurels for a staff which no longer exists as such. Won't happen again.

 

New York Times update (from today's paper):

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/17/b...ml?_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=all