Two NP Press Operators Fired
In another case study for the SDLG Center for Union Busting Studies -- The Indy reported that two press operators at the News-Press printing plant were fired....both of whom had not signed last week's full page ad in the paper. Yolanda Apodaca -- now known as "The Angel of Death" among the remaining staff (according to Craig Smith's blog) -- gave them the news. One of the workers, who had been there 26 years, reported that they were fired for not following a policy that they had never been informed of...where is the NLRB?
Labels: Santa Barbara News-Press
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 2/24/2007 09:33:00 AM
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27 Comments:
Amazing. Has the NLRB been paid off? Have strings been pulled? Where is the calvary to the rescue?
The NLRB, like so many institutions that are supposedly in place to help those without financial power, has been watered down by Washington, which is to say it hasn't been paid off, but our representatives at the capitol were bought by the elite long ago and do their bidding while telling the middle class they have our best interests at heart.
This whole thing is turning into a sad reminder that the rich operate within a different country under a different rule of law than the rest of us...and that most of us are too lazy to care.
The reason the NLRB doesn't have the resources to quickly defend the working class is the working class has been lulled into compacency at the ballot box by lobby-owned politicians who survive on our inaction. Think about this in 2008 when you don't go to the polls because you're convinced your vote doesn't matter - by giving up, we've let the rich destroy the few scant resourcs us workers had to ensure a secure future in exchange for an honest life of work.
To the press guys,
You guys are the unsung heroes of the business. Thank you for all your years of hard work. It's laborious work performed in dangerous condtions at night and, let's not forget, weekend nights.
It's a shame that your careers at the News-Press would end this way, Carl and Ramon. The community knows that and the remaining people at the paper (at least the caring majority), plus those who have already departed, know it too.
If some jerks jump on these boards and start to slam you or something just ignore it. It's not worth your worry. That paper has come out before dawn year in and year out, so cheers to you for making it happen.
Keep the faith!
Posted by an admirer | February 22, 2007 08:18 PM
Sara,
I'm finding that searching blogabarbara brings up a page that lists older topics, but not this one.
I called up archives for Feb 2007 to get here. I refreshed my home page several times. Is it just me? Or could there be a problem?
Thought you should know...
It depends on how you are searching -- assuming you mean through Google they might have another post in it's cache for instance. If you are doing it through Blogger, their search pages are only updated maybe once a day (again it's a cache thing to make it come up fast).
It's always best to come straight to BlogaBarbara via typing the address...or refreshing a browser that has been up for more than a day.
Sorry about that -- it's a limit of the technology that someone hasn't perfected yet.
She's hurting lots of good people, like Carl and Ramon. Hurting not only breadwinners whom have given their entire working lives to the paper, but the welfare of their children as well.
Dark thoughts while waiting for the paper to hit the sidewalk early Sunday morning.
Anonymous 2/24/2007 2:12 PM almost gets it. We do live in an oligarchy. But voting is an act of denial of that obvious fact.
The whacking of the pressmen reminds me of what Sarte wrote, "Hell is other people."
And the entire News-Press imbroglio brings to mind what Jean Renoir says in Rules of the Game, "The problem with life is that everyone has his reasons."
"The period 1793-1794 is known as the Reign of Terror: all those suspected of betraying the revolution were executed by guillotine."
--from "Timelines of World History"
If you'd like to join those of us that are urging Starbucks to stop offering the News-Press for sale, download, edit, and mail off the letter at:
http://www.freewebs.com/parkparkpark/
The letter is to the President and CEO of Starbucks.
getting Starbucks to stop selling the paper won't do a thing
So......... does that mean Steepleton & Armstrong are writing the stories and then running over to print the paper too? dd
3:46: Anonymous said... "getting Starbucks to stop selling the paper won't do a thing"
Probably not, but what do you suggest will?
Anon 3:46 and 4:44,
You're both wrong. Getting Starbuck's to quit putting out the NP is one of many things we - the community McCaw considers herself to be at war with - can do to send a message that her actions are unacceptable.
And for Anon 3:46 specifically: Why bother doing anything? It's all just, like, stupid, right? I mean, like, who cares? I mean, like, I hate people who try to make a difference cause they're so, like, stupid. Like, it's sooooo, like dumbo...etc.
Not to change the subject but I noticed today that Dr. Laura is no longer listed as a columnist in the electronic version of the NP.
Though the excuse has been that she is doing a book tour I saw her today at the harbor. Has even the good doctor been fired or is the NP stench too much for even her.
Reasons I will continue to take the NewsPress, regardless of what is called the current reign of terror and shabby petty behavior by top management:
1. They deliver it to my door.
2. They post obituaries and legal notices.
3. Can get the daily movie schedule.
4. Lorraine Wilson still gives a good report about the good people doing good things in this town - "society" page or not.
5. The features never really mattered that much no matter who wrote them. Thank goodness they got rid of "The A List" and that fawning Smilgas chick.
6. I get national and international news from the net.
7. Letter to the editor are important community soundings, no matter how badly censored.
8. Travis occasionally hits a decent editorial home run, when he is not being petty and mean, and spirited or yammering about animal rights.
9. Very good group and range of syndicated columnists and intenational news editorials.
10. Barny and Starshine are in the Independent so their loss has been compensated.
I never read fake "Dr," Laura and that really creepy Barney substitute. Wish they would stop running that really scary fake picture of "Dr" Laura and her fake teeth, air-brushed wrinkles and perky hair spikes intended to soften her serve attitude and countenance.
10. Former local "news" writers were so biased that one had to wonder if they even had attended the original event there was such a disconnect between what happened and what they reported.
I am sorry good people are losing jobs when they have not been part of the original problem of bias in reporting. Seems a shame there is a vendetta against line production employees.
And if they ever lose their delivery persons there is no way I would still subscribe.
Getting any business to stop selling the Newspress will do plenty.
Every increment helps, every cold shoulder helps.
Every place that sells the Newspress only enables the Wendy Tyrant.
Which side are you on?
3:46pm, well, getting the News-Press out of Starbucks will do one thing: get the News-Press out of Starbucks, which is certainly a thing. It is one place to start.
After Starbucks... get all local jurisdictions to ban their on-street vending machines. That is simply a matter of politics, a matter of counting votes in the Goleta, Carp, and Santa Barbara City Councils, and the Board of Supervisors.
Then the school boards, to get the paper out of the schools. That is just counting votes too.
She's got the lawyers, goons, and money, but we've got the numbers.
Of course she'll cry foul, and accuse us of violating freedom of the press. But influencing decision makers to disallow distribution of her paper doesn't stop her presses in any way. Decision makers are free to regulate the mechanisms of distribution... after all, Starbucks doesn't sell porn, we don't have much (any?) porn in street vending machines, or porn distributed free to the schools.
The News-Press has crossed the line so that it more resembles porn than a responsible local newspaper.
It doesn't help that the local radio stations, 1340 AM and 101.7 continually quote stories from the News Press on their local news breaks.
One more time, yet again:
What is the "bias" in the writing by the former local news reporters and editors who resigned or were fired?
Where's the Beef in that continual allegation?
Is Nelville Flynn just commenting as Anonymous now?
Show me the Bias.
I too wondered about the creepy syncohantic friendship between "Dr" Phd Laura and Wendy ever since she sat at Wendy's table at the now infamous Lifetime Achievemnts Awards dinner a few months ago. Notice the arms around each other best friends photo of them on the full page spread of Wendy and a Few of Her Best Friends.
The later Phd. Laura was quoted somewhere when asked about the NewsaPress kerfluffle that she had no comment and had only met Wendy once. (???)
Then poof, she was all the sudden on sabbatical, but her creepy picture is still running. She never made any sense and seemed to specialize in keeping her panties all in a bunch over some feigned transgression only she could percieve.
But she does have her audience. And there all people who have to have something to fall back on when Rush Limbaugh is off the air. Heaven prevent them even having a second of time where they had to independently think for themselves and realize their lives were not in the permanent state of peril, infused by Phd Laura and Limbaugh.
The News-Press has taken some hits, but it's still the indispensible news and information source for Santa Barbara.
Boycotting it and refusing to speak to its reporters will only choke off the flow of information that's needed in a free society. While I can't support everything Wendy McCaw has done in the past few months, it's time to give her the opportunity to fix things instead of being locked in a state of war.
While I can't support everything Wendy McCaw has done in the past few months, it's time to give her the opportunity to fix things instead of being locked in a state of war.
Wendy's had nearly eight months "to fix things" and has done nothing but escalate the situation. It's like there's some pathology at work that can't allow her to do anything constructive.
All she's done is thumbed her nose at Santa Barbara and its people. Her paper is in free-fall and worth a small fraction of what she paid for it. If you think it's "still the indispensible news and information source" for SB you haven't been paying attention to what a sad, little rag the NP has become.
Oh wow, so many people worked up about something so few in the community actually care about!
The Women's Literary Festival was written up twice in the News-Press before the Feb. 24 event. The first time was Feb. 11, in a books column; the second was a Feb. 21 story about the festival.
In neither article was the name of author and guest speaker Starshine Roshell.
The Santa Barbara News-Press's "new management" team's Mission Statement:
Part 1 -- "How to write non-biased stories at the News-Press."
(A survival guide for remaining reporters who do not want to get fired).
First, read Travis Armstrong's editorials and opinion pieces so you know exactly what Wendy thinks. The editorial pages are your Bible.
Second, make sure any "news" article that you write on a subject for which the newspaper has taken a stance does not "go against" the editorials or opinion pieces. Find sources that will comment in agreement with the paper's opinions, the same way Travis prints only letters to the editor that agree with the paper's opinions.
Third, hoard your paycheck and put as much into your savings as possible, because even if you live by the News-Press guidelines, you can be on double-secret probation and not know it. On a moment's notice, you can wind up living off those savings.
Part II -- How to survive double-secret probation at the News-Press.
First, don't speak to anybody in disfavor with Wendy, either by telephone, via e-mail or in person. This includes all former co-workers with whom you were once friends. Shun them in public, turn away from them if they approach. Don't take their phone calls or return e-mails.
Second, compile a list of people in disfavor with Wendy, update it daily and memorize it. These include religious, community, business and political leaders, outspoken citizens, the homeless and especially the Teamsters Union.
Third, read up on wildlife, including whales, turkeys, feral pigs, and learn to love them and trees. Be prepared to live among the animals and frolic through the forests. This will be the only safe place where you will not be tracked by Wendy's security forces or pursued by the Angel of Death, gown fluttering in the wind, termination letter tightly grasped in her hand.
And enjoy your experience reporting "News-Press style" under the the "new management," because you'll be banned from reporting for any newspaper that values integrity, which is just about everywhere else on the planet. Except maybe for government-owned newspapers of dictators, who only demand your absolute loyalty, and make up journalism rules as they go along.
Part III -- Desperation tactics to try to cling to some semblance of ethics to retain advertisers
As a last resort to gain credibility as a News-Press reporter, just hope that McCaw & Co. take out a full-page ad claiming "The Teamsters did it!" and that everything everybody else says is false and biased, but that the News-Press cannot reveal how they are false and biased because it doesn't want to mudsling.
Don't try to figure out why the News-Press has no forum to communicate its side with the public. Or why a newspaper cannot voice what it claims to be the real truth. Or why the News-Press has to present its side via full-page ads that make outlandish claims and fail to provide any facts to back them up.
Remaining reporters: Keep doing exactly what you're told to, so you'll have at least one experience to remember for the rest of your life: that you were almost a journalist once.
I just don't think everyone in this town should get worked up about the NP. Just let them report the news and choose to read it or not, you do not have to spend 8+ months trying to fight the NP and get rid of it.
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