NLRB Lowers the Boom on Wendy McCaw
Judge William Kocol ruled today that the illegally-fired News-Press reporters must be rehired and given back pay.
From The Santa Barbara Independent:
Their resolutions from last year finally met -- and karma finally coming to fruition -- what will be next for The Organized? Will they stay or will they go?
From The Santa Barbara Independent:
According to the order, in the next two weeks, the News-Press must re-hire Melinda Burns, Anna Davison, Dawn Hobbs, Rob Kuznia, Barney McManigal, Tom Schultz, John Zant, and Melissa Evans, must back-pay those fired employees as well as fired editor Bob Giuliano, and must retract any related negative performance reviews or letters of reprimand. The judge also issued a wide-ranging cease-and-desist order against management, protecting current and future employees against surveillance, threats, interrogation, firings, or any other actions related to their union involvement. And this order must be posted in the newsroom.
Their resolutions from last year finally met -- and karma finally coming to fruition -- what will be next for The Organized? Will they stay or will they go?
Labels: NLRB, Santa Barbara News-Press
posted by Sara De la Guerra | 12/31/2007 07:15:00 PM
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198 Comments:
Can Wendy appeal this decision? Her tactic has always been to delay things until she wears down an opponent and buries him in legal costs, although I've got to believe that the Teamsters are just as patient and deep-pocketed as she is.
And does this mean that the federal government is also now part of the so-called "biased" cabal? It's becoming a pretty big club.
Big deal!
All of these losers will eventually screw up and be terminated again. All it will take is one biased article and they're history!
Also, the news press does not have to settle on wages with the union and can let them strike, and walk ( including these losers) and then hire scabs to do the work its 100% legal! Do they realy think they can get the better of Wendy? Don't hold your breath.
This ain't over until the fat lady sings.
No, this ain't over by a long shot!!
From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
where working-men defend there rights,
it's there you find Joe Hill,
it's there you find Joe Hill!
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.
Yo, "this ain't over": dork, that's your best shot? Wendy and liars Steepleton and Armstrong can't testify their way out of a paper bag, and you -- who clearly haven't read the decision -- are waiting for the reporters to get fired again? Wendy has been denying breaking any law, has spent probably into the millions trying to support her claim, and when she is turned to burnt toast, along with her abusive and ultimately ineffectual superficial lawyers, you're talking about fat ladies?
Where is the credibility? Where is justice? Is it all about staying power for you, regardless of who's right? That's sad, dude. But you can live under a rock if you want, even if it's a gilded one.
Anon who wants to use expletives -- I don't care if you don't like the decision...let us know, however, without the use of choice words that fail to contribute to the conversation.
Also, it might be helpful to review BlogaBarbara's guidelines.
Happy New Year!
Oh Sara, you're no fun! The "EF" word just fits the mentality of so many here in SB be it pro or con on any given subject. SB is just one giant x-rated movie set.
Sadly, I forced myself to retire that word as it means nothing these days. We need a really new offense word. Let's see, how about GOD?
Happy New Year to you too, Sara and have a good vacation.
Sunshine
Very clever -- but your name would really be Starshine if you were who you say you are....what were you thinking? and how much are you being paid?
The sock puppet industry must be thriving.... perhaps you are a sock puppet that is a really management at the SBNP and I wouldn't be surprised. Who else would use subterfuge in a name that would smell as sweet?
Even given her recent article which I read -- she wouldn't call me what this anon called me in a million years. Real women don't call each other those kind of names, dammmit!
Hey Sara... My childhood nickname was Sunshine.
I do not read the gal from Indy. My husband said something about the Indy gal quitting EF word use as a rez but I just laughed. She's behind the times.
So, I honestly do not know what you wrote about but will ask my guy when I get up late morning.
If you were offended by her, I'm happy I don't read that paper. I also don't understand the 'anon' name calling either. Clue?
Finally about real women, I can and will call you anything because I am the real deal. Total east coaster mean anything for credentials?
Happy 2008.
Should I not use Sunshine again?
Speaking on behalf of all the ancestors of renown in this new year of promising beginnings, the spirit of Don Jose de la Guerra y Noriega--builder of the old adobe Casa de la Guerra on Plaza de la Guerra, takes this opportunity to congratulate all the fired workers of the Storke newspaper, the Santa Barbara Newspress, who also extends his patriarchal heartfelt sympathies to all of you that have suffered through this time of duress. The community is with you both past and present.
May the new year bring the spirit of Santa Barbara a rededicated newspaper worthy of it.
Sunshine -- someone was calling me names I wouldn't say in front of my mother for a awhile last night as if I wouldn't trash their comments.
Your comment looked like a clever way around it as Starshine's most recent column was about foregoing the "F" word.
I apologize and do not mean to offend -- I was getting a bit upset by the name calling and was hoping it would stop.
Thanks for understanding and seeking clarification. Use your name if you wish! Now I know :)
Best to you in the new year.
that's so funny.... should be an interesting New Year.
"Congrats" to the Organized.
Did anyone find out who "owns" KZSB ?
What a great ending to the Documentary on the News Press. Hope they are editing the new ending... should be an award winner at the film festivals. What a comedy.
Congratulations to the illegally fired workers. You completely deserve this resounding and comprehensive victory over Wendy McCaw and her slobbering, spineless money-slugs and bully-boys.
To McCaw's surely disheartened crew of supporters (spot them: they're the ones with the slopping foreheads, cupped ears and under- developed reproductive organs): A multi-million dollar team of the best defense lawyers around couldn't prove the victorious journalists wrote the biased stories you've all been much too happy to rant on and on about without one example of such a story. You've done your best to discredit and slew the names and reputations of these people. You should all be ashamed of yourselves for enlisting your morals in McCaw's army of spin, lies, and illegality.
That's right. Read that again: Illegality. Not only did those on the winning side take the moral high ground outside the rule of law - we employee supporters did not require an authority figure to read us the lies written on McCaw's wall - but we prevail in the eyes of the Feds to boot, as a bonus, if you will.
To any of you who had their New Year kicked off by a decisive defeat - who are so angered by a group of honest workers and citizens prevailing over a petty demagogue with a passion for small vermin and woodland pests - I say good for you. I hope the bitter taste in your mouth lingers for as many weeks as these illegally handled professionals lurched about trying to keep their disrupted lives together with one hand while fighting McCaw with the other. You'll note both hands are free now - you may continue to throw your feces at the victorious, but it's simply all the easier to bat away.
LA Times article... has a quote from Lou Cannon and a promise to appeal from the McCaw Legal Team.
Santa Maria Times article by Sally Cappon.
It would be great if someone could review the appeals process... is it to the full NLRB board (and who is now on the board?) and then to the Supreme Court, or are their courts of appeals in between?
I wonder which is cheaper... reinstating and paying the employees or paying Cappello for 10 more years of appeals?
The process is that the NP can appeal the judge's decision to the NLRB in Washington, DC. That decision then can be appealed to a federal court of appeals. There's a long trudge yet ahead.
Wikipedia: "The Administrative Law Judge issues a recommended decision, which becomes final if not appealed to the NLRB. While the Administrative Law Judge's credibiltity determinations are ordinarily given great weight by the Board, they are not binding on it. The Board likewise is free to substitute its own view of the law for that of the Administrative Law Judge and frequently reverses its own precedents."
It's sad that this blog--which has become a community forum in which all members, regardless of their point of view are encouraged to participate--is becoming a place for abuse instead of dialogue.
Let's face it. Many of us have strong views on this situation, and on others. Why is it more important to some to scream at and curse those who disagree than to use solid arguments and calm reasoning to enhance their points and perhaps win a few people over. Is "she who gets in the most abuse" more important than honest and thoughtful disagreement?
What if in discussing the issues here we all found it more enlightening to persuade than to scream? Could some common ground be found or is that too scary--and boring?
Signed, SBL
(who forgot her password)
Boitnott Watch:
Former fun KEYT red-haired reporter John Boitnott steps into the "News-Press-Mess" through his better job at KNTV in SF Bay Area
http://www.nbc11.com/news/14954922/detail.html#
Who was that funny looking guy coming through the door?
Want prof of biased reporting.
Whoever wrote this blog slanted it to imply that the judge just made a 'ruling'.
The fact is that the judge did actually NOT make a ruling bit in fact made a 'recommended decision' to the NLRB in Washington when it holds its hearing to make the decision.
The recommendation by the administrative law judge is not enforceable in its own right.
If this is not biased reporting then I don't know what is.
In the news press article on page A4 in the Tuesday paper the news Press says that even if the NLRB agrees with the recommendations of the administrative law judge that the decision is still not binding until the order of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
The News Press stated in their article that the News Press WILL exhaust all possible appeals and fully expects to achieve justice through the appellate process."
This is at least a 10 year process my friends. Hope the disgruntled journalists and the slope head socialist news press haters enjoy their life while they hold on that long.
I know it's a process that I'm going to take great pleasure in watching.
This is at least a 10 year process my friends. Hope the disgruntled journalists and the slope head socialist news press haters enjoy their life while they hold on that long.
They will. And during that time, Wendy and the News-Press will continue to be a complete and total embarrassment to Santa Barbara and the newspaper industry.
Wendy, The Nipper, and the News-Press are a joke. A total laughing stock.
Let's see, keeping the Ampersand jet flying, the yacht floating, the Hope Ranch estate maintained, running a declining newspaper and paying megabucks lawyers to fight your vendettas. I don't care how rich Wendy is, I bet her fortune is shrinking. I say let her keep paying and paying and paying until she shrinks her fortune enough she has to sell the NP. I realize that the lady is very wealthy, but even the very wealthy can fritter away fortunes. I sure hope Jerry wins so he can lighten her wallet by a few million too!
When in doubt to convince an audience, call them a "slope head socialist" to impress them to believe your side.
Way to win friends and influence people.
Agree with 12:42 pm.
This is a vicious place lately. Someone forgot to lock the door to keep out the riff-raff.
Hey Vermin and Vermin lovers
Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.
This ain't over yet by a long shot. ( In the meantime just who is winning and just who is the frustrated socialist?)
You're the slugs who can crawl back under your rock, even if its a socialist one.
She who laughs last laughs best.
This is an unreasonable decision, based upon the facts presented at the hearing.
Of course, the NewsPress will appeal. It has to. This hack for a judge should be disbarred. Junk decision. His pro-employee, pro-union bias stinks and there is no reason on god's green earth for Wendy to ever accept that ruling.
And yes, what a perfect example of the biased reporting in the Indepenent that we have come to loathe to claim Wendy is now **forced** to take back these well-earned firings and give them back pay to boot. Not gonna happen.
And heaven protect this town if we ever get back to their biased reporting that sold out this down down a long slippery slope that we may well never recover.
It is time for their long history of sob-sister reporting selling out Santa Barbara to a socialized version of a welfare state that I never want to see in the pages of the NewsPress again. Then I **will** cancel my subscription.
But hopefully if that is ever the case Wendy is forced to take them back, the paper closes shop for good. I would certainly understand why.
That ruling is a death knell for private enterprise and why America is so quickly becoming a third world nation.
For every NIMBY, there are three other slackers in this town with an inflated sense of entitlement that they get jobs handed to them with no responsibilities, and primo housing handed to them with no mortgages.
"Slope headed socialist"
oooooohhhhhhhhh....Impressive. I guess you want me to now call you a nazi and watch the thread go down the drain. Sorry. no can do.
Happy New Year!
2;24 p.m.
You say the news press is a joke.
Who cares? Certainly not the 90% of us who support the news press and enjoy reading it each day. Certainly now Wendy or Travis.
All that really matters here is that he disgruntled terminated employees can rot for the next 10 years. And all the while the small minority of loser socialist news press haters can enjoy the next 10 years of being in a constant state of frustration. To that I say too bad, how sad. I'm enjoying immensely watching your frustration.
reply to Dale Carnegie 3:42 p.m.
Dale, read the comment made by worker bee 9;19 a.m. on 1/1
Is it o.k. with you that he calls News Press supporters slope heads? Why didn't you make your comment about making friends and influencing people then?
And, I don't want any socialists as friends. I consider them our countries mortal enemies and I will oppose, and fight them, in every way possible, until the day I die !
The good thing about this mess is that "THE WENDY" is becoming more powerful than "THE OPRAH."
Wendy is a 24/7 battle of smarty-mouth wits mascarading behind evil politics. It is not going away.
Hooray for the entertainment in SB!
This is all we have? How gross.
Just read the published complaint.
In it it says that the terminated journalists had been wearing disparaging signs on their clothing while at word bad mouthing their employer.
Before i read that i had some sympathy for these journalists but after i read this it disgusted me that they would do such a thing while at work and during their work hours.
If any employee of mine, union organizer or =not, ever did such a thing they would be terminated on the spot.
It's perfectly o.k. for them to think anything they like while at work and to say or do anything they like after work but during the time that they are at work and being paid it is highly improper to display on their body such disparaging remarks about their employer.
So at this time I have absolutely no sympathy for them, and based on their disrespect for their company they worked for, I now hope that they never ever get their job back. They simply don't deserve it!
They are now getting exactly what they deserve.
If i were Wendy I would set up a separate company to do reporting and write stories, and then have the News Press shut down the entire reporting department of the news press, and then contract with that separate company to provide stories for the News Press.
Now there is no department or jobs for the terminated reporters to come back to because they are now all gone. A valid and perfectly legal business decision.
Look into it Wendy! Teach these disloyal terminated reporters to suck eggs!
Happy New Year to you Wendy and Travis.
Don't hold your breath:
Yes, Judge Kocol's decision is called a "recommendation" but he sits as the trier of fact and the person who determines what witnesses are believable and which are not. He found Steepleton and Armstrong to be liars, and that won't be something the NLRB is going to overturn. Remember when Judge Schmidt found them to be liars in March and the NLRB upheld that decision? They are now certified liars, sir. The NLRB almost never actually has hearings, and it won't be considering any new evidence not presented to Judge Kocol. His findings of fact are very unlikely to be overturned; since he didn't believe Steepleton's story about alleged biased articles -- articles which, in many cases, he himself checked and admitted he did not find biased before publication -- is simply not credible, and was clearly a setup for illegal firings motivated by illegal anti-union animus. Is that really so hard to believe knowing what we do about SBNP management's behavior and editorial stance?
As for anonymous 5:04, the judge's conclusions may be pro-employee, but that was because he was thoroughly unimpressed with the liars presented by Cappello and his overwrought obsequious yet condescending laqwyer minions. Face it: management lied, trumped up arguments to try to sustain the unsustainable. Burns' alleged bias over the years did not earn her any negative treatment at all until the union came in. No one even mentioned to Davison that there was anything wrong with her writing until the union came in. The News-Press only fired two prominent union supporters while letting others not so prominent slide when they wrote allegedly biased pieces, and the News-Press didn't bother to explain why.
As for the six on the bridge, they have the right to advocate putting economic pressure on the employer, and to seek community support. That has been part of America for over a century and part of federal labor law since its inception. Fundamentally you don't like the decision because it deigns to tell an entrepreneur that she can't just do what she wants with her indentured servants. That's not the law in this country, as backward as we are compared to other industrialized nations when it comes to unions and labor relations.
I challenge either or both of you to actually explain what the specific flaws are in the decision, aside from the fact that you bridle at the result -- that a haughty unreasonable businesswoman and her paramour don't get to run roughshod over her workers and the meager restraints placed on them by already weak labor law. The judge has a fair and balanced history and track record, meticulously made his findings, and concluded -- not surprisingly to anyone who watched him testify this time and in January, 2007 -- that the SBNP's main witness, Steepleton, couldn't tell the truth if his life depended on it.
In fact, the SBNP suggested at the hearing that an employee who committed perjury could be disciplined. Shall we hold our collective breath and see whether that happens to Armstrong and Steepleton, now that both of them have been found to be liars, twice?
Kocol made a very similar recommendation in the case he heard concerning The Providence Journal.
Anyone know whether that appeal to the NLRB happened, and if so, what was the result?
I'm amazed sometimes at how much time the News-Press apologists have to defend what is clearly wrong as if a business has more rights than the individual.
'Tip for Wendy' may have a point and may be telling us what will happen over the next few days.
'Fair Play' forgets that there are unionization laws in our country which protect the right to organize. Although The Organized made some poor decisions -- law trumps ownership rights any day of the week.
We are a country based on individual rights NOT business rights.
Wendy McCaw is not the News-Press -- she is only the face of the News-Press. The SBNP is a business not an individual...there is more at stake than ever could be with her as an individual as any business has greater meaning than the sum of their owners/backers.
This may be hard to differentiate as she is so wealthy and blurs the line between the two -- but it is the truth.
The 78-page ruling is especially damaging toward Steepleton. The News-Press was doomed as soon as Kocol deemed Steepleton's testimony unreliable, as his name appeared on all of the contested personnel decisions.
He may be ducking some scrutiny by refusing to talk to any outside media, but Kocol's ruling offers many insights into Steepleton's conduct. In short, it is reprehensible and undercuts the News-Press' credibility as a news source; if its top editor is a congenital liar, how can it be believed?
Look for McCaw to avenge this ruling by firing Steepleton.
I read the pdf and it appears that the SBNP management paid a lot of money to Capello and the lawyers to convince a judge their sh*t smell nice, and failed.
These are the same lawyers now vowing to exhaust all possible appeals. Sounds like McCaw's been suckered in the long con, and I can't say I have much sympathy.
Let me sum up the results [same as last time] from Barry and the bill-a-ble brain trust.
All the King's[Queen's?] hor$e$
All the king's men
Couldn't put 'unreliable testimony'
past a Judge [again]!
If the NRLB gets 'injunctive' relief [Translation: NOW!] in court, Wendy may have to divert legal funds from the Hope Ranch Homeowner's assoc front, to the NP folks. She must feel like Charlie Brown, 'why is everybody always picking on me?' Try negotiate don't litigate, bet it costs less!
Sara, Wendy McCaw may not literally be the News-Press, but as the Judge recognized, she has personally interjected herself into the controversy, from the get-go by personally disciplining those she believed were involved in the Rob Lowe address publication incident, by publishing her anti-union beliefs on the front page of her paper, on the editorial pages and in those full-page "ads" that ran last February amd March, and by issuing anti-union memos and messages to the newsroom. She perhaps doesn't realize what a convenient target she makes, given her arrogance, her legal aggression, her eccentricities, her limitless wealth, her rank and utter unprofessional approach and lack of journalistic experience or instincts, her inability to interact with subordinates in a humane fashion, and her evident bias and disdain for the riff-raff she suffers to do her bidding.
Fair Play, the "disparaging" signs and buttons said, "McCaw, Obey the Law." They are truthful, and legally protected. The law in this country protects employees' expression of criticism for management, as difficult as that may be to fathom in this capitalist-oriented society. She wrongly considered the buttons "disloyal" and even more laughable, "defamatory", when as the Judge noted, they were true if you accepted Wendy's interpretation that they admonished her for not obeying the law. Her own memo to the employees threatening them for engaging in union activity violated the law. So did her decision to reprimand Anna Davison. I'm glad to see that you, like SBNP management, are willing to "let" employees think critical thoughts after work, but if there is any life left in the American middle class, it's going to have to come from a revived union movement, which in turn requires employees to be able to express themselves without fear at the workplace. That fundamental principle overrides management's need to lord it over employees every moment of the day.
Anonymous 11:12: If this post is true, it appears that the parties in the ProJo case settled their dispute after Judge Kocol ruled, probably leading to no further proceedings before the NLRB.
http://cjrarchives.org/issues/2004/4/mcvicar-projos.asp
(Next to last graph)
It's nice to wake up this morning and find Wendy reporters thoroughly out of gas - although they continue to stink. And they're stealing my insults! (Although they picked "sloping forehead", I thought "under developed reproductive organs" would be a better jab to plagiarize.)
And I for one am not so frustrated - just an observer with friends in the race, mind you. The frustration seems to come from the other end. With each drubbing McCaw takes in the courts, her supporters cry "The judge is a crook! The union is a crook! The reporters are crooks! Everyone is wrong except for McCaw!" That's an awfully flimsy plank you're walking.
As for the anti-socialist crowd, is it public education you dislike? Or maybe it's Medicare? How about the FDIC? What about the Fire and Police Departments? And did any of you flush your toilets this morning? Pro-Wendy or not, your waste didn't disappear by magic, friends. It was carefully delivered, via a complex publicly funded network, to somewhere out of sight and mind (if only the equally repugnant drivel you post on Blogabarbara met the same fate...)
Unions have very limited power.
Any business has a legal right to refuse to negotiate a contract with any union on any terms but their own, and to allow the union to strike and then to hire scabs to do the work.
This is 100% legal! it's done all the time. Let them strike for 5 years. Big deal.
also, any business has the right to shut down any department and outsource that work. the news press has a 100% legal right to shut down the reporting department and to outsource that work. and to get their stories from a separate wire service!
Any business has the right to change all of it's employees to part time 20 hours per week. This is 100% legal. all the grocery stores do it.
Any business has the right to downsize the number of workers by by 50% just like the auto industry does all the time.
Remember when circuit city let go all of its higher paid workers. A legal business decision.
Last of all its 100% legal for any company owner to simply shut down the business. If i were Wendy I would shut down the News Press before I would provide those disrespectful losers with a job. .
10:03 p.m.
All your raving ignores one pesky fact.
Even of the reporters side is right, it is a FACT that wendy is going to drag this out for the next 10 years. This is her legal right and she has already made a final decision to do this. So even thought the reporters may win in the end it is going to be 10 years before they get their jobs back.
There are a great many of us who are going to enjoy watching the coming 10 years while the reporters and their supporters are "frustrated" and "upset". Enjoy your life.
I read a few of Kocol's recommendations and a few NLRB appeal decisions of Kocol's recommendations. They're available on the NLRB websited:
Admin. Law Judge (ALJ) Decisions
NLRB Decisions in response to exceptions brought against ALJ Decisions
Every Kocol recommendation that had been appealed that I found had been for the most part upheld by the NLRB. The NLRB specifically says they are very hesitant to reverse an ALJ decision on facts of a case. Sometimes they tinker with the ALJ's implementation of law, when they believe the ALJ misapplied precedents.
I wouldn't bet on a wholesale reversal by the NLRB, although they might tinker with some of Kocol's decisions.
Isn't there a penalty for perjury? Is there a chance that Steepleton and/or Armstrong could be brught up on perjury charges?
Sara
You are somewhat confused.
Yes individuals have rights but the owners of businesses are individuals too, and they have rights too.
An owner of a business does not HAVE to provide ANYONE a job. No person has a RIGHT to a job at any particular business.
Once a business decides to offer a job whichever applicant they want for that job. The business gets to decide and negotiate what the salary will be for that job. The employees can take it or leave it. if a union they can take it or strike in which case the employer can legally hire scabs to do the work indefinitely.
If the business owner feels that the employee is not doing an adequate job then he has the right to fire him.
An employee has the right to quit if he does not like the job.
Any employer who sees an employee wearing a badge during work hours that says something to the effect that the employer is an asshole can legally fire him. Just as long as the termination is not for some reason which is legally protected union activity.
Do you think that you could go to work wearing a badge while at work that said disparaging things about the owner of the company and not get fired?
Try it and see what happens.
Don Jose just has two things to say on this matter.
1. Wendy, if she was a "CLASS" act, could say, "OK" "I made a mistake and I should have done things differently. I'll welcome my good journalists back with open arms, do my penitence, learn from my mistakes and be a better person, a better employer." She COULD do that!
Don Jose is waiting.
2. This is more negative and I apologize in advance. The first days that Scott Steepleton appeared in Santa Barbara, and began to publish, I was astonished how stupid he was, and how much of a blunderbuss. I wrote him letter after letter, trying to alert him to his stupidity. He took it badly. Cocky fat boy I'd say. Probably had a hard time in school.
The judge pinned the butterfly to the wall perfectly.
Wendy: Please fire Scott. This is for your own good.
So here's my final advice for Wendy. Get rid of Travis, and Scott. Do your penance. Cutting off your nose to spite your face is never a good idea. Here's your opening to make everything better. Take your opportunity or do the right thing and sell out and move somewhere else.
Sara: Are there really Wendy supporters in Santa Barbara? I've never met one!
And Sara, I am going to have to talk to you a little bit about your idea that American History is about individual rights and not business rights! Perhaps you could come over for tea?
I just had to see what the comment thread here had to say about Kocol's ruling, but I rediscovered why I don't bother to read this blog anymore. It's somewhat entertaining, and I still appreciate Sara's efforts, but sad to say, the commenters here are really mostly crazies at this point.
Signed,
Putative Slope-Headed Socialist
Finally made it into the library to read the News-Press article on the ruling, on page A4 upper left corner of the Jan. 1, 2008 edition.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Judge issues ruling in labor practice suit
Decision against News-Press released
An administrative law judge presiding over a case involving multiple unfair labor practice charges against the Santa Barbara News-Press has ruled in favor of government and union lawyers.
The recommendation by William Kocol, signed Dec. 26, 2007, and released on Monday by the National Labor Relations Board, states that the paper violated labor law regarding, among other things, the way some employee evaluations were conducted; the termination of some employees; alleged ``interrogation'' of employees while trying to determine who may have leaked material belonging to the paper to other media; and for insisting employees not wear buttons on the job disparaging co-publisher Wendy McCaw.
Recommended remedies include reinstatement, back pay, removal from employee files of any mention of the reasons the newspaper took action against an employee and a promise not to thwart union organizing activities.
In a statement, News-Press attorney Michael Zinser said the matter is in its infancy.
``The Santa Barbara News-Press is extremely disappointed with the ALJ opinion as it believes it acted lawfully in all respects. The ALJ opinion is merely a `recommended decision and order, and it is not enforceable in its own right,'' Mr. Zinser said.
The next step in the process is a decision of the NLRB in Washington, D.C. That decision is enforceable only upon the order of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
``The News-Press will exhaust all possible appeals, and fully expects to achieve justice through that appellate process,'' Mr. Zinser said.
--Staff Report
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, here is my list of observations:
1)The article is longer and more informative than either Craig Smith indicated or Sara bet on.
2)The byline and first sentence are accurate and informative. However, note that the N-P article says the ruling is in favor of `government and union lawyers,' which combines perjoratives. I think it would be more accurate to say the ruling is in favor of the reporters, and would match the later usage with regard to the News-Press. That is, the later sentence does not say `News-Press lawyers will exhaust all possible appeals...'.
3)In the second paragraph of the N-P article the decision suddenly becomes merely a recommendation. According to the NLRB website it is a decision... click on `ALJ decisions' and you can see the decision, currently seventh on the page. What is recommended is not the factual findings, as the News-Press article wrongly indicates, but the actions that must be taken to compensate the victims, according to the paragraph on the top of the page of ALJ Decisions.
4)Note that Judge William G. Kocol is referred to merely as `William Kocol'.
5)The softening to a recommendation does reduce the harshness of the later clause that states `the paper violated labor law'. As far as I can tell, it is not a matter of dispute any more whether or not the paper violated labor law; the decision of the judge is that the paper violated labor law. The appealable portion is not the decision, but the sanctions.
6)The `recommended remedies' paragraph is accurate.
7)In the next paragraph, note that Zinser is not a lawyer (perjorative) but an attorney (less perjorative or neutral).
8)As for Zinser's statement, who or what believed it acted lawfully, the News-Press or the ALC `opinion' (which is really a decision, not an opinion)?
9)The second sentence of Zinser's statement again misrepresents the decision as an opinion; more accurate wording would be `decision and recommended order'.
10)As for enforceability, actually, the ALJ recommended order is fully enforceable, and it only becomes unenforceable if the News-Press appeals. This omission is a bit glaring.
11)The last sentence implies that justice has not been achieved via the process so far, but of course since it is merely a quote from an attorney, they may say what they wish. Adding a quote from a union or government attorney would have balanced the article, however. Indeed, the omission of any quotes from the other side is quite glaring.
sa-1 10:08 p.m.12/31 (way back near the start of the comments)
Talk about 10 years dead.
The Judge looks like he is ten years dead.
Judge Kocol's decision comprises 72 pages of the document; the order, which is the part that the News-Press can take exception to and appeal, comprises only 3 pages. The remaining 3 pages of the document are an appendix.
The News-Press would have you believe that the 72 pages of the decision are merely a recommendation. It is only the 3 pages of the order that are a recommendation. The 72 pages of the decision are simply a decision, and it has simply been decided that the News-Press violated the law, as detailed here in the decision (not the order):
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusions of Law
1. Respondent has engaged in unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of Section 8(a) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act by:
(a) Threatening to discipline employees if they engage in union and protected concerted activity.
(b) Coercively interrogating employees concerning their union activities.
(c) Instructing employees to remove buttons from their clothing and signs from their vehicles reading “McCaw Obey the Law.”
(d) Terminating Robert Guiliano because he refused to commit an unfair labor practice.
(e) Engaging in surveillance of the union activities of employees.
2. Respondent has engaged in unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of Section 8(a)(3) and (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act by:
(a) Issuing letters of suspension to employees because those employees engaged in union and protected concerted activity.
(b) Canceling the column written by Starshine Roshell because she supported the Union.
(c) Giving lower evaluations to Anna Davision, Dawn Hobbs, Melissa Evans, and Karna Hughes because they engaged in union activity, thereby depriving them of annual performance bonuses.
(d) Discharging Melinda Burns, Anna Davison, Dawn Hobbs, Rob Kuznia, Barney McManigal, Tom Schultz, John Zant, and Melissa Evans because they engaged in union activity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It takes a lot of work to read, and I'm not done yet. However, it looks like the News-Press argument that ethical issues are not subject to collective bargaining was not accepted, because the `fact situation' must be considered. What is unusual in this case is that the employees are trying to get a higher standard of ethics, and trying to protect their employability by striving for the higher ethical behavior. Kocol found this was protected behavior.
The ruling is doomed because Judge KaKa gave no basis for rejecting Steepleton's facts.
He only concluded he did not like Steepleton's demeaner so he gave no weight to the facts Steepleton presented.
But the Judge showed no basis for not accepting these facts besides his own subjective conclusions. That is a pretty egregious legal error.
SDLG, no sure where you are going saying a business does not have rights superior to its employees. How does a business survive if the owner chooses not to run it?
That to me is the superior right - the right of an owner to keep a business open or not.
So until the employees choose to own the NewsPress, they simply do not have rights superior to the owner.
Sure, a judge can recommend an owner do something or a court can even direct an owner to do something. But if the owner does not want to follow that order or recommendation, there is nothing to stop that owner from terminating the entire business.
And I would not blame Wendy for packing up the tent if it is required she work with people who blatently hate her and with whom she has well-stated grievences.
Even "progressive" Amerika has not sunk that low that a business owner is forced to do business when it is no longer their own private choice to keep conducting this business.
So SDLG, I am not clear about your statements that employees have superior rights ....... ultimately, when the owner alone has the choice to continue to conduct that business. Wendy does not even have any obligation to sell the NewsPress. She can simply shut it down and retain possession of its name. Please tell me why she cannot do this ...legally.
12:04 a.m.
You take joy in Wendy's high legal fees.'
Well you forget one thing.
For every dollar that Wendy spends the f------ Union also has to spend on their legal fees.
Wendy is doing us all a great public service by draining the f------ Union out of their money.
GO WENDY!
Hold your breath if you can until Cappello v. Ampersand et. al....that's the one I'm looking forward to.
Kocol's reasoning about Steepleton involved was a bit more involved than 5:09pm would have you believe.
An employer cannot order an employee to have sex with them, or to break the law. If the employer does, the employee sue, should sue, and should win.
There are two kinds of people in this world: the screwer's ( the news press supporters), and the screwee's (the news press haters); all except for that ridiculous lookin judge who looks like he ain't been gettin any fer quite some time.
reply to worker Bee 7:28 a.m.
No, the insult "sloping forehead" fit you moron socialists perfectly. I do think that its going to stick. Thanks for coining it for us.
Most of what I would like to say about you Sara won't allow. You =**-=-=**@@#== socialist!
Also, the Union can kiss my a--.
It's interesting that most of the posts that are referred to use the word "socialist" -- dead give away for sock puppet status, no?
No SLOPING -- I don't allow "You are a C*&^" or "Sara, you B(*&%" on my blog no matter what side you are on.
5:09 PM -- did I say superior rights? I don't think so -- business people have plenty of rights based on who they are (and I truly believe in them) and what money they make in relation to their employees. Laws were made, however, to protect employees from undo action based on the rather grand class difference. This makes sense as Wendy McCaw, as an example, has far more resources than any reporter.
Allegro805 hits the nail on this blog's head. There are no more laughs here; just hysteria by the left winged socialists of SB who are allowing a woman (Ms. Wendy) to just freak them out. Lefties allow the right wingers to bait them and they bite really hard.
This beats the "Shower with Sheila (Lodge)" era when little groups took to making and distributing bumper stickers about her and her crazy statements: "If it's yellow, let it mellow, etc.)" Blogs give every leftie a chance to say and do their worst anonymously. It is quite an awakening to see how vile people will allow themselves to be when hiding behind Sara's skirt/pants.
One commenter above made me laugh at (probably an unintended) analogy to the Clinton scandals - "Is, Is" "I did not have sex with that woman..." and Ken Starr.
We all know what happened. The Mrs. is now going to be Prez so Ms. Wendy can look forward to some great rewards for herself after she is finished; ... and I do believe it won't be over until SHE decides when it is over, not a judge or the public and certainly not the crazies in this blog.
Please, come back with the funny stuff and quit trying to be street lawyers. BORING!
"More tips for Wendy"
Sorry, an employer does not have the absolute right to outsource the unit where employees have voted in a union. The whole point is that once a union is voted in, the law requires the employer to sit down and negotiate. That employer cannot unilaterally shut down that portion of the unit that voted in a union.
Now, is Wendy going to shut down the whole company because of the 30 or so unionized employees? She may have that right, but she also has the right to be run out of town on a rail. It would take some doing, but if Wendy actually departed the business altogether, there would be an opportunity for others to jump in.
As for attorneys fees' comparisons, "There's joy in that spending", the union has spent substantial sums, no doubt, but nowhere near what Wendy has spent. No tears for her, because she'll write it off, but no one bills like Cappello and Wendy's Santa Monica firm bill.
Anonymous 5:09 -- you are clueless about what is accepted standard reasoning for finding a witness credible or not, in general and specifically before the NLRB. Demeanor is precisely what judges of all kinds rely on, and there's not much the next level review body can do about that, since it was Judge Kocol, and no one else, who objectively observed what a lying suck Steepleton appeared to be and actually was. He smirked, he reached for answers that would please Wendy regardless of the facts, he found articles biased only after first finding them not biased before publication, he claimed to know that the six on the bridge were union supporters and then, completely incredibly, claimed not to know that they were engaged in union activity. There was thus plenty of reason -- and I've just scratched the surface -- for Judge Kocol to find Steepleton to be a liar. Again.
Is Wendy going to give him a third strike, or is he and his partner in prevarication, Fibber Armstrong, gonna get the ax now that they've each committed perjury twice?
Let's hear it for the
Socialists
Slopeheads
Haters
Morons
Amerikans
KaKas
and
Toadies
Please Save Us, Mike Pinto!
Cappello must be peeing in his pants thinking about all those billable hours coming his way and not having to do anything for them.... ca ching!
By the way why is someone so upset with you Sara?
Employees have some statutory rights and bargained for rights. And the employer always has the right to terminate an employee and to close the business.
So ultimately, the employer retains the superior rights against someone who still wants to work for that employer. And the employee always has the right to quit.
But no employee ever has the right to take over the operation of the business against the wishes of the employer.
This is the main point here which gets buried in claiming the NewsPress lost. No, everyway you look at it the employees lost.
And the union is losing a huge chunk of change continuing to litigate this case. There is no over-riding legal principle for them to invest in this case much longer.
The union candles must be burning bright right now deciding on how much more of a deep pocket hole to dig on this case. Ultimately, legal cases in the US are decided by who has the greater resources to waste. (You mean you still don't know this??)
Kind of like the old native american potlach theory - I am tougher than you because I can destroy more things that I own than you can.
Wendy has everything to win here, even if she ultimately has to take a few of these folks back and pay them a few pittance dollars compared to her ultimate victory later firing their sorry asses for cause, well-documented cause only a short time later.
It would almost be justice served to have them have to work under her careful scrutiny this time, or else they are history for good this time.
You better believe they will only get a water tight at-will contract to sign with every termination term spelled out in great and humiliating detail and that is how they will have to work, if they get their jobs back.
Wendy, think about it. Bring them back and make them perform to exactly the standards you set out. Hang that old proverbial sword over their heads and have the clock tick, tick, tick loudly in their ears if they don't perform to your exacting standards.
The readers have come to expect a far better quality of news reporting now so let's see if they can live up to these new and better standards you have now set for the NewsPress. If not, it is your way or the highway.
Take em back and make them conform to your standards. Then we all win.
8:55 PM -- I actually miss Mike Pinto! Where are you brother when we need you!
9:08 PM -- I see it as a compliment. Thanks for noticing :)
I heard through the grapevine that the union is being bled dry by Wendy and hert tactics.
To this I say ; "Way to go Wendy!"
What a wonderful public service to get rid of this socialist Union
It's going to cost the Union well over another 5 million dollars to fight this case to the bitter end.
Maybe the disgruntled slope head employees will be paid a collective 1 million dollars in the end 10 years from now, but it's going to cost the union 5 million to accomplish it.
and in the meantime wendy and all the news press supporters are going to enjoy every minute of watching the slope heads squirm and be frustrated and upset. What enjoyable wonderful lives these vermin and their slope head supporters are going to have the next 10 years!!
Way to go Wendy!!! The vast majority of human beings support you. Don't worry about these low life slugs and scum sucking vermin for they have a rock to crawl back under.
to all News Press Haters;
Having fun yet. I hope so because you haven't seen anything yet. the real fun is about to begin: The next 10 years of bleeding the socialistic Union dry.
Hooray for Bloga Barbara for giving us a forum to bash that small group of slope headed socialists of Santa Barbara. What losers. One fine woman is taking them down al by herself. Now thats real power.
UGH! said... This is a vicious place lately.
Hey there, ugh.
What you observe is almost certainly happening on purpose, a coordinated campaign to stink up the waters here. Stink them up bad enough and your average area resident won't wade in and share in the community concern about the state of the paper.
The strategy is to make the dialog here so reprehensible and uncivilized that it's a turn-off to people like my friend "Bill," a 75 year old guy who lives down the street. Or "Mary," who drives a 1999 Chevy to her job on the Mesa.
You get the idea. Some might blame McCaw's anti-union lawyers for the ploy. Others could see another source.
It doesn't really matter the origin. The effect is the same.
Look, the News-Press broke the law, it is simple and clear.
When you and I drive over 65 mph and a CHP officer sees us, we have broken the law. We get a ticket and have to pay it.
The billionairess divorcee who owns the News-Press thinks she is immune from obeying the law.
McCaw Obey the law!
Judge Kocol's writeup of the whole shmear is better than that of any of the journalists (including the AJR article). I bet Wendy can't sue Judge Kocol for libel either!
Here is the html... actually easier to read than the .pdf Click on the link, book mark it, and read... the best antidote to all the sockpuppetry from the one Wendy supporter who floods this blog.
I'm a veteran journalist who left the News-Press by choice.
I find some of the Blogabarbara comments here sadly amusing, particularly those written by some of my former editors, the ones who support Wendy's approach to newspapering and are still at the N-P.
I can recognize their posts by the language, and tone of their remarks.
If you think they're unpleasant on this blog, imagine what they were like to work with.
I'm just sorry I didn't have the guts to stand on a bridge and hold up a sign.
Thanks you guys,
God bless.
The types who want ---10 years of bleeding the socialistic Union dry--- don't think they are hating.
It's what you hate that's telling. anon12:02 pm you have a good point. It's like a bomb intended to destroy the forum.
I wanted to congratulate the workers and the Union and thank Sara. This to shall pass.
Let's see, you've said "slope head" and "socialist" and "scum sucking" about 20 times now.
You obviously have a lot of free time on your hands, so perhaps you could come up with some new nouns and adjectives. Or would that make your head hurt?
Need it even be pointed out that one person is repeatedly posting the same comment again and again - you know, the guy who co-opted my biting yet humorous insult and is repeating, ad nauseam and without context, "slope head socialist" etc? There's an old internet term for such idiots - Trolls. This person is only interested in ruining posts, nothing more.
Believe me - you will be hard pressed to find many authentic Wendy supporters in this town. There are really two camps: the majority have no meaningful opinion on the matter, and a sizable and strong minority are without doubt behind the workers 100%.
But voraciously pro-Wendy? Come on...these posters are usually trolls...or maybe Dr. Laura's allegedly psychopathic son...or perhaps Steepleton's poor wife, Charlotte Boechler, whose career of late has skyrocketed at the Newspress, but whose mental state could, understandably, be a bit smooshy (how would you like to roll out from underneath that sweating gastropod every morning...) On second thought, maybe there are a lot of Wendy supporters.
6:04 p.m.
Is that the best you can do/
it's no wonder that your side gets nom sympathy from the general public.
Face it.....Your side has a total of 20 supporters.
LOSERS!
6:57 p.m.
sympathy
You just don't get the whole point here.
The whole point is that this is a free country and if you don't like working at the News Press than you are free to QUIT!!!
There are plenty of other reporters who would just love the job, appreciate it and respect their employer, and most of all do a fine job.
You just can't stand the fact that the News Press can get along just fine without you and your biased ways.
Quit crying over spilt milk and move on with your life.
10:56 p.m.
This is a free country.
If you don't like working for the news press you are free to quit.
The news press can do just fine without the likes of you.
In fact it would be much better off withiut disloyal employees like you.
So please don't let the door hit you on the way out!!
So much for your value. ZERO
11;32 p.m.
You miss the whole point.
The whole point is that the decisn has already been made to bleed the union dry over the next 10 years.
Those that don't like unions don't have to spend 10 years hating as they get to spend 10 years of feeling pleasure in watching the socialistic union get bled dry.
It's the union supporters who are going to get to live with 10 years of emotional frustration and upset. I hope there are no emotionally weak ones among you or we may have more visiting that bridge.
12:13 a.m.
No, just driving the point home.
I see that you finally got it.
You "news press haters" have a total of 20 supporters.
You just don't get that you are impotent.
Oh, and did I mention that people don't like you!
7:23 a.m.
Sorry to disappoint you, but there are actually thousands and thousands of loyal Wendy supporters.
Far far more than the tiny group of a couple dozen hard core left wing socialist news press haters.
These few just can't stand it that they lost control of the reporting bias of the news press when Wendy came in and put a stop to the bias to the left.
You really think that the vast majority of the residents of Santa Barbara are too stupid to see what is actually going on here. Give us some credit.the bottom line and all that reall;y matters here is that you LOST. And no matter what you will never get back your left wiong control of the News Press reporting. Not as long as we have our hero Wendy.
So there. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Has anyone else noticed that the only posts that people try to ruin by trolling are the posts about the News Press.
Does anyone consider that it is the fact that the constant boring negative News Press posts are the root cause of people trolling out of their hatred of the overused and thus boring subject?
Sara is just ruining Bloga Barbara by her overuse of News Press bashing.
And I absolutely guarantee that this overdone bashing is resulting in two things occurring;
1. First it is generating a huge backlash of sympathy for Wendy and the News Press.
2. Second it is actually watering down and weakening any valid point that there may be by the constant nauseating repetition.
Keep it up and see what it gets you.
7:29-7:38am (just one person).
The freedom to participate in child pornography and then propose a huge mansion in Montecito without having your address published? Is that the freedom that Wendy McCaw defended for Rob Lowe. I think I don't really want freedom for child pornographers like Rob Lowe, but you do.
Freedom to conduct surveillance on your employees? That is not a freedom I want supported.
In an ethical country Wendy would be sharing a room with Squeaky Fromme.
The competitors are bringing down the News-Press. The SM Times is way, way better... they should start a South Coast edition.
And it is time to start appealing to advertisers to boycott again... who would want to shop at a place that advertises in a law-breaking newspaper? To advertisers: don't give your money to criminals. Don't enable crime. Don't advertise in the News-Press.
You are right. It is a free country.
And it's still a free country, as the former/future employees have learned.
If you don't like working for the News Press you are free to quit. Or you are free to form a union, put peaceful economic pressure on the company and do all the things that the former/future employees have done. Just ask the judge.
Whether the News Press has a union was never the choice of Wendy McCaw. It's simply not her prerogative. Period. No, that choice belongs to the workers there. And that, for better or worse, is the law of this free country.
Just ask the judge. Or the federal administration that investigated and prosecuted the case.
You're welcome, anon 10:56.
worker bee 7;23 a.m.
two things my friend:
1. I am one of those who used the term slope head socialist. But also assure you that the term caught on as there were several others who also used it. I did not write even half of those comments using the term slope-head socialist, just the ones that also used the words scum sucking socialist slugs slithering out from under slimy rocks.
2. YOU, Worker Bee, started all this. All I was doing was giving you back some of your own medicine.
Before I read your first post with your disgusting language I had only posted thoughtful and worthwhile remarks to add to the discussion. But when I read your nasty remarks it just set me off.
Now my comments were just playing with YOU. And you were not smart enough to see that.
But your original comments I feel were genuine and that means that there is something seriously wrong with your character and your personality. You obviously have a lack of confidence in yourself. And you appear to be not too bright. (understatement). I don't think you have a clue as to what this issue is actually all about.
This issue is not primarily about Wendy, or her shortcomings, but is primarily about a small group of left wing socialists who are pissed off that they lost their BIASED left wing control over News press reporting. Even if the fired reporters get their job back the left wing bias is history. So out of juvenile frustration you try to SPIN the facts to shift the bias to Wendy. As if that will get you any results other than cause a backlash of sympathy for Wendy and call even more negative attention to the tiny group of frustrated left wing socialists in town and their BIASED reporter flunkeys.
Joy in all that spending --- Wendy wins the joy of most spending. She has firms like Cappello's on her dime. They are pros at milking golden cows. You don't send Cappello a grocery store fruit cake for Christmas. A hundred million for Wendy, ten million for the Union. It's worth it for Wendy's ego. The principles the Union upholds benefit all Americans and is worthwhile.
To 12:24 p.m.
How about some examples of the "biased left wing control over News-Press reporting" that you refer to.
Seems like Blogabarbara would not need to post subjects about the Newspress Mess if the Newspress stopped Extremely Embellishing in federal court and being written up accordingly by the federal Judges, now twice.
Are the facts of the case supposed to change if the labor union members and their community allies are called enough names like slopeheads and socialists?
By any, ANY journalistic standard, the Newspress is a pathetic newspaper and only getting worse as a vanity press.
If its defenders can cite examples about how the Newspress really is getting better BY JOURNALISTIC STANDARDS, then that would be good to read here or elsewhere.
Hint: journalistic standards does not mean simply publishing editorials that one agrees with, regardless of facts or alternative views also recognized in the editorials and published elsewhere.
Where, again, is all that "brighter and tighter" reporting?
11:30 a.m.
Yep, this is a free country.
The workers do have the right to form a union. they do have the right to apply peaceful economic pressure.
But what you don't get is that Wendy has the right to stand by what's going to be called "her best and final offer", and when the union strikes wendy has the right to continue to operate her paper by using scabs from now to eternity.
We're talking hard ball here, and Wendy is quite skilled at playing hard ball.
It is a fact that Wendy can operate the paper from now to eternity just fine without the union workers. They have no skills that cannot be purchased in L.a. on the open market. There are 20,000,000 people in L.A, thousands of which are reporters who would just love to be able to work and live in beautiful Santa Barbara.
So in the end just which side do you think is going to win. ( hint: it ain't going to be the union. Not in this lifetime.)
Rich people are called law breakers. At all cost reframe from referring to the facts of criminal behavior of the rich. Wendy a criminal? Save it for the poor. A starving addict who lifts a bag of chips. Now that's criminal.
I won't go to News-Press advertisers. Anyone associated with criminals can't be trusted.
Man, some of the comments here are so nasty. I don't hate Wendy or the News Press, but the daily edition of the paper is so thin I can finish reading it in a matter of minutes. I've never been to any of the protests, or news conferences at De la Guerra Plaza. In fact some of those "twenty" people look just as weird to me as Wendy does. But the bottom line for me is this. The news in the News Press is just plain lame. Yesterday's front page article about the cell phone tower on the Granada was covered here, by Sara, on November 20th!
The News Press is what it is. So I'm getting my news from other sources.
Tell the advertisers they are supporting a business that coercively interrogates its employees and conducts unlawful surveillance of them.
Tell the advertisers that the News-Press fired a reporter because that reporter published the address of a man (Rob Lowe) who made a pornographic video with a minor.
Those are the rights that some sockpuppets in this blog support.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusions of Law
1. Respondent has engaged in unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of Section 8(a) (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act by:
(a) Threatening to discipline employees if they engage in union and protected concerted activity.
(b) Coercively interrogating employees concerning their union activities.
(c) Instructing employees to remove buttons from their clothing and signs from their vehicles reading “McCaw Obey the Law.”
(d) Terminating Robert Guiliano because he refused to commit an unfair labor practice.
(e) Engaging in surveillance of the union activities of employees.
2. Respondent has engaged in unfair labor practices affecting commerce within the meaning of Section 8(a)(3) and (1) and Section 2(6) and (7) of the Act by:
(a) Issuing letters of suspension to employees because those employees engaged in union and protected concerted activity.
(b) Canceling the column written by Starshine Roshell because she supported the Union.
(c) Giving lower evaluations to Anna Davision, Dawn Hobbs, Melissa Evans, and Karna Hughes because they engaged in union activity, thereby depriving them of annual performance bonuses.
(d) Discharging Melinda Burns, Anna Davison, Dawn Hobbs, Rob Kuznia, Barney McManigal, Tom Schultz, John Zant, and Melissa Evans because they engaged in union activity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7:58 p.m.
Did you stop to notice that nowhere in the ruling does it force Wendy to have to allow left wing biased reporting in her paper.
Did you stop to notice that your list of conclusions of law nowhere states that Wendy has to enter into an agreement with the union, or that she can't simply allow the union to strike and to hire scab reporters.
Did anywhere in the ruling say that Wendy can't drag this out for 10 years in court.
No?
Then this was in fact only a hollow illusion of a victory.
Wise up and read the writing on the wall.
What matters here is not the wording on the ruling but the reality of what's going to happen on the ground here for the next 10 years. You can all hold your breath until you are blue in the face for all the good your rhetoric is doing you.
Get a life! And mind your own business!
I've enjoyed reading comments from both sides.
Just an opinion, I see the parallel:
From San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill,
where working-men defend there rights,
it's there you find Joe Hill,
it's there you find Joe Hill!
I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.
People are not widgets.
Advertisers count on their customer base.
Readers are served, or they are not.
I'm still waiting for examples of the "left wing biased reporting" that's been mentioned a couple of times.
Here is a clue: advertisers have heard your complaints about Wendy being a lawless tyrant for months now. It does not matter what you and the judge think.
A lot of people feel sorry for Wendy now no matter what you think the judge is saying. And it matters not one whit to where they continue to place their advertising.
You fired reporters did nothing for the bottomline of this paper, besides turn off subscribers. And now you make everyone feel sorry for Wendy. What kind of victory is that?
20 people at your support rally? What kind of message was that. It was publicized all over the media. And guess who showed up -- a few cranks with their own failed issues to gin.
I am 2 days behind reading posts... so tonight I particularly noticed references to 'too much time on your hands' several times and .... Wow, I realize I got hooked here when the Writers Strike shut down my late night TV shows.
Letterman & Ferguson are 'legally' back so bye bye to Blogabarbara for a while. I can't say I'll miss the vicious attacks people toss at each other and feel sorry that Sara (who generously gives her time) has to wade through cursing, name calling and just plain rudness by the barbarians of this place: SB. It really sucks the big one these days!!
(People here are so ungreatful. It is obvious by their insults and language that they have no respect for Sara and all she does. Sad.)
*:28 p.m.
Joe Hill might be 10 years dead ( just like that judge looked 10 years dead)
But it's a fitting coincidence that this case is going to be 10 years in the appeal process.
lower westie -- thanks for the shout but it is readers like you that give me the goods!
What matters here is not the wording on the ruling but the reality of what's going to happen on the ground here for the next 10 years.
8:20pm that's genius. Darn words do get in the way. Just b|c the judge rules I beat my wife, it is what happens on the ground the next 10 years. Were you on McCaw and Wisenberger's legal team? That could be the problem.
What is on the ground here for the next 10 years is a clown posse to keep the jokes bounteous.
LEAVE WENDY ALONE!
Why can't you all just leave Wendy alone! She is a human being! You all just want MORE, MORE, MORE from her!
She tries her best, she loves animals and children, she fights for animal rights and fights against child pornography!
She bought the Santa-Barbara News-Press with cold, hard cash, about $100 million and change, in 2000. That was her own money. None of you chipped in, right?!!!
Why, why, why can't you all just LEAVE WENDY ALONE! Wahhhhhhh. I can't stop crying over this, it makes me sick, my mascara is running.
For one last time, why can't all you attorneys, like Barry Cappello, just LEAVE WENDY ALONE! You just want MORE, MORE, MORE money from her. You suck money like leeches suck blood. Leave Wendy's money alone!
And Craig Smith, you LEAVE WENDY ALONE too! Quit criticizing her hairstyle while sympathizing with fellow lawyers like Barry Cappello. You once said you're afraid of pit bulls and attorneys like Cappello, so you shy away from writing the whole truth in your blog.
LEAVE WENDY ALONE! Wahhhhhhhhhh.
If you advertise in the News-Press, you are supporting criminal behavior as evaluated by a federal judge, pure and simple.
If you advertise in the News-Press, you are supporting a paper that disciplined a reporter for publishing the address where a man (Rob Lowe) who made a pornographic video with a minor intends to build a mansion.
By what is good and right, Rob Lowe should have to register in California and publicize his address. Sex offenders, particularly child molesters, must register in California.
Wendy McCaw is so blinkered by money and celebrity she'd rather discipline a reporter than publish the address of a child pornographer.
Advertisers: that is what the News-Press stands for.
This news press bashing has nothing to do with protecting the right to organize or to help the fired reporters.
To prove it just think back a couple years to when the Hayward lumber company delivery drivers union went on strike. or when the grocery workers went on strike.
Both of these were much more significant in their union activity and harm to the workers than the News Press.
It is a fact that there is something a lot more going on here that fighting for the workers or the union.
it all has to do with control of the bias in the reporting. For years the left wing had control of the news press bias. It is a well know and accepted and documented fact that nationwide, generally speaking, the vast majority of newspapers and their reporters have a left wing biased slant in their writing and their editorials. This left wing bias helps the democratic party get its candidates elected. What is happening here is that Wendy bought the news press and put an end to the left wing bias that had previously occurred. Suddenly the democratic council-members started getting criticized for their actions and they didn't like it one little bit.
So what is really going on here is that a very small group of left wing socialists just can't stand it that they lost control of the news press and as a result are trying to capitalize and "use" this relatively minor union worker issue to discredit and significantly harm the News press. Their goal is to get people to not read the news press in order that they not see the negative things said about their candidates for council. Their goal is to discredit Travis Armstrong the "messenger" in hopes that the public will ignore the message.
Well this is not working because the vast majority of the people are smart enough to see right through what is really going on here: an organized campaign by the left wing socialists to smear the News Press, it's fine owner and its fine Editor. The message is getting through. The tide is turning! Proof is in the council election results!
Long live freedom of speech. Long live the the News Press. Wendy we all love you. Travis we all love you. Down with the left wing socialists. Hooray for no more left wing bias. Thank god!
For those of you readers, with or without sloped foreheads, who need help with the Chris Crocker reference, copy and paste this link to see the video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7822481176664840243&q=Chris+Crocker+site%3Avideo.google.com&total=54&start=0&num=30&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
This stale debate would be much livelier if each side had a more robust set of descriptive insults to hurl at each other (slopehead is getting worn out). I call a temporary cease fire and offer the following list for use by both sides:
Fluctuating facial asymmetry
Occipitally bunned cranium
Barrel ribbed
Projecting mid-face
De-generalized dental pattern
Polygamously conceived
Uni-ocular visioned
Humanzees
Chumans
Manpanzees
Sexually dimorphic
Postorbitally constricted
Leaf eaters
Scrublanders
Terrestrial baboons
Prehensile tailed
Stub-thumbed
Old World savanna dwellers
Okay, game on! (Just trying to help here, Sara.)
Yes, 7:29... long live freedom of criminal speech! long live freedom of speech for those who protect child pornographers, as Wendy McCaw has done! Long live freedom to coercively interrogate! Long live freedom to conduct surveillance of innocent people!
Those are the freedoms that you and Wendy McCaw and von Whatever want to support! Those freedoms will truly bring the South Coast to the attention of the world!
Thanks worker bee -- in the above post on the betting pool I was accused of being biased since you started the slope head term. The above is funny AND I want to be careful about our tone of debate. Thanks for the help.
And the union is losing a huge chunk of change continuing to litigate this case ...
The union candles must be burning bright right now deciding on how much more of a deep pocket hole to dig on this case. Ultimately, legal cases in the US are decided by who has the greater resources to waste.
Huh? Most of the heavy lifting in the case is already done. We're not talking millions here, but the cost of a couple more appeals briefs.
The Teamsters is a huge organization that has 1.4 million members in the United States and Canada. They stand with the workers at the paper.
There is no over-riding legal principle for them to invest in this case much longer.
This statement simply defies common sense. Organizing is at the heart of what every union stands for. Defending that right is a huge priority.
Advertisers who make business choices on pity are pitiful.
I goggled Rob Lowe. He did have sex with a minor. I do feel sorry for Wendy but she collects degenerates. I'd like to know how the computer porn crimes were resolved. That was a big deal for her. What happened?
News-Press Lover, hate what happened
One more time,
CITE THREE, JUST THREE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES OF ALLEGED BIAS IN NEWS ARTICLES OVERSEEN BY JERRY ROBERTS OR WRITTEN BY THOSE FIRED REPORTERS!!!
I have yet to find on this blog any examples of bias by the fired News-Press reporters.
And now that they're gone, the news important to Wendy gets spun by Scott Steepleton to sync with Travis Armstrong's editorials.
Maybe we should just rename the paper McCaw's Propaganda Press and be done with it?
Bias: old Newspress was way to sympathetic to the vagrants and homeless and to anti the police every time they tried to enforce the law.
They always called it harassing the homeless.
They never told the story from the perspective of business owners or property owner residents and downtown shoppers.
They always portrayed the homeless as romantic vagabonds entitled to special treatment no one else is granted and played the guilt card to give them free shelter and a free ride here.
The bums knew this and exploited this bias to the max until we have the mess we are stuck with today thanks to the old NewsPress.
The police hated the way they were treated by the old NewsPress when they tried to protect homeowner's rights trying to clean up this mess in our city.
Just one example. Anyone with close knowledge of a situation came away recoiling when they saw how it was treated in the old NewsPress.
Always pro "little guy" against the big bad establishment, even when the little guy was lying and trying to screw the establishment.
Gee, what does this remind me of right now??? Save that for the Independent where we know what we are buying (for free).
And getting rid of that bleeding heart bias of the old writers is one of biggest reasons the new NewsPress is finding such positive responses from its retained readers.
And that is exactly what at least one of the fired reporters had been cautioned about long before any of this union activity took place, yet she continued to show bias in her reporting and she got canned. And now is the loudest voice claiming she was screwed.
No sweetheart, it was the readers who got screwed when you were working for the NewsPress. Say good by. And good riddence.
To 1:56 p.m.
I just went to the N-P online archives and searched for "harassing the homeless."
No stories came up.
Hmmmmmm
1:56 Boy did you miss the boat on this issue! I spent 26 years at the NP (not in the newsroom) and read many of the articles on the homeless. There were some that inspired sympathy because the stories had merit, but mostly the stories were negative about the vagrants and panhandlers and positive about the cops. Reporting the facts of a city council meeting be they positive or negative does not reflect bias of any kind. That is just reporting government in action, good or bad. I don't know anyone who didn't wish the riff raff would find another place to go. Remember,700 Anacapa and De La Guerra Plaza are where many of the panhandlers hung out and that was in our front yard! We were accosted more than anybody in town! We were more than happy to have the bike cops frequent the park and discourage the runaways and drug dealers from hanging out and doing business. We were very tired of finding used condoms in the parking lot and vagrants urinating in the bushes. I remember cooperation between the paper and the police not animosity, so I am not sure where your comments come from. They certainly do not represent the facts or the majority of employees. Do you not remember the ride alongs on the lower east and west sides and the article on Ortega Park highlighting the severe alcohol and drug problems creating a safety issue for families due to used needles and broken glass? There were many articles like that, but I guess you didn't read those.
And getting rid of that bleeding heart bias of the old writers is one of biggest reasons the new NewsPress is finding such positive responses from its retained readers.
I'm sure all five of those "retained readers" are thrilled...
To 1:56 PM ...
I still work at the News-Press and wasn't happy with the union's subscription-cancellation campaign. I thought they were jumping the gun by doing something like that before they even started negotiations. I also think Wendy should be able to run the newsroom any way she wants, even if it is self-destructive, although I do believe she stepped over the line in violating basic labor rights ...
I think occasionally Travis writes a good editorial, although too often it's about animals (I have a dog and a cat and I love them to death, but I don't particularly want to read about the animal kingdom 24/7). I also think Travis hurts his case by getting so acidic with his editorials. I mean, he bashes the same people over and over, and sometimes without even explaining why. It just seems to me that too much vinegar spoils the brew, you know?
But what you said about the old News-Press reporters and editors coddling the homeless is simply not true. I never saw it. The former reporters hated them hanging around De La Guerra Plaza more than anyone. They were always bitching about why the police didn't do more to control them. I can't ever remember a News-Press story ripping the police for being heavy-handed with the homeless. Dawn Hobbs' sometimes strained relationship with the police came more from her aggressive style of pursuing a story -- she pestered the cops over and over. She considered it her job and obligation to the public, although sometimes I think her approach is a little too grating.
But most if not all those fired reporters are the nicest, most level-headed people you could ever know. Seriously. I think they made a mistake by going onto the bridge to demonstrate, although Melinda Burns and Anna Davison had been fired and everyone was so upset about it. Those two are both incredibly good, normal, hard-working people -- not the "biased crusaders" they are being made out to be by people who don't even know them. Both of them take great pride in being objective, which is the goal of every journalist.
I do believe Wendy thinks she's doing the right thing by standing up for her principles, which include animal rights and ownership rights. But she also sees enemies behind every computer keyboard, and frankly they weren't her enemies. I know that, because I know them. We were all hopeful that our new owner would also be a friend to the newsroom.
It's just sad that it's all come to this, and I worry that it could get worse and I may be forced to find a different job. I don't want that!
The retained readers number in the tens of thousands and court ruling claimed the NewsPress even turned a $200,000 profit.
Again, why do writers here fail to see the bias in their own thinking about the NewsPress and how easily they felt justified taking their bias into the articles they wrote.
No, there was not factually neutral reporting at city council meetings. Multiple times if I had attended the same hearing, I had pinch myself once I read the NP report and who they chose for a hot sound-bite quote which totally distorted what in fact had transpired.
Travis is doing a heck of a lot better job keeping track of what the city council is doing than any prior departed reporter, and that means Josh Molina who was one of the worst.
Did he snooze through the meetings or did he just not care about that beat and know the topics well enough to write about them with depth of the issues?
He just listened for what he wanted to hear from his "progressive" participants, picked up a cheezy sound bite quote and called it reporting. It stunk.
And this report about NewsPress workers unhappiness with all the DeLaGuerra vagrants is the first time anyone has heard it reported. Where was the NewsPress when the bike cops were eliminated?
Where was the hue and cry and the articles demanding their return and their own disgust with the blight vagrants inflict on this town?
Please correct my misunderstanding by pulling up those articles. Thanks.
Uhh... hmm... how does regurgitating wire service studies written by the same old cadre of hardcore American journalists avoid the bias? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Meet the new writers, same as the old writers. We won't get fooled again.
The News-Press these days is... lights on, nobody home.
Sorry, dude, you need to cite specific articles, events, dates, authors, etc.
Show me the bias.
Put up or shut up.
Cut the crap.
Find some facts.
Whether the News Press has a union was never Wendy's choice. She should have respected the rights of her employees.
If you all have such a hard time with the position she is in now, you know who to blame.
Remind me, how does a newspaper purport to want to preserve neighborhoods when it won't publish the addresses of overbuilt monstrosities like child-pornographer Rob Lowe's proposed mansion in Montecito?
Our community always needs to have the addresses of people like Rob Lowe public. Unbelievable that Wendy McCaw reprimanded a reporter for publishing Lowe's address.
Here are excerpts from the July, 1989 article on Lowe from the LA Times (an actual newspaper):
-----------------------------------
Actor Rob Lowe will perform community service in Los Angeles to avoid prosecution on charges that he videotaped a girl performing a sex act at an Atlanta hotel during the 1988 Democratic National Convention, the prosecutor in the Georgia city said Saturday.
Lowe had faced a possible criminal charge of sexual exploitation of a minor, with a maximum 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine, said Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Slaton.
Lowe, 25, and his father met with Slaton on Friday, almost a year after he allegedly taped the sex scene between Jan Parsons, who was 16 at the time, and a female companion.
"I needed to talk to him to size him up to see if he was OK for the program," Slaton said. "I felt the young man fit in, but I had to be sure of his attitude."
Lowe will work 20 hours with disadvantaged youths in Los Angeles-area schools and "stay out of trouble," for two years, Slaton said, adding that terms of the program will be worked out in the next few weeks. The agreement was part of the state's pretrial intervention program, "a hybrid alternative" to prosecution for young, nonviolent first offenders, Slaton said.
Lowe, who is currently making a film in Los Angeles, remains the subject of a civil suit brought by Parsons' mother, who claims the actor seduced her daughter.
------------------------------------
You heard the court testimony. Lowe made a request not to publish his address because he was worried about the saftey of his kids. Reasonable request considering the state of celebrity stalkers out there. The request was not honored. Wendy additionally claimed in court testimony it was common sense on top of a personal request not to print the address.
Yes, reprimands were in order because it is her paper and she sets the rules and she sent out the request loud and clear. Just because some claim they never heard this request does not change the consequences to Lowe. Don't blame him for being ticked big time at all.
Santa Barbara prides itself in letting celebrities have private lives here. NewsPress staff blew that one big time.
And it sounds like they wanted to be vengeful at that time anyway - Wendy already sensed way too much spiteful behavior coming from them as represented in her memos.
Time for the fired reporters to stop trying to look so pure and innocent because what came out in the trial and is now showing up is that they were a pretty petty, mean-spirited group.
Bias Denyer -- read again and again what you just wrote about denying there was plenty of bias in the old NewsPress.
Your inability to see other people's points of view and input puts you clearly in the camp of incompetence to be a neutral reporter.
Plus Wendy gets to set her own degree of bias anyway, and it was not yours. Get over this because you are unsuited to be working on her staff.
Be glad no one is still asking you too because you would be eternally clashing with her and not understand why. It would not be healthy for you to continue working in that helpless environment.
Direct your anger and energy to someplace where it is appreciated. Like writing Obama's campaign literature.
Safety of the kids of someone who made a sex video with a minor?
If Lowe was really concerned about their safety, they'd be in foster care.
His address should be part of the California sex crimes registry.
Wendy is in favor of protecting the addresses of people who make sex videos with minors. That is reprehensible. It is similar disgusting that she reprimanded a reporter who reported the address of someone who made a sex video with a minor. What a loony Wendy is.
Is its Wendy's right to protect sex offenders? I don't think so.
12:57am do you love celebrities so much that you want those celebrities who are child molesters to have free reign in our community?
Why don't you go through the state database of child molesters and tell us which ones have enough celebrity to have their addresses shielded.
Perhaps the News Press could publish a front page list of which child molesters should have their addresses removed from public databases because they have enough celebrity that the child molesters themselves need protection.
That is the kind of freedom the News-Press stands for: freedom to be a child molester and have your address shielded from public knowledge.
20 hours with disadvantaged youths in Los Angeles-area schools. Big deal. He bought and charmed his way out of the sex register. It is Wendy's civic duty to keep the public informed, not to harbor rich criminals who buy off the courts . Lowe is not even the lowest of her debauched circle of dime novel repute associates.
Me again ... a News-Press staffer:
I think we should give Rob Lowe a break. That happened a long time ago when he was young and immature, and I think people can change for the good. He seems to have his head on straight now, and I believe everyone deserves a second chance.
I think it would've made sense for the newspaper to print the general area where he lived, since it was a hearing about a property issue that people in the neighborhood might want to attend. After all, it was listed on TV, as well. Keeping out the specific address makes sense, but ...
To reprimand the reporter and editors for doing something that was standard operating procedure — running an address about a property-issue story — is just plain wrong. OK, put in the new standard and inform your staff if that's what you want, but to be punished for something instituted after the fact? That's just cruel, and it's against labor laws, too.
I just wish Wendy would have sit-down talks with her staff so there would be some open dialogue. She would see that we can all get along and work together. But that's not how she operates. She has never EVER done that. I feel sorry for her, because she's missing out on one of the great paybacks for being a boss -- that maternal/paternal satisfaction.
On the one hand, Lowe is the founding president of the Homeowners Defense Fund.
On the other hand, he tries to build an oversized mansion and shield his activities from public scrutiny.
That kind of hypocrisy shows he has not changed his behavior. He still thinks the rules don't apply to him.
Too bad he didn't get 20 years in the Georgia Pen and a $100,000 fine in 1989. He didn't learn from the light sentence he got.
He still thinks he is above the law, and that the law only applies to `little people'.
Wendy McCaw is the same sort of person.
Jack the Ripper got a break and folks still talk. It's far worse to have someone in our community.
This is alarming for those with children who are just learning of this. No, we don't need more cover up.
What labor law is it against to reprimand staff for not following a direct mandate? Please cite this federal code section. Thanks, this is new to me.
If you are so worried about identifying child molesters, worry more about all the unknowns living full time in their creepy RVs surrounding Kid's World in Alameda Park.
That is what needs to be exposed, not Rob Lowe's address for a crime commited and redressed decades ago.
Lathering about Rob Lowe and ignoring present realities is yet another example of out of balance scale and bias reporting presented by digruntled former NP staffers, who still do not get it.
2;50 p.m.
You said it.
This is proof that the left wing terminated news press reporters and their supporters are biased to the left.
it's so very obvious that any idiot can clearly see it. and some idiot has the gall to keep asking for an example. Well here is your example. Just one of many to come for every singe thing that comes out of their mouths here on Bloga Barbara is biased to the left.
You cannot punish someone AFTER the fact!!!!!! Think about it logically and tell me that it is ethical, good business and legal to do that. The story was reported according to STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES and Wendy punished the employee after the story printed. You can't even spin that one and come up with something ethical. If she changed the procedure for the future, that I have no problem with, but you don't punish someone for following the rules, period. That shows poor ethics, is bad business and shows poor management skills on any professional scale! Would you want to work for a someone you could not trust to be fair and consistent? It is no wonder that Wendy McCaw has great difficulty in filling jobs in the newsroom. I don't care that it is her paper, ethics and proper managerial procedures do matter. The lady is no business woman and a worse manager.
2:50pm go right ahead and investigate the RV's around Alameda Park.
RVs around Alameda park doesn't justify a statute of limitations on knowledge of Rob Lowe's address.
The present reality is that Rob Lowe is in this community and that makes me very uncomfortable. I don't know why you think that Rob Lowe's making a child porn video is alright.
His address should be freely available public knowledge, and he should realize that that is the consequence of his own actions in making a video of a child participating in porn in Atlanta in 1988, and not due to anyone else's actions.
That he is trying to evade the consequences of his actions shows he has no remorse and hasn't accepted his guilt.
To 2:46 ...
Wendy's mandate to not publish addresses was not made known to the reporters until after the Rob Lowe story was published.
Reporters had been instructed by their editors to, in fact, INCLUDE addresses in property-dispute stories so the public could know where the dispute was occurring.
So what would you have done if you were the reporter? Is it fair for that reporter to be punished? Maybe if you live in Iran or North Korea.
To 2:50 PM ...
Umm ... when did the former NP staffers ever write anything about Rob Lowe's past indiscretions — biased or otherwise?
If you're referring to the posts on this blog, how do you know they are being written by former NP staffers? I talk to those people, and Rob Lowe is the last thing on their minds, believe me.
This is another example of someone jumping to conclusions about those fine people who were fired by Wendy. Do you think they have tails and horns, too?
Wendy and the celebrity Lowe incidents aren't bias?
To 2:46 p.m.
There was no direct mandate. The newsroom staff was reprimanded then told AFTERWARDS of the new rule.
4:04 p.m.
So what if she is a poor manager and a poor business-woman.
I repeat; SO WHAT!
She bought this business and that gives her the right to manage it any way she wants.
and it's a myth that she has trouble finding reporters. There are 1000 reporters in L.A. who would just love to get a job here and be able to move here and live in the most beautiful city in the world.
And it's a myth if anyone thinks that she micromanages them. all they have to do is two things;
1. Treat her with respect. ( You don't have to admire her just to show common decency while at the workplace and not wear a disparaging badge on your clothing while at work.) Is it a lot to expect? Of course not.
2. Don't write stories that are biased to the left.
I challenge anyone to tell me what is so bad about that. ( unless you happen to be a far left wing socialist and just can't stand it like the small handful who blog here).
Bottom line: Things are going to work out for Wendy and the News Press in the end. This is already getting to be very old and boring news with the vast majority. As time goes on and the news press gets better and better ( which it is) all this fuss will soon be history.
And a lot sooner (years and years sooner) than this appeal is going to drag on. By the time this is settled half the fired reporters will be long since gone ( and could never afford to move back to Santa barbara because by them housing prices will be way beyond their reach. everyone knows that once one moves away that they can never afford to move back again.)
For years it was good to protect Priests and look the other way. Men living in RV's are often suspect of crime. It's more likely you'd allow your son or daughter to babysit at the Lowes or stay with them for a sleeper over. Children are the ones to protect, not Priests, wealth or celebrity.
At least, Kirk Douglas spoke out on his sex addiction issues. Dr. Laura is a tiger when it comes to protecting children. She once refused a job because she would not do business with those who did business with Howard Stern. She is a values teacher.
The News-Press can support celebrity child molesters if they want. That's not an argument, it's a fact. They need to be forthright about facts. They did try to protect the public address of a known child molester. Rob Lowe is a present reality. A child advocate would remind the community that he did molest and how he escaped justice. O.J. isn't serving time for a 90's murder. He has friends that like him that help him, on the other hand, there are newspapers that point out what the public believes he did. Rob Lowe did molest and the News-Press, with knowledge, protects a molester. That is highly disturbing for parents who are just now learning more of this story. It is irresponsible to keep this hidden.
heh anonymous Jan 6, 2008 @ 6:28 --- late nite tv could use some new comedy writers.
Respect is earned, and McCaw hasn't earned any respect.
I get better national news from the free NY Times website (better columnists too, except when the News-Press reprints 2 or 3 days later).
Local news is better in the Santa Maria Times, Noozhawk, the Sound, and the Indy. Way, way better.
I don't hate the News-Press. It is beneath contempt.
Odd that they keep saying they are 152 years old. The News-Press didn't exist until the 1930's, and its oldest predecessor dates from 1868, so they ought to say 140 years old.
Another place where they are challenged by the facts.
This might be a tough concept to grasp. It's not only poor business style.
SHE STINKS. No matter the spin.
SHE STINKS AND VIOLATES LABOR LAWS.
Wendy's world is "far left wing socialist and just can't stand it like the small handful who blog here)" behind every computer.
So it is concluded, then.
Rob Low put the porn on the computer in the office of Jerry Roberts.
That makes as much sense as all the idiocy here about bias and how the Newsless is getting better as a newspaper.
Just writing it repeatedly and anonymously don't make it true, especially, again, with no specific examples to support the allegations.
Intentionally distracting doesn't change what Rob Lowe did. Show where you read your bogus "Rob Low put the porn on the computer in the office of Jerry Roberts."
THAT'S YOUR COMMENT.
SHOW US IF SOMEONE ELSE SAID THAT.
Here is what I don't understand. Wendy buys a paper with her own money and becomes it sole owner.
The staff thinks she is a jerk and hate working for her.
They all either leave or get fired. Yet, most of them still are screaming they want their jobs back. What am I missing here?
Is the key here they want their jobs as employees back but only on their own terms and not Wendy's who still remains the 100% owner of the NewsPress?
Please explain how this can happen. If you think Wendy is a jerk and that she will never change, how will your working conditions change?
How can the union protect you if the owner is still a jerk in your mind and has her own agenda for her paper?
I just can't get past the sense of entitlement shown by the fired workers that if they come back to work that somehow they now get their way, when it was clear that their way is not the way Wendy want's to run her own paper.
The employees still think they are owners of the NewsPress. This is the disconnect I can not get past. They are not. They will still be employees and Wendy will still be the owner. And according to them Wendy will still be the same jerk they portray her as relentlessly on these pages.
What came out in the trial is there very much was another side of the story that these fired journalists never allowed out in their wounded yelps of injustice.
It may be Wendy's newspaper but she has broken the law. She disrespects her employees and community. Why should anybody give the lady respect? She hasn't earned it.
The problem with Wendy and the NP is that there are no market influences controlling the paper. Wendy abuses the free market system by buoying the business with her millions so she can run roughshod over her employees and community. Most business people rely on the profits of their companies for a paycheck and have market constraints on how they produce their product. If they do a bad job, they lose customers and revenue. Criticize the New York Times if you will, but they did run the NP as a business. They met with the community so that they could cover the stories that people wanted. If the paper was too liberal for you, it was because the majority of the community wanted it that way. Frankly, I thought the paper was too conservative, but it wasn't about you or me. It was about the community and what the majority wanted. Also, they made a helluva lot more that $200k. Wendy is losing money.
Wendy may cater to your reactionary tastes, but you and Wendy are a minority in the community. The rest of us are short changed.
It isn't just low wages and the cost of living keeping journalists from coming to SB. This story has gone around the world and nobody worth their salt wants the NP on their resume. That is a fact.
To 12:37 ...
Maybe some of us really love and care about the News-Press and the role it plays in the community, and refuse to surrender to the notion that an outsider could come in and pervert that.
And maybe some of us really love and care about Santa Barbara, and are reluctant to leave it.
And maybe some of us are petrified of seeking employment in a newspaper job market that is completely dried up.
And maybe some of us, maybe only a few by now, hope that Wendy will tire of this war that SHE declared on her employees and much of the town at large.
We wanted her to show us the love from day one, some still cling to that hope, but all she has shown us since 2000 is hate. Unadulerated hate. When you work in that building, you really feel it.
I don't know what happened to her during her life which made her such an unhappy antagonist, but most of Santa Barbara's reading public is now paying the price.
And it is sad.
Wendy believes she is entitled to shield child pornographers like Rob Lowe.
People who shield pornographers are entitled to a nice cell in the pen.
Just because you own something doesn't mean you get to break the law with impunity.
Wendy has repeatedly and decisively broken the law. It is a wonder she is not in jail.
2:50 and 3:30
Someone puts an anonymous comment on Blogabarbara about Rob Lowe. You assume it's a former News-Press reporter and/or cite this as evidence, no make that proof, of their alleged bias? Oh, that's rich. Par for the course.
To 628:
"2. Don't write stories that are biased to the left."
Huh? Anna Davison was fired for allegedly being "anti-coyote." That's biased to the left?
To 12:37:
"The staff thinks she is a jerk and hate working for her."
No, the staff knows -- and a judge has affirmed -- that she has violated labor laws designed to protect basic rights of workers. Business owners can operate their businesses as they see fit, but they must abide by the rule of law designed to protect others' rights. This isn't China.
Listen, I've worked for "jerks" before. We all have. This is beyond that. If 59 people have left or been fired in less than a year and a half, it's beyond that.
Two judges, after two sets of hearings (including the one last year on the NP's challenge to the union election), have blasted the NP management, and used terms like "extreme embellishments" in describing management testimony.
And an appeals judge upheld the judge's ruling on the union election. So it's 3-0 in the courts.
What the world needs now is love sweet love.
8:27, your relationship with Wendy is dysfunctional. It is time for you to leave it behind, no matter how much you want to believe in distorted reality.
Wendy is tough boss. She owns the paper. This relationship does not suit you. You have no rights to the name, future or business of the NewsPress.
Pack up and move on. You should have been more frightened about losing your job while you still had it. But everyone who got fired acted like jerks.
It is a little late now to whine about not working there. What were you thinking? That the hand that feeds you loves getting bitten over and over and over again?
Maybe they need to teach you a few more things in journalism classes.
Federal labor law does not tell an owner who wants to be a jerk to give up her paper to the employees and/or stop acting like a jerk.
It just controls time, place and manner of working conditions. But it does not control content or style of the owner. Wendy has First Amendment rights to control content. And she did not like your content. Nor, will she in the future. So you have no future at Wendy's NewsPress. Please let this sink in. No matter what your sentimental sense of entitlement to someone else's private property rights lead you to believe otherwise.
Why is this so hard to believe. You act like the first wife who cannot get over having been left and replaced.
You are going through divorce trauma and your healing is now officially off schedule.
Get moving on in your life and pick a profession that does not lock you in so much fear. Retrain in something where you can exercise your own personal brand of ethics and control.
Because the news is (sit down) this remains Wendy's paper and it will never be what you want. Your husband has left you for another woman. And you trained yourself to be a dinasour. Retrain.
Tough if you don't like this answer but it is done in your own best interest. Whining is not going to solve your immediate problems.
And that is breaking your sentimental attachment to something you no longer have. You have to let go and move on.
Go back to school and become a nurse. 2 year junior college education and get lots of scholarships and federal funding because the country needs nurses.
Plus if you stick around you will get subsidized housing at St Francis by the time you are done. What is not to like about this option that is lying at your feet and yours to grab.
You can still write on the side or publish the hospital newsletter or write health columns. But it will be a skill that will not be outsourced and appreciated far more than what you are doing right now.
Plus you will be better paid and in a union to boot.
8:44 p.m.
Wendy is that you? Show us the way.
Help 9:01 p.m. before they choke on their own regurgitations. Take pity on the poor twisted ones. They can now rejoice that the Judge gave you the opportunity to awake from your slumber and free yourself from your shackles.
9:01 ...
Yours is another example of someone (probably the same person) jumping to the conclusion that every anti-Wendy post is from a former (fired or resigned) staffer.
I still work there.
I am not speaking for the fired-resigned. I did not wear an anti-Wendy button, display an anti-Wendy placard on my car, hang an anti-Wendy banner on a freeway overpass, or defy her in any way shape or form. I have shown her nothing but loyalty and have worked my rear end off.
And yet, I am petrified about what this woman is going to do next. Why? Because it doesn't bother her that we do not cover some of the basic beats in Santa Barbara, miss stories left and right because of the size of our staff, and the inexperience of the temps she has hired.
She does care about coyotes and feral pigs, though. She's got that going for her.
9:01 Wendy mocks the free market system, her employees and the community. Regardless of her politics, she is a lousy business woman, unprofessional and cruel. I find it amazing that anybody could support someone like her. There are conservative newspaper owners in this country who do not behave like Wendy McCaw. Their papers are still newsworthy and they treat their employees with respect. They also value other points of view even though their politics are conservative. They don't ignore stories that disagree with their agenda. The difference is respect. These papers respect the profession of journalism and value truth over vanity. They also operate as a professional business. So the bottom line is that Wendy McCaw abuses her power with her money. She deserves every criticism and protest she gets and more.
9:01 nurses in this town, at least those at Cottage, are not protected by a union. The hospital's powers that be crushed their most recent attempt. Wendy's not the only one to look at for her labor practices.
still no answer to who owns KZSB.
11:10pm has got it right... lots of groups are exploiting the fact that there is no longer regular beat newspaper reporting in Santa Barbara.
Number One, towering above all the rest: UCSB.
8:11, stop yammering about who owns KZSB because this is public information. You go look it up.
Check with the FCC instead of haranguing here demanding someone else find this answer for you.
Bob Newhart sold the station to some one in Washington State as I recall who is a friend of Wendy's and apparently is now leasing the station to her.
Go look up the actual facts yourself instead of whining if this is so important to you.
It is a pretty good local station with lots of local interviews. A little too much on the fringe with health and psychic matters but its interviews on local issues is tops. It is a great public service. And Travis does some great interviews.
KZSB have you considered contacting the FCC? Did you ask the station or an investigative reporter?
Wendy does not mock the free enterprise system. Wendy is the free enterprise system. She fronts the risk and rises and falls on her own decisions.
She cleared at least $200K last year on the NewsPress so the market is giving her brand of free enterprise financial support regardless of her own investments in it. It is not the sinking ship you like to think it is. It is doing okay.
Don't worry about Wendy and her commitment to free enterprise.
What you are describing is not free enterprise; yours is group think dictatorship - my way or the highway, when you have no stake in the enterprise.
Wendy is operating in the strictest sense of free enterprise. She is choosing to risk her own capital, win lose or draw.
Sadly missing in the past few years of city council big brotherism was the private property perspective which was never even entertained by most former Newspress writers.
Those with free market, private property interests are among the biggest Wendy fans. The winds of Santa Barbara started shifting when the air got so rarified a few years ago. You smelled it as a stench but it was a breath of fresh air to the rest of us. Go Wendy!
Really, Sara, was it necessary to allow 10:27? Although it's clear the discourse in this blog has degenerated to a disturbing level, I thought you were bigger than that.
Some standards, please.
Monday's News-Press had almost all wire service filler on its first couple of pages.
Except for some press release re-writes by the same writer... Melendez I think.
The News-Press is getting like the Sound used to be, when ever article was written by the same guy. A one-local-reporter show.
Wendy a free marketer? Well sure, given she won her big money the old fashioned way, working horizontally. Now that is really entrepeneurial.
Pretty much everything she done since has been a loser. Yup, she risked her hard slept-for money on the News-Press, and she's made a total mess of that. Meanwhile, the Sulzbergers and Grahams are doing much better.
And she's hired fine sockpuppets to prove they are clueless on this blog.
Hmmm, how to make $200k. Get rid of 57 experienced, fte journalists plus several other experienced, management staff and hire low paid temps and strip the news to mostly wire stories and you too can make $200k. Give me a break, the lady is losing money because if she fully staffed the paper and it covered the stories it should be covering, Wendy would be paying through the nose to put out her newspaper. Yeah, she has a booming business supported by all the right wing private property fanatics, not.
The News Press is doing quite nicely financially, thank you very much!
It is making quite a nice little profit, not huge huge but very very substantial, but the exact amount is confidential.
The Monday edition of the NewsPress is always thin. Don't base your opinion on just one day. I assume this is to give a daily paper at least one day of slack down time, after the thickness of the Sunday edition. Seems okay to me.
Wendy was unhappy with this alleged 57 "experienced full time journalists". That is why they are no longer working there. They weren't happy working for her and she was not happy working with them. Time to part company and she was the owner. That is the way it goes.
So even though she made money getting rid of them, she was more interested in getting rid of their bias and negative attitudes no matter what the cost. Many support her in this.
Uh 9:28, most of them left a long time ago. Where are their qualified replacements? Anybody who has studied newspapers knows that they are high profit businesses. With all the cuts to the payroll, the NP would have made a couple of million if the business was healthy and profitable. Also, the paper is not just thin on Mondays.
You also have your second paragraph backwards. The employees of the NP used to have a great attitude and were extremely loyal. I am not a left wing socialist or a journalist, but I did work for the NP and saw the results of her management long before the meltdown. Wendy treated me ok, but I saw her burn good people in all areas of the company. I don't care that she owns the place, the lady is unethical and needs to be called on it on a regular basis. I can't put her out of business, but I will call attention to her unprofessional conduct, cruelty and extreme bias as often as I can.
My opinions aren't based on wild emotions but rather observations made starting in 2000 when Wendy bought the place. You try to paint this picture that everything was rosy until 2006 when a few disgruntled employees went on a rampage. That is another lie because it all started when Wendy bought the paper and it went down hill from there. Even high level management, who weren't in Wendy's pocket, knew it was coming. They were loyal to the paper (not Wendy), and didn't want to abandon the employees so stuck it out as long as they could. Spin it anyway you want for the bloggers and NIMBYS, but those of us who were in the trenches know better. We know the real story.
Businesses boom in many different ways. I once worked for a very well-known national sports magazine that made many cutbacks in format, staffing, frequency, etc. to continue to make a profit--and stay in business, thereby keeping the most possible people employed. As the publisher always reminded us, "We're in this business not to promote the sport but to make money." Many of us who struggle to keep our businesses going understand this, and are not sympathetic to the additional struggle of paying employees who undermine that effort. I had all sympathy with the NP people until they teamed up with the Teamsters, then it was like what?
Oh, and Around here "right wing private property fanatic" translates to anyone who owns a home, cares about the neighborhood and has concerns about increasing vagrancy and violence--just like most people across this country... Please!
There is no consistent beat coverage of crucial agencies in the County... starting at the County (Supes and Planning Agency, not to mention its myriad other committees), all the cities (3 on the South Coast + the significant unincorporated areas of Montecito, Noleta, and Isla Vista), the Gaviota Coast, the water districts, the sanitary districts, the APCD, the Coastal Commission, the School Districts... on and on.
Don't forget UCSB, which was frankly always poorly covered given its influence.
Of course it's just the little people who are impacted by the 30 or 40 agencies that make law and policy here. Wendy McCaw just sues them and ignores them. She has no idea how things actually work on the South Coast.
Worst, she's become a toady of the agencies that profit from a lack of news. UCSB is prominent among these... more than 1,000 new units of housing will be approved in the next few months with no attention from the fourth estate.
Travis ranting in columns on the opinion page just doesn't cut it. He has worn out is ability to influence... longer boring articles with facts actually matter. If he wants to have real impact, he should get of the opinion page and start wearing down his shoe lever and research skills writing real fact-based articles.
Of course Wendy has the right to produce a wacky paper for her 5 or 10 toadies. The marketplace will gradually eat her up.
The news press is just fine the way it is thank you very much.
The 90% of us who subscribe to it read it and love it.
We don't even miss the articles of those who were terminated. So much for their value.
You few who don't like it are free to not read it.
But the rest of us are not interested in the slightest in your opinion so SHUT UP, and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS.
As far as the Teamsters go, the newsroom called them as a last resort. They could see that people were being trampled on and they were desperate for some kind of help in dealing with Wendy's insane "Off with their heads" rants. You just don't know, so don't judge.
In fact, this "socialist" newsroom of which you speak had voted out the previous union just a few years earlier and were being represented by no one. Didn't need to be, didn't want to be.
Some of you just don't realize how oppressive it is in there. And yeah, they can leave if they want — but to what? There are no jobs out there. Some people would rather be abused than hungry and homeless ... imagine that.
Sure, it's Wendy's paper and she can do what she wants with it — and you can tell that's exactly what's happening by what little news (and especially features) there are on its pages.
I was hoping that Wendy would be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, but I guess no such luck.
Newspaper jobs are hard to come by, a lot of very qualified applicants for few openings across the country. Yet why aren't such people applying at the News-Press, why is the newsroom nearly empty except for a few young temps, why is the executive editor position vacant after a year and a half and a reported $250,000 salary offered?
Is it because every qualified journalist in the country is a socialist agitator who knows they won't get the free ride at the News-Press they're accustomed to getting at any other paper?
Huh? Well, guess I can't blame NP management apologists for reaching for whatever spin you can reach for, because on the merits of the case they got nothing.
Flood Blogabarbara all you want -- it won't be decided by a count here. It's in the courts, where the score is 3-0 employees (two of two hearings decisions and an appeals decision on the union election.)
Sure you can argue that it will take a lot more time to come out in the wash. But by saying that you're admitting you're in the wrong, and simply pointing out that the legal system works very slowly.
10 days have gone by since the judge decision.
Only 3640 more days to go until the appeals are exhausted, and the fired reporters get their job back.
I will report daily on the progress.
Is anyone out there holding their breath?
Angel Pacheco did a fine job - front page, city council.
Agree, the more they get back the regular beat coverage, but absent all that prior left-wing whining bias, about local institutions the better.
But better no news than the junk they tried to pass off in the past as "news" (opnion, bias, slant and single viewpoint observations)
6:20 a.m.
Whoever you are you got real class calling the news press supporters (who you don't even know) toadies.
I can assure you that numerous of these supporters are better people, and have more class then you will ever have.
Just who in the hell do you think you are.
Get down off your high horse, before you do more harm to your group of socialists.
Too bad the News-Press isn't performing its role as the Fourth Estate on the South Coast.
Can't remember the last time they wrote an article on the Goleta Sanitary District, or the County Juvenile Justice Delinquency Commission of the County. All we get is ranting and raving on the Opinion page about growth and gangs, but the real hard work in the trenches goes by without report.
That's because the News-Press has no idea how local government functions, they just sit on the sidelines and snipe about the locals who are `socialists' for caring about local government, while the News-Press pretends only the rich and powerful exist.
12 days have gone by since the judge decision.
Only 3638 more days to go until the appeals are exhausted, and the fired reporters get their job back.
I will report daily on the progress.
Is anyone out there still holding his or her breath?
11 hours have gone by since "timekeeper's" last post ...
Only 3638 more days until he/she graduates from kindergarten.
The courts will settle workplace violations. Journalism professors, historians, students will write and discuss every aspects long after 3638 days. Permanent records will be in the publications who cover the stories. Blog comments are comments. It's anyones business who has an interest. The little people aren't holding their breath, but we'll no doubt hear the same comments like a broken record. The "90%" one is already a joke. Most of whoever reads the NP won't articulate what they read, why care about the repetition? Have you heard of skim reading? If you're not interested in blog comments, why do you read them?
Public people are discussed and all kinds of thoughts and feelings tossed around. It's healthy and American. Just as you can say "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS" until you turn blue. I don't mind when Wendy or the 2-3 fans make mindless, reactionary remarks. It's just more confirmation how important this is and why workers rights matter. The "socialist" part is absurd, in the 50's it was "communist" who was the evil devil. If socialists are so bad, how about a war with Canada? Women get a year off for childbirth. Germany 2 years. Why do we allow these socialists to fight our wars?
People have opinions and they vent. One day there will be novels parroting the personalities, unauthorized biographies and numerous memories to rekindle. I wish 1/09/2008 9:58 PM had honor and would report daily, not echo. If you're not pleased with this blog, start another and leave a link.
Wendy McCaw has done more to help Unions help workers then is comprehensible to anyone who supports Wendy technique. She's doomed and stuck on tyranny and unable to organize.
Hmmm... County Sheriff needed another $3 million and has filled all available positions... can't read about it in the News-Press.
Only little people need law enforcement. Billionaires can just hire Blackwater.
I just learned this about Rob Lowe... why would Wendy McCaw blow up at a reporter for publishing his address?
July, 1989 LA Times
-----------------------------------
Actor Rob Lowe will perform community service in Los Angeles to avoid prosecution on charges that he videotaped a girl performing a sex act at an Atlanta hotel during the 1988 Democratic National Convention, the prosecutor in the Georgia city said Saturday.
Lowe had faced a possible criminal charge of sexual exploitation of a minor, with a maximum 20 years in prison and a $100,000 fine, said Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Slaton.
Lowe, 25, and his father met with Slaton on Friday, almost a year after he allegedly taped the sex scene between Jan Parsons, who was 16 at the time, and a female companion.
"I needed to talk to him to size him up to see if he was OK for the program," Slaton said. "I felt the young man fit in, but I had to be sure of his attitude."
Lowe will work 20 hours with disadvantaged youths in Los Angeles-area schools and "stay out of trouble," for two years, Slaton said, adding that terms of the program will be worked out in the next few weeks. The agreement was part of the state's pretrial intervention program, "a hybrid alternative" to prosecution for young, nonviolent first offenders, Slaton said.
Lowe, who is currently making a film in Los Angeles, remains the subject of a civil suit brought by Parsons' mother, who claims the actor seduced her daughter.
------------------------------------
Genarlow Wilson got 2 years in jail for the same thing Rob Lowe did, in Georgia too.
And Genarlow Wilson was only 17 years old at the time... Lowe was an adult and Lowe's victim was a minor.
Helping Rob Lowe is what the News-press now stands for.
Rob Lowe attended an awards ceremony of the socialist Screen Actors Guild.
Ronald Reagan? A socialist former actor, and a former socialist president of the socialist guild.
13 days have gone by since the judge decision.
Only 3637 more days to go until the appeals are exhausted, and the fired reporters get their job back.
I will report daily on the progress.
Is anyone out there still holding his or her breath?
reply to d.r. 12;12 p.m.
You say we can say mind your own business until we are blue in the face but you will still continue to bash Wendy.
Well, my friend, this works both ways:
You can bash Wendy until YOU are blue in the face and Wendy is going to continue to run the News Press in the same way for the next 20 years.
This means that she wins and you lose. Because 10 years from now she got to continue to do what she wanted for 10 years in spite of your wishes, and you don't get what you want which is to somehow bring her down, or to get her to change her way of managing the company that she owns. She has the power because she is the owner. you have no power and you are thus impotent to force change in the News Press.
It must gall you to no end to know that well over 90% of the residents like the news press enough to continue to subscribe to it and to read it every day.
So keep it up until you turn blue and see what it gets you. Some of us are getting extreme satisfaction out of watching Wendy make fools of you. She is laughing all the way to the bank.
Ha ha!
4:29 90% of what residents? I believe that Santa Barbara alone has 90,000 residents. Then you add in Goleta, Montecito, Carpinteria, Summerland and the north county. Doesn't that add up to about 250,000 residents? Isn't Wendy's circulation down to around 30,000? Maybe you should go back and relearn how to do percents. 30,000/250,000=.12 or 12%.
That is a far cry from 90%.
What you can read in blogs. Rob Lowe a pornographer? He was caught with more then one tape? The legal system is askew and it's not news when the wealthy get by with murder, rape or bad business deals. Lowe is possibly as cured from his addictions as Michael Jackson. The coincidentals in regard to McCaw are numerous. She has a significant list of pals with similar traits.
I have admiration for Michael Douglas. He's been open about his addiction, bad parenting, plastic surgery and treatment. Some of us have experience in regard to Nipper. I didn't see anything unusual with the Dr. Laura photographs that made her tabloid. What she taught her son and his child porn is the harrowing part. Little is known in regard to Steepleton, Armstrong and Cappelo, there are indicators. The Judge said Steepleton and Armstrong were not telling the truth, but they won't do time for perjury. What is the common thread affecting the McCaw business technique that pours out on Santa Barbara like a black oil spill? Are children only threatened by youthfl gangs, I think not. The Fathers at church have more scrutiny while wealth and celebrity get less. Adults are the ones to investigate and incarcerate.
McCaw hides until she emerges with an outburst or she goes to court. She emerged over a published public address for her celebrity pal with a past. McCaw and Lowe brought attention to this with their extreme reactions. Now we learn how he escaped a sex registry. Later she allowed her press to emerge because they found child porn that upset her. We were lead to believe this was a cause she would take to heart. Something in her coincidental world is wrong. It's right to examine the questions. She strikes out as an outlaw in her attacks, causing devastation, no one is safe, including her pals, lovers, advertisers or employees. McCaw is vicious in her front page and editorial attacks and accusations in regard to her perceived enemies. There is more then meets the eye here. When will we learn if or what the federal investigation determined? That could put a lot to rest. Meanwhie, she keeps piling on.
A timekeeper for the child porn incidents is another good idea. How many days since the computer examination started? How many days before questions are answered? How many days until McCaw writes a follow up?
The people who brought Lowe to our attention deserve a big thank you. The coincidence that a pornographer, who paid his way out of justice, was the beginning of the News-press public train wreck is crazy. I'm not the one who can clear Lowe from others suspicions or any of the iniquitous characters associated with Wendy and computer crimes. Only Wendy can clear that up. Lowe isn't my main suspect and law enforcement hasn't let me in on their procedures. When there is a pattern of questionable characters associated with a main player, you want to think the law isn't spellbound by wealth and celebrity.
McCaw over reacts to hide a public address and she didn't inform the community to all the facts it's entitled to know to keep children safe. Jacksons neighbors aren't forgetting about that case. I don't recall why our D.A. searched his house, were they looking for child pornography? We won't forget all the links McCaw makes and her odd behaviors. .
Many households have at least two people, so that makes 60,000 readers at least. And that translates as one quarter of residents still read the NewsPress. 30% of residents are Spanish speakers. So do the math.
The NewsPress continues to be the major newspaper for general circulation. You keep forgetting the results of the last city council election.
You are getting left behind with your short-sightedness about the NewsPress. What happened there is already yesterday's cold mashed potatoes for over 60,000 readers. Sad, but true.
Change with the times because what you thought you had, ain't comin' back.
8:02, yours is an odd post, does not quite track and wrong on many points.
Wendy does come out, but not in circles you move in. She has long been a generous donor in this town and just recently gave one million to the Young America Foundation Reagan Center on lower State Street.
Somehow I gather this is not a place you hang out. Wendy supports very generously the new Granada Theater as well as other very worthy charities in town.
These are not your cup of tea I gather, otherwise you would know she is quietly working behinds the scenes to the betterment of this town in the long tradition of quiet philanthropy that has long made this a very special town.
Although 30% of SB County speak primarily Spanish at home, 2/3 of those are bilingual and should be counted as potential customers for the News-Press.
So 60,000 of 90% of 200,000 is 33%, or 1/3. The News-Press reaches only 1/3 of South Coast potential customers, not 90%.
Most of that 1/3 subscribe for the ads.
14 days have gone by since the judge decision.
Only 3636 more days to go until the appeals are exhausted, and the fired reporters get their job back.
I will report daily on the progress.
Is anyone out there still holding his or her breath?
I would like a quality paper.
It's not going to happen in the next 30 to 40 years.
Everybody enjoy the fun. Wendy P. Mc Caw is loving the hate and attention. Vengeance pumps her pride. She has hit code blue with Ampersand, like week end at Bernie's there will be those who need to prop her up. The appearance that nothing can hurt her matters. If it isn't human, no need to treat as such. Like it or not, the NP is a once decent institution that is now possessed.
No one will be shrinking and now Wendy's war can surge. Know your enemy and keep it legal. Her threats are empty now and her intimidation tactics expected. She's already lost and must amp it up when she loses big. She'll use her front page to boast. How insecure is that? Her shmucks put all their eggs in crass materialism. She's a criminal, can you spell loser? Who are her henchmen? Liars and criminals that slime out of penance.
The good people have been too nice. Bring in the posse. Not enough critics.
Go Armstrong! Stop hiding behind the paper and radio gigs. Step up to the plate more often. The public needs you and other Wendys at city hall, not those lame editorials and columns you feed the little Wendy gang. Stir it up outside your prison walls.
I held my breath for the News-Press to do for the victims of child pornography! I'm blue. What did they do? I'm red.
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