Tribgate

You know what really bugs me about the Tribune?

It's not that they said they would publish my recent Viewpoint, but never did, until I published it here, on my blog, and THEN, Tribune managing editor, Tad Weber, contacted, opinion page editor, Stephanie Finucane, one day after I posted my piece, with this:

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Hi Ron,
Tad forwarded me your blog entries. Again, we have no problem running your letter and posting your viewpoint. We’ll try to get that in later in the week.

To ensure that your letters are processed more expeditiously in the future, please address them to letters@thetribunenews.com.

Thanks so much,
Stephanie
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... and THEN, about two weeks after my initial submission, they finally published my Viewpoint (on their web site)... one day after I published it on my blog (along with some scathing commentary, where I reiterated my original take that the Tribune's reporting on this story over the past 11 years has been "worse than nothing." Funny, sad, and true!)

And it's not even that Finucane told me that when they published my piece, they would post my "entire piece on our Web site and refer to it from the letter," but then never referred to it from the letter.

No.

What really bugs me about the Tribune, is that in my Viewpoint, I concisely, and perfectly, show how the 2005 Los Osos Community Services District Board sat and listened to a roughly 10-1 ratio of Los Osos residents that begged them to set the recall election date at one of the EARLIEST possible dates, and then that same board promptly ignored that 10-1 ratio and set the recall election date at one of the LATEST possible dates -- because they could, because they, like ALL board majorities facing recall in California, took advantage of that terrible law that I'm trying change -- and by setting the election at one of the latest possible dates, they were able to not only out-raise their opponents in campaign contributions by about a 3-1 clip (with the lion's share of the contributions coming from all the contractors and engineering firms that stood to make a ton of cash off the embarrassing and illegal Tri-W project), but they also created the window of time needed for them to cash a $6 million dollar State check, and then immediately begin wasting that money on an unpopular, embarrassing, illegal, mid-town sewer plant... that ripped up a bunch of officially classified "Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area," and also, in that same Viewpoint, I reported how the top elections official in SLO County, Julie Rodewald, told me that, had it been her decision to make, she would have set that date at one of the EARLIEST possible dates, and the Trib, apparently, STILL doesn't seem to find any of that newsworthy.

[MEMO to Trib Editors and Reporters: The reason Rodewald told me that is because I picked up something called a "telephone," pushed some buttons, and asked her this question: "If it had been your decision to make, would you have set the Los Osos recall election date closer to the earliest possible date or closer to the latest?" It's called reporting. You guys might want to try it sometime.]

$6 million of State funds wasted, for no reason whatsoever. Environmentally Sensitive Habitat ripped up... for no reason whatsoever. A 10-1 "Please, set the recall election date at one of the earliest possible dates" ratio, and the Trib refuses to report on any of it, despite the fact that my Viewpoint outlines all of it... perfectly.

I swear, if you look at the Trib's reporting on this story over the past 10 years, and then look at my reporting on this story over that same time frame, it looks like we're reporting on two completely different stories.

However, the ginormous problem for the Trib these days is this: Three people that don't live anywhere near Los Osos -- Assemblyman Blakeslee, SLO County Clerk-Recorder, Julie Rodewald, and me -- all sat and watched the 2005 LOCSD Board majority listen to, and then ignore, that 10-1 ratio, and, today, all three of us are on the exact same page.

Think about it...

Not only did Rodewald tell me she would have set the date at one of the earliest possible dates, she even went so far as to recommend that the Secretary of State should set recall election dates, after I first proposed that the date be set by the county's top election official.

Blakeslee, after witnessing first-hand (like me and Rodewald) the colossal damage that can result from allowing elected officials that are facing recall to set their own recall election date, chose my "What Ought to be a Law" idea as one of the seven finalists in his contest, after receiving some 250 entries.

It would appear that Blakeslee, Rodewald, and SewerWatch are on one page, and the Trib, for reasons unknown, is on another.

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