When it comes to news coverage of candidates running for local office the Pasadena Star News apparently has a racist, anti-Tea Party way of doing newspaper journalism. What else can you call it?
Take the recent story run by the Star News on March 23 about Sean Baggett, a Tea Party backed run-off election candidate for the PUSD School Board, and his past DUI record. http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_17687354
Juxtapose the coverage of Baggett with the non-coverage of the pending foreclosure of City Councilwoman Jacque Robinson’s family home in Pasadena that might have adversely affected her re-election chances on March 8.
James Behm, a supporter of candidate James D. Smith who ran against Councilwoman Jacque Robinson in District 1, sent me an email indicating he alerted Frank Girardot of the Pasadena Star News about Robinson’s pending foreclosure on Feb. 21 by email. Behm became aware of the foreclosure of Robinson’s family home through a public notice published in the Pasadena Weekly. Behm says that he got a return email that Girardot was on vacation at the time.
But on March 3, the Pasadena Sub Rosa blog broke the story that Robinson’s family home was in foreclosure with $626,000 in liens against it for a home estimated to be worth $509,000 by Zillow.com and listed for sale for $464,990. http://www.zillow.com/homes/580-east-howard-street-pasadena-ca_rb/ How do you explain the Star News failing to cover the story at that time as well?
The Councilwoman Robinson foreclosure story wasn’t newsworthy to the Star News but the Sean Bagget DUI story was.
Robinson’s foreclosure was of open public record; Baggett’s DUI record was of public record but had to be dug up by a records search. You would think that a City Councilwoman who had bragged about being selected to attend an academy on foreclosures on the City’s own website and had her own home in foreclosure would be a story of interest to the public. http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/EkContent.aspx?theme-Navy&id=8589935256&bid=2970&style=news
Was Councilwoman Robinson sent to this “Foreclosure Academy” with City funds to help her out of her financial troubles? We don’t know and it would probably take a subpoena of records to find out. Will Robinson be bailed out by President Obama’s foreclosure bailout program?
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/25/news/economy/sigtarp_report/index.htm
Or will the unions that supported Robinson find a way to bail her out and thus buy her vote? That one of a city’s own elected leaders is facing foreclosure is a story that would be of interest to the public. But no coverage.
The Star News has a record of antipathy toward the Tea Party. Back on Aug, 19, 2009, Public Editor Larry Wilson was one of the first in the nation to mock the Tea Party, calling them “Wingnuts,” a term that went half way around the world before anybody in the Tea Party could put on a Revolutionary War hat (to paraphrase Mark Twain). http://pasadenasubrosa.typepad.com/pasadena_sub_rosa/2009/08/when-it-comes-to-the-health-care-battle-just-who-are-the-wingnuts.html
Wilson has always been quick with disparaging satire against conservatives or any non-elites. And satire is a way to influence public opinion. It’s a way for elites who control the press to keep common people in their place.
But how did the Tea Party come into being in the first place? They arose because there is no voice for the common people. And there certainly is no newspaper to give them a voice in Pasadena.
Star News Public Editor Larry Wilson’s function in the Pasadena power structure is as a cultural gatekeeper, who makes sure that no one who is a commoner can get into public office or have any influence on public issues. This is why he is popular with community elites and his weekly column always is name- dropping to stroke the egos of other elites. Wilson knows how to play the game.
It is interesting that one of the frequent charges thrown at Tea Partier’s is that they are “racist.” But what do you call the Star News’ apparent refusal to cover the Jacque Robinson foreclosure story but “racist?”
The Star News’ failure to cover the Robinson foreclosure story is hypocritical for a newspaper that touts itself as a supporter of “open” government, compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, and California’s Sunshine Law.
The point above is not to disparage Councilwoman Robinson in return, who sadly appears to have enough problems of her own. Rather, it is to put some sunshine on the newspaper institutions in our community, which are all controlled by cultural elites. Like the old Roman Empire, the commoners need a tribune. But they won’t find one with the Pasadena Star News or San Gabriel Tribune.