Local journalists on the liberal and conservative sides of the political spectrum critiqued Newsmakers coverage of the controversy - but failed to grapple with the central finding of our reporting.
Jerry, I have too much respect for you to get into a pixxing contest. The Jerry Roberts I respect would have simply admitted to making some errors: Yes, in my haste, I neglected to get comment from a young lady who was the subject of a highly negative news story, opening not just myself but the publication that printed my piece to legitimate criticism and possible threat of litigation. Yes, I shouldn't be writing news stories about subjects, such as rent control or stabilization, in which my personal biases and preference for certain politicians is well known; when I cover politics, it should be properly labelled as an op-ed or commentary. Yes, my personal attack on Councilmember Kristen Sneddon went too far.
1-She was not the subject of the story - in fact I deliberately cropped her out of the photo because my focus was the overall tone and tactics of the protest which the sign symbolized, not one individual. When she identified herself the following day i produced a folo-up story, pretty standard practice in daily journalism, that incorporated her comments and others, including Kristen's; 2-My personal biases are well known because I make them well-known, and am always up front with readers and viewers about what i think about politics and policy. 3-Newsmakers is a newsletter and tv program of Reported Commentary - nobody's trying to hide the ball here; 4-My "attack" on Kristen was a factual recounting of her failure to respond to a simple question in a timely manner, which five of her colleagues managed to do. I informed her of my deadline several hours in advance of posting, also standard practice in daily journalism. 5-Your failure to disclose your campaign contributions in defending your political proteges, in a piece gussied up as media criticism, was...less than ideal.
Not factual, Jerry. Nowhere in the Edhat piece in question do you list your op-ed/commentary as such; assuming all readers know this is simply unprofessional. Calling it "Newsmakers" doesn't clearly signal to the readers who haven't been reading your work for 25 years. In my opinion, you should not be publishing in Santa Barbara's daily media any news stories about an election in which you have a personal favorite candidate (Eric Freedman) nor issues in which you have a strong bias (landlord/tenant) - unless it is clearly labelled as commentary. Not to do so is setting a poor example to younger journalists who look to you for professionalism. And you could be alienating some readers who might believe the new News-Press is biased against certain issues and individuals because your political opinion appears as news coverage labelled merely as "Politics." Full disclosure: My husband and I have been donors to Newswell for the new publication since its founders came to town two years ago. I always disclose my political support. https://www.independent.com/2024/11/15/district-1-outcome-will-bring-change/
P.S. Since you seem unfamiliar with Newsmakers operations, I'll add that Hap and I have never taken a dime from anyone since we started a decade ago, although we've sunk plenty of our own money (and countless hours of our time) into our labor of love, the trade-off being that we always speak the plain truth as we see it, accountable to no bosses, sponsors, or donors. We have 1,800 loyal subscribers, many of them deeply interested and engaged in local affairs, to our always free newsletter who seem to understand pretty clearly what it is we do. We have no connection to Newswell or to the News-Press, other than my volunteer service on their board of advisers, which I was asked to do when the publication re-started, and my obvious friendship with the editor. For the record, I also freelance from time to time for the Independent and the Montecito Journal, and adhere to their editorial guidelines in doing so. In your Edhat diatribe, you mistakenly called my piece a "submission to Edhat"; Newsmakers' content is always free and available to local news outlets, and Edhat frequently re-publishes our stuff, with our permission and gratitude. All best.
Eileen - I've been writing and broadcasting here since 2017 and it could not be clearer that what I produce is reported commentary. As you know, I've got considerable scars from defending the wall between news and opinion in an old-school legacy publication; as you also know journalism on the internet has altered many of the old ways, including that one. I'm not running a newsroom here -- I'm a one-man band using my battle-axe professional skills to contribute to the community conversation, which is what we stated our purpose was when we started out, and which we've remained true to ever since. Feel free to peruse our substantial archive of posts and over 600 public access and YouTube shows if you have any doubt about what it is that Newsmakers does and stands forI understand if it's not your cup of tea, fair enough, but don't try to twist my considerable body of work into what your notion of you think I should be doing, having become a subscriber (checks notes) this week.
Excellent point, and brilliant defense of journalistic principles.
Jerry, I have too much respect for you to get into a pixxing contest. The Jerry Roberts I respect would have simply admitted to making some errors: Yes, in my haste, I neglected to get comment from a young lady who was the subject of a highly negative news story, opening not just myself but the publication that printed my piece to legitimate criticism and possible threat of litigation. Yes, I shouldn't be writing news stories about subjects, such as rent control or stabilization, in which my personal biases and preference for certain politicians is well known; when I cover politics, it should be properly labelled as an op-ed or commentary. Yes, my personal attack on Councilmember Kristen Sneddon went too far.
1-She was not the subject of the story - in fact I deliberately cropped her out of the photo because my focus was the overall tone and tactics of the protest which the sign symbolized, not one individual. When she identified herself the following day i produced a folo-up story, pretty standard practice in daily journalism, that incorporated her comments and others, including Kristen's; 2-My personal biases are well known because I make them well-known, and am always up front with readers and viewers about what i think about politics and policy. 3-Newsmakers is a newsletter and tv program of Reported Commentary - nobody's trying to hide the ball here; 4-My "attack" on Kristen was a factual recounting of her failure to respond to a simple question in a timely manner, which five of her colleagues managed to do. I informed her of my deadline several hours in advance of posting, also standard practice in daily journalism. 5-Your failure to disclose your campaign contributions in defending your political proteges, in a piece gussied up as media criticism, was...less than ideal.
Not factual, Jerry. Nowhere in the Edhat piece in question do you list your op-ed/commentary as such; assuming all readers know this is simply unprofessional. Calling it "Newsmakers" doesn't clearly signal to the readers who haven't been reading your work for 25 years. In my opinion, you should not be publishing in Santa Barbara's daily media any news stories about an election in which you have a personal favorite candidate (Eric Freedman) nor issues in which you have a strong bias (landlord/tenant) - unless it is clearly labelled as commentary. Not to do so is setting a poor example to younger journalists who look to you for professionalism. And you could be alienating some readers who might believe the new News-Press is biased against certain issues and individuals because your political opinion appears as news coverage labelled merely as "Politics." Full disclosure: My husband and I have been donors to Newswell for the new publication since its founders came to town two years ago. I always disclose my political support. https://www.independent.com/2024/11/15/district-1-outcome-will-bring-change/
P.S. Since you seem unfamiliar with Newsmakers operations, I'll add that Hap and I have never taken a dime from anyone since we started a decade ago, although we've sunk plenty of our own money (and countless hours of our time) into our labor of love, the trade-off being that we always speak the plain truth as we see it, accountable to no bosses, sponsors, or donors. We have 1,800 loyal subscribers, many of them deeply interested and engaged in local affairs, to our always free newsletter who seem to understand pretty clearly what it is we do. We have no connection to Newswell or to the News-Press, other than my volunteer service on their board of advisers, which I was asked to do when the publication re-started, and my obvious friendship with the editor. For the record, I also freelance from time to time for the Independent and the Montecito Journal, and adhere to their editorial guidelines in doing so. In your Edhat diatribe, you mistakenly called my piece a "submission to Edhat"; Newsmakers' content is always free and available to local news outlets, and Edhat frequently re-publishes our stuff, with our permission and gratitude. All best.
Eileen - I've been writing and broadcasting here since 2017 and it could not be clearer that what I produce is reported commentary. As you know, I've got considerable scars from defending the wall between news and opinion in an old-school legacy publication; as you also know journalism on the internet has altered many of the old ways, including that one. I'm not running a newsroom here -- I'm a one-man band using my battle-axe professional skills to contribute to the community conversation, which is what we stated our purpose was when we started out, and which we've remained true to ever since. Feel free to peruse our substantial archive of posts and over 600 public access and YouTube shows if you have any doubt about what it is that Newsmakers does and stands forI understand if it's not your cup of tea, fair enough, but don't try to twist my considerable body of work into what your notion of you think I should be doing, having become a subscriber (checks notes) this week.
Snarky leftist banter.
Y U P