A Few Final Words for Sierra Madre Bloggers
By Terry Miller
Published: Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Opinion by: Terry Miller & John Stephens
Despite the hundreds of letters, phone calls and comments singing the praises for the posture this paper took in the weeks preceding the recent city council election, there still is an element willing to take a sneering thrust at our reportage.
We were a bit taken aback by the indecorous remarks made on Bill Coburn’s website, sierramadrenews.net. But we shall take no offense as we respect your right to say the things you feel, just as John Crawford also has said rights. Instead, we’ll shrug our shoulders and say, “Good, they’re reading the paper”.
For the small number of Sierra Madre citizens who may have missed it, here’s what Mr. Coburn had to say about our election coverage:
“I’m also a little disappointed in the Weekly. In my opinion, the Sierra Madre Weekly has, in its election coverage, taken some unnecessary potshots. I think some of their election news coverage read like opinion pieces. News coverage should be fact based coverage; opinion should be clearly marked as editorial. It’s one thing if opinion is offered in a columnist’s column, an editorial (marked editorial), or an Op-ed commentary (marked Op-ed). But when it is written into what should be “Just the Facts” news coverage, you’re crossing a line. And much of what I read in the paper this week wasn’t categorized as Opinion or Editorial, and could easily have been perceived as being news reporting, yet it was full of opinion. And frankly, some of the opinions in this week’s paper, to my mind, lacked the civility and respect that the candidates (and the paper itself) have been calling for as we approached the election.”
For clarification: We ran several editorial pieces and did label them as such when appropriate.
Mr. Hovesepian made his feelings clear on election night-The people listened
With last week’s collaboration of Miller and Stephens’ post election coverage, we felt it fitting under the circumstances to take a little poetic license, if you will, with our coverage of what had become a free-for-all detestation festival which was spawned by a small tattle tale blogger and his dictatorial regime of double agent writers regarding the election.
We felt strongly in our convictions that the greater good was served by doing so, and we stand by our decision. In fact, Mr. Coburn’s assertion that we went too far smacks of little more than a shameless attempt to establish his coverage as the unbiased perspective in town. Here, we will agree with Mr. Crawford that this is far from the case.
Now that Crawford has clearly lost any chance at a seat on Sierra Madre’s council, he has spread his cyber- wings.
Here’s his latest mystic wisdom – while taking yet another clairvoyant gash at the not-yet-seated, newly-elected council:
“We changed the title of this blog a little bit. Since Sierra Madre has now elected a city council that will work to diminish the role of our city hall in favor of a more consultant driven regional government approach”. But again, with our city soon to be folded deeply into the “collaborative” regional government system that coverage will need to be expanded.
Ouch, Mr. Crawford, that smarts! Sierra Madre’s newly-elected council deserves better than that, methinks. Oh well, you know what they say, consider the source.
And don’t hold your breath, faceless commentators; I won’t address the personal invective. That was the week it was! And of course, it is nothing more than what it is!
The Sierra Madre Weekly, The Mountain Views News, Pasadena Star News and, yes, even Mr. Coburn went after the furious tales of said local blogger turned council candidate in recent weeks, as did scores of concerned Sierra Madre residents.
Bringing to light news and information that may otherwise not have been discussed is what newspapers are all about. It is an open forum, of sorts, with letters to the editor, commentary and comments on out websites. One big difference between journalism and blogs is accountability. We are not anonymous. We have the courage of our convictions and the protection of the First Amendment.
In the post election world, we discovered that Mr. Crawford had not the good sportsmanship to thank his courageous opponents in what was such an indignant mêlée. In fact, he and his interminable pen pals continue their wordy warfare. Some strike personally, while others molest more imprecisely. While we adamantly respect anyone’s right to speak his mind, we feel a few critical thinkers might deem it more appropriate to do so with a little more graciousness.
All we are saying is give peace a chance!
Perhaps you could congratulate your opponents and wish them well, offer your counsel in a constructive, less critical tone. Perhaps, just perhaps we’ll get some insight into each other’s thoughts instead of nasty and absolutely non-constructive name-calling that has torn the fabric of this small foothill community.
I, for one, will do my part by offering an olive branch to those who feel I was too austere.
Anyone who wants to run for public office becomes a target and the crossfire can be extremely painful.
This coming Tuesday a new council will be sworn in and changes will occur. Let us brush off our differences and work together. I think we’ll all be happier, and certainly healthier!
Photo by Terry Miller
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