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Vol. I
No. 4
Friday,
October 7, 2005
From all corners of the county:
NewStory
HSU President Blasts Arcata's
Support of Medical Marijuana
Sex, Drugs and Military Recruitment
High School Board Candidates, Part I
Competing Visions in Eureka's
Bay Race
Harbor District Candidates, Part I
University Cops Enforcing Their
Laws in Arcata?
Old Town Security Partially Privatized
Permitting Process Reorganized
Under Fire
Pulp
Mill Pollution Dominates Discussion
The Development Fight that Wasn't
A Night of Violence in Eureka
Peace Rally Reveals Underlying
Conflict
In the Know
Creative Venues:
Auberjonois Gives Liquid Performance
in Ferndale
Famed 'Deep Space Nine' vet gives tear-jerking 'Love Letters'
CD Preview:
Way Beyond the 'Yellow' Song
Coldplay breaks hearts again with 'X & Y'
Artistic License:
Spirit and Free Will Persevere
Through Poetry
Christa Larrit recites deeply personal 'Figures upon Figures'
Film in Focus:
This Corpse Has a Pulse
Burton's 'Corpse Bride' Does a Double-Take on
Romance
Poet in Residence:
Carnielon Stones
Opinion
Editorial:
Skateboarding is Not a Crime
Eureka Councilmembers should think twice before criminalizing
youth and repeating rent-a-cop experiment
Guest Opinion:
Rogue Soldiers or Rogue President?
Scapegoating the small-fry
Getting Graphic:
Recruiting Now for the Titanic
Artists take empire to task
Perspectives on Globalization:
AIPAC and Espionage: Guilty as
Hell
Pentagon analyst plea bargains, threatens to expose Israel's
Washington cabal
Vagabond Journalist:
Replacing the Press with Police
Musical chairs in Arcata City Hall
GreenView:
Media Reform Seems
to Interest All Sides
The letter Shawn Warford wouldn't print
Calendar: 10/7-10/13
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| Replacing
the Press with Police |
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| Musical chairs at Arcata
City Hall
Vagabond Journalist
By Charles Douglas
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At times, media folk seem to be primadonnas by nature,
especially in this age of instant gratification. Too
many of us just re-print the latest release without
a second thought, or even a first question as to verification
or getting the other sides of the story. We expect it
to be handed to us. As we sketch ourselves out of our
place in society as craftsmen and women and into an
invented sense of a ‘profession,’ more and
more of the modesty that defined the proper role of
a reporter is lost. A veritable Fourth Estate indeed.
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With that said, one more positive development has been the
inclusion of physical space for journalists to do the deed
at local government meetings. Sometimes they are simple spaces,
such as the table in the back of Fortuna’s Council Chambers
provided for us to rest our ample piles of paperwork and avoid
carpal tunnel. Others, such as at Eureka City Hall or in the
Supervisors’ rather dim environs, feature up-close seating
giving us eavesdroppers the ability to discern the harried
whisperings of folks who don’t always remember that
there’s a microphone in front of them. Those audio jacks
and power sockets come in handy for those of us with increasingly
essential items such as recorders and laptops.
Until recently, Arcata offered a moderate level of these
amenities. Their press box was once the hangout of the late
David Anderson from the Times-Standard, and has been visited
by numerous radio and TV reporters as well as us ink-stained
wretches. Since late last year, yours truly has been the interested
party getting the up-close view of Councilmembers passing
notes to each other as staff members trade amusing anecdotes
or flash some familiar hand signals. It’s also the best
place from which to get a good angle on citizens coming up
to the podium for public testimony.
All this changed this fall as the nature of Arcata’s
apparent Council majority has moved further into focus. The
“PRESS” placard disappeared, replaced with a grinning
Arcata Police Chief who arrives early to secure his perch.
When I asked him at the last meeting, Randy Mendosa claimed
the press had never been at the post, a postulation easily
refuted by referring to a photo of Graton’s John Jenkyl
(of Sonoma County), who gave his final performance after a
string of anti-war denunciations of cowardly Councilmembers,
corrupt administration officials and the ever-looming specter
of “Da’ Mayor” Willie Brown. You can easily
see me in Kimbery Wear’s snapshot, laughing my ass off
at Jenkyl’s impromptu rendition of dearly departed Johnny
Cash’s Man in Black, seated at the table as always.
Numerous tapes of HCTV’s feed of the show might prove
to be a slight hint as well.
Other than the inevitable cramping and carpal tunnel from
those bare, bony apparati in the peanut gallery, moving out
the media on behalf of a law enforcement presence sends a
disturbing message about how our society increasingly trades
freedom for security. The legendary APD head in the ‘90s,
Mel Brown, didn’t make himself scarce, but he was perfectly
capable of sharing space with the rest of City employees at
the staff table. He also seemed to appear when he had something
to say, a feat certainly not matched in a meeting last month
where Mendosa spoke once the entire meeting, and only on behalf
of a proclamation awarded to someone else at the beginning
of the meeting.
Considering the formidable level of criticism the Arcata
Council takes from conservatives, liberals, radicals and us
populist folk alike in print and over the airwaves, you’d
think Mayor Machi and company would be more interested in
fostering relationships with reporters, folks they’ll
see week in and week out whether they like it or not (kind
of like the public). Council Chambers in general seem to be
too constrained and too stuffy, especially when tough time
limits backed by the long arm of the law combine with closing
off the back of the room and depriving journalists of the
ability to get those up-close shots that define photography
in support of public affairs reporting.
Is it too much to ask Arcata to throw their doors open to
all players in the field? Why does only one paper get its
own mailbox at the City Manager’s office and down at
the police station? The ‘great wall’ constructed
this summer in front of the receptionist was considered a
fluke at the time, and now appears to have been a prelude
to further constraints designed to push the public further
away. When our government officials openly exhibit fear of
our close scrutiny of their activities, they create more of
the very suspicion they seek to avoid.
Charles Douglas is still wondering when the crew at City
Hall will get the glitches out of their cablecast of the meetings. |
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Other
Opinions:
Editorial:
Skateboarding is Not a Crime
Eureka Councilmembers should think twice before criminalizing
youth and repeating rent-a-cop experiment
Getting Graphic:
Recruiting Now for the Titanic
Graphic artists take empire to task
Guest Opinion:
Rogue Soldiers or Rogue
President?
Scapegoating the small-fry
Perspectives on Globalization:
AIPAC and Espionage: Guilty
as Hell
Pentagon analyst plea bargains, threatens to expose
Israel's Washington cabal
GreenView:
Media Reform
Seems to Interest All Sides
The letter Shawn Warford wouldn't print |
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