Subscriber Comments for
Ed Presses for an Opinion

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Comments In Order Of When They Were Received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 3897	2007-01-11 09:03 AM
Go Union!!!
COMMENT 3898	2007-01-11 09:08 AM
We have lost a local institution to a mean-spirited and vengeful ego. More significant are (i) the threat to the first amendment rights; and (ii) actual and threatened litigation against anyone who dares oppose the NewsPress or its management.
COMMENT 3899	2007-01-11 09:25 AM
I'm kind of over it. People still keep leaving the NP, which says a lot about what Wendy does NOT plan to do to make things better for her employees. I feel bad for them - the NP has lost the respect of the community and it should die quietly.
COMMENT 3901	2007-01-11 09:30 AM
Freedom of press is important, but a bit of a sleeper.
COMMENT 3902	2007-01-11 09:33 AM
News-Press Mess is old news.
COMMENT 3903	2007-01-11 09:38 AM
I miss the News-Press. It was a hard habit to break, but it left me before I left it. Who would have thought someone would come in and buy a local newspaper, then break everything that made it worth reading!?
COMMENT 3904	2007-01-11 09:38 AM
I have become a player in the News-Press Mess. My salon Highlights Hair Salon 160 W. Alamar Ave.@De La Vina St. has had a McCAW OBEY THE LAW in my front window for a month, then I got a threating letter from McCaw's attorney,A. Barry Cappello that threatened me.Her are the contents of that letter: This firm represents Wendy McCaw. It has come to our attention that you have posted a sigh in your window "McCAW,OBEY THE LAW". The sign implies that Ms. McCaw is violating the law, which is not true and is defamatory. California law prohibits any false and unprivileged publication that exposes a person to hatred, contempt, ridicule and obloquy and injures them in respect to their business and occupation. Civil code **43,44,45,and 46. Accordingly, on behalf of our client,we demand that you immediatly remove the sign and cease and desist from any and all further defamation of Ms. McCaw. If you fail to do so, we will take appropiate action. We trust you will rectify the situation immediatly.Very truly yours, CAPPELLO &NOEL (SIGNED) A.Barry Cappello NOW THIS LETTER IS BLOWN UP AND IN THE FRONT WINDOW OF MY SALON,AND THE McCAW,OBEY THE LAW IS ON THE CIELING OF MY SALON I WANT THE UNION TO CLEARLY HAVE A VICTORY IN THIS MATTER. I MISS OUR OLD NEWS-PRESS,AND I ENCOURAGE ALL TO CANCEL THEIR SUBSCRIPTIONS! THANK YOU ERIC ZAHM 805-563-4626
COMMENT 3905	2007-01-11 09:41 AM
I'm done with it. It's a disaster, a mess.
GOODSTIX	2007-01-11 09:44 AM
I miss some aspects of subscribing to the News-Press so I can stay in touch with local news, but I'll be damned if I'd put a cent into Wendy's pocket unnecessarily. There are ethical and moral issues far outweigh everything else. It's interesting that this so-called libertarian stance so mirrors our current president's posture of digging in your heels, putting your fingers in your ears and not "cutting and running" regardless what would be the moral and ethical course. I'm a regular reader of the Independent and that cute little Daily Sound. I even call their advertisers from time to time and thank them for supporting the paper. The bigger issue is that an arrogant and petulant sole proprietor can control so much of what the community sees and hears. The good news is that no one I have respect for pays any attention to Travis's delusional blame-fests or much of what tries to pass for editorial commentary. Nuff said. The sooner she sells, the better off we'll all be.
COMMENT 3909	2007-01-11 10:01 AM
Some information is good, but the deluge of information is overkill.
COMMENT 3912	2007-01-11 10:06 AM
personally, i could care less.
COMMENT 3915	2007-01-11 10:22 AM
It's very important to have an unbiased, fair, daily newspaper run by local people who care about SB. Unfortunately, we don't have that right now. The paper should definitely be unionized so the Wendy can't do whatever she wants and ruin our paper and whatever else in our town she can get her hands on.
SBREALESTATE	2007-01-11 10:22 AM
What Wendy misses in this whole mess is the fact that she is fighting a one person battle against her entire community. I personally have not found a simpathetic person who sides with her. I for one, feel that the NP is my paper not her's. Sure she paid a bazillion dollars for the mast head....but she can only secure my support and that of the community by providing a viable news source that reflects the entire community. Presently the NP reflects the image of one who needs a face lift.
COMMENT 3917	2007-01-11 10:25 AM
I cancelled our subscription to the N-P shortly after the issue of the breach of the wall surfaced. I'm not as interested in N-P labor disputes other than how they impact this other issue. However it's not clear to me how the union can impact publisher intrusion to the newsroom. The only sure way to impact a publisher is to hit their pocketbook. Cancel your subscription today!
COMMENT 3919	2007-01-11 10:35 AM
It's too bad that the NP employees had to resort to bringing a union in, I understand why they did, and while my politics wern't really represented by the paper I read it everyday, I gotta say "Wendy, you screwed the proverbial pooch." "Thanks for wrecking the paper." "People like you are stealing the soul of my town" I now find all my local news through other outlets like ED, the Indy, and the Sound...Thanks EDHAT!
COMMENT 3920	2007-01-11 11:00 AM
I think the whole mess is unfortunate, at best. I worked at the NewPress for nearly 6 years and have been a resident of Santa Barbara since 1969. I was not dissapointed when it was sold to a local woman. As a matter of fact, everyone was happy. We had some high powered and fair management through the years, but we had high hopes for local ownership as opposed to the large news conglomorates. Jerry Roberts was a gem of a man, friendly, intellegent, and a consumate professional in his field; the editorial staff was quite possibly the best in the nation; we were making state-of-the-art changes in printing; and all seemed to be roses and champagne. What happened? I think the tide of contentment started to change when Travis Armstrong joined the news staff. He seems an angry man. I have personally seen him attack employees to show his prowess and establish dominance. I have seen him dig for gossip about fellow employees and relish on strife or discord in different departments. He takes a different approach with Ms. McCaw, giving her reason to think that he his all business and concerned only with the health of the NewsPress. The community is taking the brunt of this fiasco. Instead of putting all our eggs in the NewsPress basket, let's support another daily publication which is unbiased, employee supportive and news oriented, with an editorial section that is uplifting and can get to pressing and important issues. Where are the editors of the past? Can we get the all together and try to bring the community the press coverage that we deserve? Bill Macfadyen and the South Coast Beacon, can you be a daily? I'll subscribe? That would be news that is worth reading!
COMMENT 3921	2007-01-11 11:04 AM
I used to read SB News-Press every day. Now I only read EDHAT and the LA Times.
QUEENWHACKAMOLE	2007-01-11 11:11 AM
It's fascinating and infuriating and sad. I went through a period of missing the morning paper, but EdHat and local bloggers have really stepped up in its absence. The online world fills 90% of the void, but I still miss having news and pictures of my neighbors and friends on my doorstep each morning. When will the Daily Sound begin delivery? Or at least distribution at UCSB... I recently watched the Wal-Mart movie, and was struck the similarities between their intense anti-union efforts and Wendy's. Eerie.
COMMENT 3923	2007-01-11 11:28 AM
As with any story, it is only as interesting as the people behind the story make it. However, with the newspress, it is of particular importance, because it is the main newspaper in town. For some reason, I see it failing to deliver the proper perspective about its own internal labor dispute, and therefore should be covered by outside sources. Ultimately I think a union comes about soley to empower people who otherwise feel that they do not have a voice. I don't believe in this day and age that you are tied to the company store as it was in the past. However, I don't think that any harm can come from communicating and or collectively bargaining with an employer. If you feel that your employer's dealings are unfair, the best solution is really to quit. Sure your job might be snapped up by somebody willing to except the employer's working environment, but in the long run the employer will have lost some quality people, such as the newspress has already lost with many of it's key personnel leaving.
COMMENT 3924	2007-01-11 11:50 AM
NewsPress sucks. We chose not to renew when our NewsPress subscription expired (got 3 requests from them). NewsPress continued to deliver papers. Just got an ugly "Past Due-Subject to Collection" letter from them yesterday for the days they chose to deliver papers to us after our subscription expired. WHAT CAJONES!! What bad business!!!
COMMENT 3925	2007-01-11 12:11 PM
I am sick of hearing about it. Worse than the O'Donnell - Trump spat. There are plently of sources of news for us to learn about what is going on in Santa Barbara. Between you and the Independant you would think this is more important than the war in Iraq. You all (both sides) sound petty with axes to grind. Give it a break.
COMMENT 3926	2007-01-11 12:13 PM
I don't really like unions. They seem to be thugs tend to ruin businesses. That being said, I hope someone sticks it to Wendy. Cheers!
COMMENT 3930	2007-01-11 12:51 PM
The daily newspaper "of record" is critical to a civilized government and society. Thanks to The Mess, though, alternative media, such as EDHAT and various local blogs, are taking over that role of the daily newspaper as the chronicle of history. That may be fine, but the real challenge is how to consolidate all the sources of news into one defacto library. The various blogs and scattered web editions of newspapers do not all show up consistently through an internet WWW search. The Mess matters because disclosure and history matter. The Teamsters Union is the mechanism to assure that the newspaper function returns. But at the pace of the NewsPress becoming irrelevent, and other media taking over that niche, by the time the NewsPress becomes relevent again (either by journalistic standards restored and/or the ownership changing) the question will be if other media have gained enough momentum to take over. This is why the efforts of the Teamsters must advance as fast as possible.
COMMENT 3933	2007-01-11 03:33 PM
As a multi-generation SB Native who was driven out of my home town because of unintelligent, unethical, ignorant, over-indulged spoiled brats who have never worked a hard day in their life (see current News Press owner for a great example)......I say anyone who still subscribes to the Santa Barbara "NATIONAL ENQUIRER" tabloid paper should have their head examined. Oh, maybe you've had too much plastic surgery and spent far too many hours at the electric beach to have any brain cells left. Maybe you should spend all of your inherited "un-earned" money buying some. To those of us natives who remember the real SB and whose families can actually still survive there...we know better. Why not start an SB native owned local news paper with "REAL" news...something that doesn't contain papazarri photo's, news stories about celebrities, and where the latest strip mall or Bloomindales should go as front page "news". A word to all the spoiled tourists now living in SB...get some glasses (or state of the art eye surgery)..you already LIVE in paradise...quit trying to change it!
COMMENT 3938	2007-01-11 04:58 PM
it suks but i still read it.
COMMENT 3939	2007-01-11 04:58 PM
It's not news anymore! The mess was fascinating at first, but now it's just more of the same. I dumped my subscription 4 years ago and I'm surprised it took so long for the rest of the town to figure out what was going on. I purchased the Sunday paper for the coupons but now I get them from the LA Times and some real news to boot.
COMMENT 3940	2007-01-11 04:58 PM
The FORMER News-Press was VERY important to Santa Barbara. It was a wonderful newspaper for our community. The "McCaw Squawk" News- Press is practically useless and is a *detriment* to our community. McCaw has STOLEN the community's right to express itself in regard to the News-Press, which is by rights OUR NEWSPAPER. Wendy... go bother another city, YOU don't care, and we do!
RAOUL	2007-01-11 05:15 PM
We have the news press on a google alert. Critical articles about this mess come in from all over the usa, and other countries also. I wonder if Wendy realizes that she has created such a bad image of herself worldwide. And rightly so! We can't help but think that this image will also reflect on the community as a whole.
COMMENT 3942	2007-01-11 06:53 PM
I think the whole mess is ridiculous. It's incredibly sad that so many long term employees have quit or lost their jobs. It's hard enough to find a decent job in SB, and to have one of the large employers in such a mess is quite sad.
HATTIE	2007-01-11 07:48 PM
too many questions. i'll just answer this one: "Is the story interesting?" yes, i think it's interesting. now can i have a t-shirt? ;-)
COMMENT 3950	2007-01-11 10:35 PM
It goes without saying that the actions undertaken by the News-Press ownership in the last six months have resulted in a significant loss to both our community and to the many talented individuals who have been forced to pursue their journalistic careers elsewhere. The agressively shameless behavior displayed by the publisher has produced what is unquestionably one of the most sickening assaults against reason and good taste that I have ever witnessed. Moreover, it saddens me to think of what could have been accomplished with all of the hours and energy that have had to be dedicated (commendably) to fighting the numerable injustices that have occurred. No matter how you look it, it's a terrible, terrible waste.
COMMENT 3951	2007-01-11 11:27 PM
I found the most interesting and informative article was the one published in Vanity Fare (the same issue where Suri was revealed and SB rocked even that one!) I think the union struggle does matter but I don't know too much about it. I'm very happy that Barney Brittingham is now writing for the Independent.
COMMENT 3952	2007-01-12 08:13 AM
It's just such a shame that it all had to come to this. Thankfully alternative media have grabbed the reins. At least we know there are other places to get the information we need.
COMMENT 3960	2007-01-12 09:35 AM
We quit getting it during the summer. I like the daily sound, edhat & the indy. I wish one of the 3 could start providing coverage of local high school sports. Most people who have kids in school sports can only get box scores, etc from the sbnp. It's the only reason I will get a np.
EDONE	2007-01-12 09:39 AM
Local Sports? Here is the Edhat solution. From our experience, every sport has a team parent who is very good at emailing. Have that parent write up a short paragraph about the day's games and submit to Edhat. We will put the story online and link to it in our email. You can even email ed@edhat.com with a photo for the article.
SKT	2007-01-12 09:43 AM
I too stopped my subscription to the SBNP and am very sad about the state of affairs there. I am happy that Edhat, Daily Sound, Independent and local bloggers (yea Craig!)keep me informed on local issues. I read the Ventura Star for the rest. I appreciate getting the info about Wendy and her mess and am rooting for the poor current and former NP employees who (like the soldiers in Iraq) are bearing the brunt of the war. :)
COMMENT 3966	2007-01-12 10:30 AM
Six months ago I thought edhat was quirky...no more! I love getting news this way and the instant response from citizens is fascinating, making it real news. Today's variety of interesting posts blew me away...you ARE the paradigm and I find people who do not check in here are WAY behind the loop! Keep up the good work!
HATTIE	2007-01-12 10:33 AM
re: "Links to much of the coverage were placed on the Edhat news page and included in our emails, but these links did not receive nearly as much attention..." that could be because those of us who are pathetically obsessed with the news-mess story have already read the updates before you post those links, & others (a.k.a. "normal people") are not as inclined to keep reading the seemingly endless coverage. ;-)
COMMENT 3978	2007-01-12 07:53 PM
WGAS. Stands for Who Gives A S----.
COMMENT 3981	2007-01-12 10:36 PM
I quit the News-Suppress years ago when I realized that I got the same feeling from reading it that I did when I ate at a fast food restaurant. Yeecchh! Waste of time and money. BBC for me.
COMMENT 3988	2007-01-13 08:51 AM
The News-Press was a serious and influential institution in our community... Thomas M. Storke was an amazing giant whose vision led to Santa Barbara County being what it is. Perhaps the tragedy was that his son did not carry on, and moved back to Mexico City. But TMS defied fate and lived on, to transfer the paper to a responsible new owner. And now we are experiencing the farce, as Wendy McCaw whizzes all over the TMS's bootleather. Good on Edhat, the Sound, the Indy, and the Lompoc Record and Santa Maria Times. TMS himself overthrew his less agile competition. Let the marketplace drive McCaw into obscurity.
COMMENT 3998	2007-01-14 10:07 PM
Where did the News-Press give notice of when Dr. Laura will be back to work? What is going on?
COMMENT 4054	2007-01-18 12:47 PM
http://www.keyt.com/news/local/5149902.html KEYT video story of the NLRB hearing
COMMENT 4077	2007-01-21 08:46 AM
Again: Newspapers are old hat Long Live Edhat!!!!!