Jerry Roberts
The below article was originally published on SB Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts
For decades in his column, he wrote the real-time narrative history of Santa Barbara, then in real-life became a community hero by choosing journalistic principle and ethics over a job he loved
Barney Brantingham, a great journalist who embodied Santa Barbara the way Mike Royko did Chicago, Jimmy Breslin New York and Herb Caen San Francisco, died last week, his family announced Monday. He was 93.
Like those big-city newspaper brethren of his era, Barney captured the human stories, sentiments and spirit of his town, pounding out a real-time history of Santa Barbara on deadline, day-after-day, year-after-year, in his must-read “On the Beat” column.
In lovely send-offs, Jean Yamamura and Josh Molina both detailed his life and long career as what used to be called a “newspaperman,” in their obituaries in the Independent and over at Noozhawk, respectively. Please check them out.
Goat tacos and ties. As a personal matter, I knew Barney as a colleague who became a good friend. I had great respect for his journalistic chops, high regard for his well-earned standing as a community icon, and great admiration for his warmth, compassion and basic human decency as a man.
As the historic morning paper’s well-established marquee attraction, Barney was a little suspicious of me when I showed up as the new suit in the newsroom in 2002. By the time he’d led me through the sensory delights of my first Fiesta that summer, however, introducing me to goat tacos and getting me to lose the tie, we’d formed a professional and personal connection that would last for nearly a quarter-century.
Unlike other star columnists I’ve known, Barney always tipped off the city desk when he had a scoop they might need to chase; if we needed a little extra scope and oomph on a sensitive local story, he was always glad to rewrite his column onto Page One; when a matter arose that required some special diplomacy (the owner of the paper’s engagement to her longtime paramour, comes to mind) Barney would find a deft way to make it work in “On the Beat.”
Barney truly loved his city, almost as much as he loved his job. So it was a shock when he walked into my office on the morning of July 6, 2006, to inform me that he’d decided to resign, along with four senior editors and me, over a series of internal events that had made staying at the paper untenable.
Barney didn’t have to do that. At that point, he had not been directly affected, influenced or impacted by the internal turmoil that had touched the editors (I remember being surprised that he even knew that we were planning to leave – but he was that kind of reporter). He had decades invested in his position and his high status in the community, and no one would have blamed him, or even looked askance, if he’d just kept his head down, pounding out his column until the storm had passed.
Barney had too much integrity for that.
He sincerely cared about the traditional values that underlay the trustworthiness of his craft, the without-fear-or-favor principles that built and nurtured credibility with readers, his audience, the people of Santa Barbara, who he truly loved. He wouldn’t betray them by pretending that everything inside that historic building on De La Guerra Plaza was all right.
So he gave up the best job he ever had, drawing a line in the sand about what was permissible to meet his high standards for our work, and what was not.
Barney’s resignation was like a giant jolt across the community.
Truth be told, no one would really have cared all that much about a batch of mostly anonymous editors quitting over some obscure “Code of Ethics.” When Barney walked out the door — voluntarily, confidently, certain of why he was doing it — and then explained clearly why he had – people in Santa Barbara suddenly took notice, understood why it mattered, and began to protest and push back.
Tears and Chi-town deli. There’s a short, sad scene in the documentary “Citizen McCaw,” which tells the story of the 2006 “meltdown,” that shows Barney speaking to a rally in front of the newspaper building a few days after his resignation. Midway through his speech, he starts to cry, weeping openly, a raw demonstration of the sacrifice he made for his profession, for his community, and for the rest of us.
A few months after that day, Barney and I, with our spouses, were in Chicago together to accept an ethics award from the Society of Professional Journalists for our collective actions at the paper.
He took us to one of his favorite home town delis, and we had a few laughs; I don’t remember much we talked about; but I do remember marveling to myself that there was not a glimpse on his part of looking back. Barney was unwavering and unshakably secure that he’d made the right and morally correct decision by quitting.
That belief gave me – and a lot of other people — a lot of strength through a lot of bad months and years in all that followed the meltdown.
For that, for Santa Barbara, and for your friendship – thank you, Barn…
RIP, old friend.
Integrity.
A gentleman and a scholar. RIP Barney. Wonderful tribute, Jerry.
A model for all of us in these times. “Without fear or favor.”
A Santa Barbara icon, hope Harry’s has a pic of him hangin’
A legend who left a legacy.
He gave us a lot of information and a lot of entertainment.
I remember reading the SB News Press, even if only the “funnies,” in the 60’s. I continued to read it, and Barney’s Off the Beat, until the end. I’m thankful we got to continue with him at the Independent.
My sincere condolences to his loved ones and friends.
For so many decades, Barney was the heart of the News Press and he was a class act.
When he left the paper, it was already on life support and it took several years of it bleeding before Ms. McCaw finally put it out of its misery with the help of thousands of readers no longer interested in its content or lack of it. Had Tom Storke been alive through this disaster for his paper, he would have dropped dead from the grief. Rest in peace Barney, knowing that you representedf the best in local journalism for so many decades. Ya done good!
It wasn’t uninterested readers/community members who killed the paper!
Thanks to Jerry Roberts for this excellent tribute to a great journalist and loyal friend.
Barney was like a hometown hero, and his column was always read around sunrise: Make my Day!
Those of us who are also professional journalists honor him for his prose that could be serious, hilarious, heart -felt and indignant when it was needed. Too, his wife was also an icon, and they made the News-Press shine.
When Wendy McCaw took over, it soured. Imagine, a decades-old local newspaper that generally had the community close to its heart and printed necessary news. The scandal surrounding her destruction of journalistic ethics has now landed as a talking point at journalism schools.
Barn, we will miss you so much. You were a great representative of what journalism is all about.
~ John Hankins, former owner and reporter of County News (and Clipping) Service, and currently semi-retired editor of the Sierra Club’s Condor Call serving SB and Ventura counties. Also, UCSB editor (late 60’s), editor for Goleta Sun (now defunct, not my fault!), the News-Press for a brief year or so and stringer for the LA Times, among many others. Barney and I used to love to talk about the news and how it was presented.