SLOPPY COPY

SLOPPY COPY: The other day “Eleanor” left a comment asking “How do you keep your blood pressure down?”.

The fact is that all the ACE inhibitors and beta and calcium channel blockers in the world couldn’t keep out head from spinning and exploding over the latest mind-bogglingly incompetent article from haplessly inept local newspaper reporter Leo Azambuja.

Despite the fact that the county council’s discussion of the plastic bag ban ordinance occurred last Wednesday- as we reported Monday- Azambuja reported yesterday that “Councilman Tim Bynum has requested the administration’s presence to discuss the plastic bag reduction ordinance at the council meeting this Wednesday in Nawiliwili”.

The only reference to the ordinance on this week’s council agenda is the committee report from the meeting at which the discussion took place.

But though it was bad enough have the “newspaper of record” record it falsely, sometimes when they do it takes on a life of it own.

So it was little surprise that the false information made it’s way into a “Newswatch” blurb in today’s Star(Ad)vertiser repeating the misinformation because they have no correspondent on Kaua`i and rely on reports in our local newspaper since the “merger” of the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser.

They were actually able to pick out the lede- albeit with incorrect information- that Azambuja had buried, writing that “The Kauai County Council today will discuss the law banning plastic bags.”

Meanwhile former Advertiser correspondent Diana Leone was filing her first “Special to the Star-Advertiser” story today covering the all-important-to-Kaua`i public hearings held here for the administrative rules for the 2007 Dam Safety Act- a story we fully expect the local paper to blow off.

How long can the island go on like this? It’s bad enough when coverage fails to report or reports in a manner designed to protect advertisers and political cronies. But when the level of incompetence causes false reporting across the state, well, as our friend Dr. Katz says “you know what the music means”.