LOCAL PAPER’S BUSINESS EDITOR ZICKOS FIRED DUE TO BUSINESS COMMUNITY COMPLAINTS
(PNN) -- The local newspaper’s Business Editor, Coco Zickos, was fired last week because, she was told, the business community was unhappy with her reporting and she was doing too many environmental articles.
According to Zickos on August 4 she was called to a meeting with Editor Nathan Eagle and Human Resources Director Tamra Wedemeyer where she was told by Eagle that she was “not a good fit anymore” and to gather her belongings and go.
However Zickos says that when Eagle left the room Wedemeyer essentially told her that it was “not personal but you've been doing a lot of environmental stuff but not involved enough in the business community and the business community is unhappy with your business reporting” although she could not recall the precise words used by Wedemeyer
She says Eagle told her it was not her writing or journalistic skills but her “performance” that was at issue, saying she was pushed to attend more chamber of commerce promoted events and didn’t always do so.
“It was a total shock” Zickos said in a telephone interview conducted yesterday afternoon. “There was no warning- nobody ever pulled me aside and said there were any problems.”
Although no one said so, Zickos said she suspects the firing was at the behest of Publisher Randy Kozerski.
Although in the past the paper’s business editors also covered the “environmental” beat Zickos says she was not originally hired to cover environmental issues but, since that was her passion, she asked and was given permission to cover the beat.
Some sources who asked not to be identified said that it might have been the content of her environmental coverage such as the series on bacterial counts at local beaches that upset tourism industry officials who would rather bad news that could effect visitor count be squelched.
This is not the first time the paper’s business editor has left the paper due to complaints over content that upset some in the business community. Editor Andy Gross quit after being told to stop covering Kaua`i Island Utilities Coop (KIUC) issues raised by co-op members by current Police and Courts Editor Paul Curtis who was weekend and assistant editor at the time.
Curtis was then let go by the Editor Adam Harju due to the incident but has returned to the paper under Eagle.
Before that Curtis was employed by KIUC founder Gregg Gardiner at The Kaua`i Times newspaper before it was bought out by TGI.
Zickos says she guesses that she angered some powerful people in the business community somehow although she didn’t venture a guess as to whom that might be.
Though she said she had no experience or training in journalism she said she “learned a lot” by working at the paper.
Pressed with the $64 question often raised by PNN as a reason why journalistic skills and experience are apparently given short shrift during hiring- especially given the number of experienced journalists out of work after the “merger” of the Honolulu newspapers- Zickos would only give her salary “range” of “between 12 and 15 dollars an hour”.
The paper has apparently not as yet hired a new business and/ or environmental editor and Zickos’ name has been purged on the staff page.
For the record Zickos did not initiate contact with PNN, we sought her out for this story.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9, 2010
STOP US BEFORE WE VOTE AGAIN
STOP US BEFORE WE VOTE AGAIN: The TV news last night was full of the same “because there’s video” lede about a sign-carrying demonstration support for one of the worst, most reactionary ideas to come down the pike in many a year- the constitutional amendment to stop electing Board of Education (BOE) members and allow the governor to appoint them with senate confirmation.
According to this morning’s Starvertiser.
"We need to do something," said Colbert Matsumoto, chairman and CEO of Island Insurance Co. Ltd. "We just can't stand idly back."
Admittedly the current election system for electing BOE members has it’s problems. People vote for all the members across the state, not just their local island reps and often have no idea who the candidates are so that they either vote for a “pig in a poke” or leave their ballot blank.
This creates a statewide election- the only one other than that for governor and US senator- run on campaign budgets that preclude interisland campaigning, assuring that no one has any idea who the candidates are, especially with the media emphasis on the glamour races.
But to start doing the “dance of the headless chicken” by waving our arms in the air and yelling “do something” and then deciding to reject democracy as “too messy”, belies the Jeffersonian axiom that the answer to the problems of the messiness of democracy lies not in less but rather more democracy.
The reality of a gubernatorial appointment system will result in more of the same problems experienced with similar appointment schemes such as that of the UH Board of Regents (BOR) which is somehow cited by proponents.
But as with the BOR the positions will be filled by cronies and hacks with no particular expertise other than a partisan knee-jerk adherence to the governor’s agenda. Haven’t we seen the dangers of that during the Lingle administration?
If we need to tweak the election system then let’s do it.
By creating districts and allowing voters to elect only their own local representatives we would assure not just local recognition of candidates but would go a long way toward local control and accountability which is what many say is the right prescription for K-12 educational reform.
It’s very easy to look at governmental systems without accounting for people and politics and deciding that, if the systems works the way it should, it would be better than the present.
That’s always a huge “if” which ignores the political reality of changing control of that system to a single person and placing another layer of accountability between the voters and those acting on our behalf.
According to this morning’s Starvertiser.
"We need to do something," said Colbert Matsumoto, chairman and CEO of Island Insurance Co. Ltd. "We just can't stand idly back."
Admittedly the current election system for electing BOE members has it’s problems. People vote for all the members across the state, not just their local island reps and often have no idea who the candidates are so that they either vote for a “pig in a poke” or leave their ballot blank.
This creates a statewide election- the only one other than that for governor and US senator- run on campaign budgets that preclude interisland campaigning, assuring that no one has any idea who the candidates are, especially with the media emphasis on the glamour races.
But to start doing the “dance of the headless chicken” by waving our arms in the air and yelling “do something” and then deciding to reject democracy as “too messy”, belies the Jeffersonian axiom that the answer to the problems of the messiness of democracy lies not in less but rather more democracy.
The reality of a gubernatorial appointment system will result in more of the same problems experienced with similar appointment schemes such as that of the UH Board of Regents (BOR) which is somehow cited by proponents.
But as with the BOR the positions will be filled by cronies and hacks with no particular expertise other than a partisan knee-jerk adherence to the governor’s agenda. Haven’t we seen the dangers of that during the Lingle administration?
If we need to tweak the election system then let’s do it.
By creating districts and allowing voters to elect only their own local representatives we would assure not just local recognition of candidates but would go a long way toward local control and accountability which is what many say is the right prescription for K-12 educational reform.
It’s very easy to look at governmental systems without accounting for people and politics and deciding that, if the systems works the way it should, it would be better than the present.
That’s always a huge “if” which ignores the political reality of changing control of that system to a single person and placing another layer of accountability between the voters and those acting on our behalf.
Friday, August 6, 2010
GET THE WHITE-OUT
GET THE WHITE-OUT: We were pretty rough on local newspaper “employee” Leo Azambuja the other day in calling him “(h)yperbole notwithstanding, the worst reporter in the world at the worst newspaper in the world”.
But that statement is only problematic if you dispute the tag “reporter” given his lack of acumen and apparently after these many months, his ability- or interest in trying- to learn the job.
Therefore let us amend that- given his decades of pseudo-journalism on Kaua`i the “worst reporter” award has to go to courts and police beat reporter Paul Curtis whose controversial front page report yesterday alleging misconduct on the part of Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri- Carvalho was apparently based on a central “fact” Curtis created out of whole cloth.
In writing about a case in 5th Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano’s court Curtis’ lede read:
At face value, it looked like an open-and-shut theft case with the perpetrator caught on a grocery store surveillance camera.
That is until county Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho through Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lauren McDowell announced she may seek enhanced sentencing against Dennis Louis Rego Jr. because of his petty misdemeanor theft conviction in 1987 in Honolulu.
But today, tucked into a corner of page 2 under the banner Corrections and Clarifications the SECOND correction was this little tidbit:
In the front-page story Thursday, “Battle brewing,” it should not have stated that county prosecutors are seeking enhanced sentencing against defendant Dennis Louis Rego Jr., and that the state Attorney General’s office never uses outside private counsel as special deputy attorney generals (sic), but deputizes prosecutors from other county prosecutors offices to take certain cases.
For those that missed the story, apparently, according to a filing by Rego’s attorney Mark Zenger, Rego and Iseri:
were boyfriend-girlfriend for nearly a decade, that Rego helped put Iseri-Carvalho through undergraduate and law school, and that Iseri-Carvalho prodded Rego into the 1987 theft of cosmetics from a Honolulu department store.
But no one apparently said anything connecting anything about any enhanced sentencing, which would be central to any allegation of misconduct on the part of Iseri who said she checked with the attorney general’s office regarding any conflict of interest before the case went forward and did not personally prosecute Rego.
The second part of the correction is bad enough because any experienced court reporter would know that deputy attorneys general (not “attorney generals” as any court reporter should know) aren’t used as prosecutors.
But in this case Curtis even writes that “Iseri-Carvalho in an e-mail advised against the newspaper printing ‘false statements’ but did not elaborate”.
You’d think that a good reporter would go back and figure out what the false part is, and, given that the rest of the allegations were contained in Zenger’s written filing, focus on the one thing that wasn’t in writing.
So what? Well if the 44 Comments on the article are any indication the peasants were gathering pitchforks and torches and getting ready to march on Iseri’s office today.
And given the placement of the correction, today’s “furlough Friday” may have been all that saved Iseri’s neck.
The worst part is, in an attempt to present a scandalous story with a “Battle Brewing” headline- we’ll give the benefit of the doubt that Curtis didn’t really try to “sensationalize” what would have been pretty sensational anyway were the story “true”- Curtis should have suspected something was wrong with his story based on Iseri’s statement about “false statements” and could easily have double checked with the deputy prosecutor that he’d gotten the story right.
Is there a “per se” libel case here? For that the article would have to not only falsely accuse Iseri of a crime- which although it does in saying she conspired with Rego to steal the cosmetics, he is quoting Zenger so it would have had to have been published with “reckless disregard for the truth”- but since Iseri is a public figure she would have to prove “malice aforethought” on Curtis’ part.
With over 20 years of experience Curtis should certainly known better and if he’s not fired he should certainly disciplined severely by the local paper’s editor and/or publisher.
-------
Note: Somehow we left off the campaign contributions filing of Councilperson Tim Bynum yesterday. Here it is.
Bynum, Tim
Had $8,096.47
Raised $7,775.00
Spent $12,659.97
Loan $3,725.00
Debt $513.50
The on-line version of yesterday’s post has been edited to include Bynum’s numbers numbers.
But that statement is only problematic if you dispute the tag “reporter” given his lack of acumen and apparently after these many months, his ability- or interest in trying- to learn the job.
Therefore let us amend that- given his decades of pseudo-journalism on Kaua`i the “worst reporter” award has to go to courts and police beat reporter Paul Curtis whose controversial front page report yesterday alleging misconduct on the part of Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri- Carvalho was apparently based on a central “fact” Curtis created out of whole cloth.
In writing about a case in 5th Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano’s court Curtis’ lede read:
At face value, it looked like an open-and-shut theft case with the perpetrator caught on a grocery store surveillance camera.
That is until county Prosecuting Attorney Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho through Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Lauren McDowell announced she may seek enhanced sentencing against Dennis Louis Rego Jr. because of his petty misdemeanor theft conviction in 1987 in Honolulu.
But today, tucked into a corner of page 2 under the banner Corrections and Clarifications the SECOND correction was this little tidbit:
In the front-page story Thursday, “Battle brewing,” it should not have stated that county prosecutors are seeking enhanced sentencing against defendant Dennis Louis Rego Jr., and that the state Attorney General’s office never uses outside private counsel as special deputy attorney generals (sic), but deputizes prosecutors from other county prosecutors offices to take certain cases.
For those that missed the story, apparently, according to a filing by Rego’s attorney Mark Zenger, Rego and Iseri:
were boyfriend-girlfriend for nearly a decade, that Rego helped put Iseri-Carvalho through undergraduate and law school, and that Iseri-Carvalho prodded Rego into the 1987 theft of cosmetics from a Honolulu department store.
But no one apparently said anything connecting anything about any enhanced sentencing, which would be central to any allegation of misconduct on the part of Iseri who said she checked with the attorney general’s office regarding any conflict of interest before the case went forward and did not personally prosecute Rego.
The second part of the correction is bad enough because any experienced court reporter would know that deputy attorneys general (not “attorney generals” as any court reporter should know) aren’t used as prosecutors.
But in this case Curtis even writes that “Iseri-Carvalho in an e-mail advised against the newspaper printing ‘false statements’ but did not elaborate”.
You’d think that a good reporter would go back and figure out what the false part is, and, given that the rest of the allegations were contained in Zenger’s written filing, focus on the one thing that wasn’t in writing.
So what? Well if the 44 Comments on the article are any indication the peasants were gathering pitchforks and torches and getting ready to march on Iseri’s office today.
And given the placement of the correction, today’s “furlough Friday” may have been all that saved Iseri’s neck.
The worst part is, in an attempt to present a scandalous story with a “Battle Brewing” headline- we’ll give the benefit of the doubt that Curtis didn’t really try to “sensationalize” what would have been pretty sensational anyway were the story “true”- Curtis should have suspected something was wrong with his story based on Iseri’s statement about “false statements” and could easily have double checked with the deputy prosecutor that he’d gotten the story right.
Is there a “per se” libel case here? For that the article would have to not only falsely accuse Iseri of a crime- which although it does in saying she conspired with Rego to steal the cosmetics, he is quoting Zenger so it would have had to have been published with “reckless disregard for the truth”- but since Iseri is a public figure she would have to prove “malice aforethought” on Curtis’ part.
With over 20 years of experience Curtis should certainly known better and if he’s not fired he should certainly disciplined severely by the local paper’s editor and/or publisher.
-------
Note: Somehow we left off the campaign contributions filing of Councilperson Tim Bynum yesterday. Here it is.
Bynum, Tim
Had $8,096.47
Raised $7,775.00
Spent $12,659.97
Loan $3,725.00
Debt $513.50
The on-line version of yesterday’s post has been edited to include Bynum’s numbers numbers.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
READ ‘EM AND WEEP
READ ‘EM AND WEEP: The latest candidate campaign contribution filing reports are in and newcomer to the race for Kaua`i county council Nadine Nakamura leads the chase for cash with a whopping $35,505.56 raised so far, followed closely by former Mayor and Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura who has taken in a total of $29,751.00 raised this election cycle.
But to no one’s surprise, the deepest war chest in the county is that of Mayor Bernard Carvalho who has raised over a quarter of a million dollars collecting a total of $253,082.23.
His opponent Diana LaBedz did not file a report.
In the council race former Councilperson Mel Rapozo raked in a cool $14,289.20 followed by incumbents Derek Kawakami, Dickie Chang and Tim Bynum with $13,602.36, $10,370.00 and $7,775.00 respectively, second time candidate Kipukai Kualii added $7,757.39 to his coffers, current Council Vice Chair Jay Furfaro raised $7,300.00 and former Planning Commissioner Theodore Daligdig III brought in $3,700.00.
The rest of the county council candidates either did not file a report or raised less than a hundred dollars. Carvalho’s opponent Diana Lebedz did not file a report.
Below is a quick look at the finances of each candidate. The totals may be misleading due to loans with are counted against cash on hand.
For this chart we used common terms but they indicate official categories as follows:
“Had”: “Cash on Hand at the Beginning of the Election Period”
“Raised”: “Total Receipts” without loans
“Spent”: “Total Disbursements” without “Unpaid Expenditures”
Unpaid Debt: “Unpaid Expenditures”
“Has” or “Debt”: Surplus/Deficit.
The flings are as of June 30, 2010 . The next filing is due in September. For more filing information details including the lists of contributors click on the candidates name below.
Carvalho, Bernard
Had $61,927.83
Raised $253,082.23
Spent $130,135.53
Unpaid Debt $10,954.84
Has $111,991.86
-----
Bynum, Tim
Had $8,096.47
Raised $7,775.00
Spent $12,659.97
Loan $3,725.00
Debt $513.50
----
Chang, Dickie
Had $3,337.34
Raised $10,370.00
Spent $28,982.84
Loan $8,900
Unpaid Debt $5,000
Debt $25,850.18
-----
Daligdig III, Theodore
Raised $3,700.00
Spent $1,200.14
Loan $3,000.00
Debt -$500.14
---
Fowler, Dennis
Had $100
Raised $0.00
Spent $0.00
Has $100
-----
Furfaro, Jay
Had $718.99
Raised $7,300.00
Spent $7,511.36
Loan $18,500.00
Unpaid Debt $1,057.29
Debt $19,049.66
-----
Justus, Edgar
Had $50.00
Raised $290.00
Spent $0.00
Surplus $330.00
-------
Kawakami, Derek
Had $12,982.40
Raised $13,602.36
Spent $22,135.44
Unpaid Debt $11,897.14
Debt $7,447.82
----
Kualii, KipuKai
Had $7,916.41
Raised $7,757.39
Spent $10,321.14
Loan $6,047.25
Debt $694.59
---------
Nakamura, Nadine
Raised $35,505.56
Spent $13,530.90
Has $21,974.66
---------
Rapozo, Melvin
Had $2,935.96
Raised $14,289.20
Spent $11,840.38
Loan $5,000
Has $384.78
----
Taylor, Kenneth
Loan $2,820.03
Debt $2,820.03
----
Thronas, George
(filed 2/22/10)
Had $2,527.24
Spent $56.25
Has $2,470.99
-------
Yukimura, JoAnn
Had $4,910.39
Raised $29,751.00
Loan $26,000.00
Debt -$23,402.79
(Note: This post has been edited to include the filing of Council incumbent Tim Bynum whose numbers were inadvertently omitted. We apologize for the omission.)
But to no one’s surprise, the deepest war chest in the county is that of Mayor Bernard Carvalho who has raised over a quarter of a million dollars collecting a total of $253,082.23.
His opponent Diana LaBedz did not file a report.
In the council race former Councilperson Mel Rapozo raked in a cool $14,289.20 followed by incumbents Derek Kawakami, Dickie Chang and Tim Bynum with $13,602.36, $10,370.00 and $7,775.00 respectively, second time candidate Kipukai Kualii added $7,757.39 to his coffers, current Council Vice Chair Jay Furfaro raised $7,300.00 and former Planning Commissioner Theodore Daligdig III brought in $3,700.00.
The rest of the county council candidates either did not file a report or raised less than a hundred dollars. Carvalho’s opponent Diana Lebedz did not file a report.
Below is a quick look at the finances of each candidate. The totals may be misleading due to loans with are counted against cash on hand.
For this chart we used common terms but they indicate official categories as follows:
“Had”: “Cash on Hand at the Beginning of the Election Period”
“Raised”: “Total Receipts” without loans
“Spent”: “Total Disbursements” without “Unpaid Expenditures”
Unpaid Debt: “Unpaid Expenditures”
“Has” or “Debt”: Surplus/Deficit.
The flings are as of June 30, 2010 . The next filing is due in September. For more filing information details including the lists of contributors click on the candidates name below.
Carvalho, Bernard
Had $61,927.83
Raised $253,082.23
Spent $130,135.53
Unpaid Debt $10,954.84
Has $111,991.86
-----
Bynum, Tim
Had $8,096.47
Raised $7,775.00
Spent $12,659.97
Loan $3,725.00
Debt $513.50
----
Chang, Dickie
Had $3,337.34
Raised $10,370.00
Spent $28,982.84
Loan $8,900
Unpaid Debt $5,000
Debt $25,850.18
-----
Daligdig III, Theodore
Raised $3,700.00
Spent $1,200.14
Loan $3,000.00
Debt -$500.14
---
Fowler, Dennis
Had $100
Raised $0.00
Spent $0.00
Has $100
-----
Furfaro, Jay
Had $718.99
Raised $7,300.00
Spent $7,511.36
Loan $18,500.00
Unpaid Debt $1,057.29
Debt $19,049.66
-----
Justus, Edgar
Had $50.00
Raised $290.00
Spent $0.00
Surplus $330.00
-------
Kawakami, Derek
Had $12,982.40
Raised $13,602.36
Spent $22,135.44
Unpaid Debt $11,897.14
Debt $7,447.82
----
Kualii, KipuKai
Had $7,916.41
Raised $7,757.39
Spent $10,321.14
Loan $6,047.25
Debt $694.59
---------
Nakamura, Nadine
Raised $35,505.56
Spent $13,530.90
Has $21,974.66
---------
Rapozo, Melvin
Had $2,935.96
Raised $14,289.20
Spent $11,840.38
Loan $5,000
Has $384.78
----
Taylor, Kenneth
Loan $2,820.03
Debt $2,820.03
----
Thronas, George
(filed 2/22/10)
Had $2,527.24
Spent $56.25
Has $2,470.99
-------
Yukimura, JoAnn
Had $4,910.39
Raised $29,751.00
Loan $26,000.00
Debt -$23,402.79
(Note: This post has been edited to include the filing of Council incumbent Tim Bynum whose numbers were inadvertently omitted. We apologize for the omission.)
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
SLIP-SLIDIN’ AWAY
SLIP-SLIDIN’ AWAY: Hyperbole notwithstanding, the worst reporter in the world at the worst newspaper in the world, Leo Azambuja of our local newspaper, seems to be making an effort to learn what constitutes a “lede”- the journalistic slang for the “lead”, the opening sentence that covers the “who, what, when, where and why” in about 25 words or less, as part of the inverted triangle that puts the most important information nearer the top and the less important stuff further down.
So Azambuja’s article on the fate of the “county manager” proposal that was before the Charter Review Commission is, on the surface, a step forward as he reported:
Kaua‘i’s strong mayoral form of government won’t be changing this election.
After several community meetings, the Charter Review Commission’s Special County Governance Committee last week unanimously voted down a proposal to ask voters this fall if they would like to see the Garden Island governed by an appointed county manager instead of an elected mayor.
Now perhaps it’s our fault because in the virtual reams of criticism of Azambuja’s apparent lack of journalistic training or ability we forgot to mention the most important part of the lede- that the information be ACCURATE.
Silly us for thinking that that went without saying.
As we reported a day short of a month ago, in actuality, according to the recommendation section of the SCCG’s Report to the Kauai County Charter Review Commission- which apparently Azambuja failed to read critically, understand or comprehend:
Special Committee on County Governance, by unanimous vote, recommend(ed) against placing a measure for a Council-Manager form of government on the 2010 General Election ballot. The committee, accordingly, recommends the adoption of this report, and further recommends that the issue of a Council-Manager form of government be postponed indefinitely.
What actually happened “last week”- at the July 26 meeting of the full Charter Review Commission to be precise- is that the full commission voted to accept the recommendation of the SCCG- something Azambuja could have found out by going to the county web site he cited as an information source at the end of the article, since he apparently failed to attend the all important meeting.
From there it only gets worse. So we decided to use the skills we gained as a teaching assistant to the legendary local newspaper editor Jean Holmes while she taught-and we attended- her journalism classes at Kauai Community College in the 80’s to take a blue pencil to Azambuja’s Adventures in Newswriting Wonderland.
Next Azambuja writes:
“The large majority of people didn’t see it as a desirable necessary change from the current situation,” said Patrick Stack, who chairs the three-member committee. North Shore resident Joel Guy and former reporter Jan TenBruggencate are the other members.
While that’s technically accurate it’s omits the most important information showing that he didn’t understand the SCCG report because, as we reported, they plainly based their recommendation on the a rationale that makes the decision anything but arbitrary or capricious, saying:
The Special Committee was constrained by the authority given the Charter Review Commission under the existing Kaua`i County Charter. Section 24-03 of the County Charter contains this authority: "In the event the commission deems changes are necessary or desirable, the commission may propose amendments to the existing charter or draft a new charter which shall be submitted to the county clerk." (Emphasis added) This is a key point. The Charter Review Commission is not authorized, as many public testifiers suggested, to place an item on the ballot simply to allow voters to express their choice.
Instead of emphasizing or even reporting that- as the SCCG did- Azambuja chose to stress what the committee insisted did not influence their decision at all writing:
“The large majority of people didn’t see it as a desirable necessary change from the current situation,” said Patrick Stack, who chairs the three-member committee. North Shore resident Joel Guy and former reporter Jan TenBruggencate are the other members.
From there the writing itself becomes a bizarre exercise in trying to write about something Azambuja didn’t quite get, as evidenced by his incorrect lede. He “writes”:
If the commission approved the proposal, voters would decide at the next election Nov. 2 if the mayor should be replaced by a county manager.
That tortured bit of the mother tongue mixes the future looking “if” with the past tense “approved” returning to the future “would decide”. The correct way to express the thought might be to say:
"If the commission HAD approved the proposal, voters would HAVE decideD at the next election Nov. 2 if the mayor should be replaced by a county manager."
In addition this indicates that somewhere he did understand that it was the full commission not the SCCG that acted last week although he could have just conflated the committee and the commission. Either way it’s particularly mis-informative in any number of ways.
One of the rookie mistakes made in J-School is the unattributed opinion over which the prof usually scribbles “Sez who?”. And skipping down a little further is this language-challenged, unattributed “Azambujism”:
If the measure would be adopted, it would likely be stricter to meet qualifications for the county manager than for the U.S. president.
We won’t even attempt to dissect or diagram that one.
One of the things a newswriting class teaches is to avoid negative characterization of the person you are quoting. There’s noting wrong with the neutral word “said” but, unless it’s well explained and under extreme circumstances where it’s called for, reporters should avoid using pejorative terms like “claimed”, “boasted” or “admitted” or use of prejudicial adverbs. But in characterizing a quote from Glenn Mickens. a proponent of the county manager proposal, Azambuja wrote:
He admitted the county manager system wouldn’t be a cure for all, and if it didn’t work, the island could return to the mayor system of governance.
You get the idea.
Back in the 90’s our solid waste mess was almost as bad as it is today and then-Mayor Maryanne Kusaka was called before the council to explain why, given the “crisis” she insisted on having the bumbling, bungling, uneducated and inexperienced Troy Tanigawa in charge of the Solid Waste Division of the Department of Public Works- someone activist and original “nitpicker” Ray Chuan used to characterize as one of the “protecteds”.
Even when, after council interrogation, it became apparent Tanigawa- who is still in the position today- was incapable of handing the situation Kusaka wouldn’t give up on Troy telling the council she was willing to “send him back to school” rather than replace him.
Though we all rolled in the council chambers isles at that one perhaps if Editor Nathan Eagle won’t look for someone with basic newswriting skills from among the many out of work journalistic casualties of the Honolulu newspaper “merger” debacle- and pay them more than the local paper’s notorious starvation wages- at this point we’d even settle for the “Tanigawa Solution”.
Or at least spring for a textbook Nathan.
So Azambuja’s article on the fate of the “county manager” proposal that was before the Charter Review Commission is, on the surface, a step forward as he reported:
Kaua‘i’s strong mayoral form of government won’t be changing this election.
After several community meetings, the Charter Review Commission’s Special County Governance Committee last week unanimously voted down a proposal to ask voters this fall if they would like to see the Garden Island governed by an appointed county manager instead of an elected mayor.
Now perhaps it’s our fault because in the virtual reams of criticism of Azambuja’s apparent lack of journalistic training or ability we forgot to mention the most important part of the lede- that the information be ACCURATE.
Silly us for thinking that that went without saying.
As we reported a day short of a month ago, in actuality, according to the recommendation section of the SCCG’s Report to the Kauai County Charter Review Commission- which apparently Azambuja failed to read critically, understand or comprehend:
Special Committee on County Governance, by unanimous vote, recommend(ed) against placing a measure for a Council-Manager form of government on the 2010 General Election ballot. The committee, accordingly, recommends the adoption of this report, and further recommends that the issue of a Council-Manager form of government be postponed indefinitely.
What actually happened “last week”- at the July 26 meeting of the full Charter Review Commission to be precise- is that the full commission voted to accept the recommendation of the SCCG- something Azambuja could have found out by going to the county web site he cited as an information source at the end of the article, since he apparently failed to attend the all important meeting.
From there it only gets worse. So we decided to use the skills we gained as a teaching assistant to the legendary local newspaper editor Jean Holmes while she taught-and we attended- her journalism classes at Kauai Community College in the 80’s to take a blue pencil to Azambuja’s Adventures in Newswriting Wonderland.
Next Azambuja writes:
“The large majority of people didn’t see it as a desirable necessary change from the current situation,” said Patrick Stack, who chairs the three-member committee. North Shore resident Joel Guy and former reporter Jan TenBruggencate are the other members.
While that’s technically accurate it’s omits the most important information showing that he didn’t understand the SCCG report because, as we reported, they plainly based their recommendation on the a rationale that makes the decision anything but arbitrary or capricious, saying:
The Special Committee was constrained by the authority given the Charter Review Commission under the existing Kaua`i County Charter. Section 24-03 of the County Charter contains this authority: "In the event the commission deems changes are necessary or desirable, the commission may propose amendments to the existing charter or draft a new charter which shall be submitted to the county clerk." (Emphasis added) This is a key point. The Charter Review Commission is not authorized, as many public testifiers suggested, to place an item on the ballot simply to allow voters to express their choice.
Instead of emphasizing or even reporting that- as the SCCG did- Azambuja chose to stress what the committee insisted did not influence their decision at all writing:
“The large majority of people didn’t see it as a desirable necessary change from the current situation,” said Patrick Stack, who chairs the three-member committee. North Shore resident Joel Guy and former reporter Jan TenBruggencate are the other members.
From there the writing itself becomes a bizarre exercise in trying to write about something Azambuja didn’t quite get, as evidenced by his incorrect lede. He “writes”:
If the commission approved the proposal, voters would decide at the next election Nov. 2 if the mayor should be replaced by a county manager.
That tortured bit of the mother tongue mixes the future looking “if” with the past tense “approved” returning to the future “would decide”. The correct way to express the thought might be to say:
"If the commission HAD approved the proposal, voters would HAVE decideD at the next election Nov. 2 if the mayor should be replaced by a county manager."
In addition this indicates that somewhere he did understand that it was the full commission not the SCCG that acted last week although he could have just conflated the committee and the commission. Either way it’s particularly mis-informative in any number of ways.
One of the rookie mistakes made in J-School is the unattributed opinion over which the prof usually scribbles “Sez who?”. And skipping down a little further is this language-challenged, unattributed “Azambujism”:
If the measure would be adopted, it would likely be stricter to meet qualifications for the county manager than for the U.S. president.
We won’t even attempt to dissect or diagram that one.
One of the things a newswriting class teaches is to avoid negative characterization of the person you are quoting. There’s noting wrong with the neutral word “said” but, unless it’s well explained and under extreme circumstances where it’s called for, reporters should avoid using pejorative terms like “claimed”, “boasted” or “admitted” or use of prejudicial adverbs. But in characterizing a quote from Glenn Mickens. a proponent of the county manager proposal, Azambuja wrote:
He admitted the county manager system wouldn’t be a cure for all, and if it didn’t work, the island could return to the mayor system of governance.
You get the idea.
Back in the 90’s our solid waste mess was almost as bad as it is today and then-Mayor Maryanne Kusaka was called before the council to explain why, given the “crisis” she insisted on having the bumbling, bungling, uneducated and inexperienced Troy Tanigawa in charge of the Solid Waste Division of the Department of Public Works- someone activist and original “nitpicker” Ray Chuan used to characterize as one of the “protecteds”.
Even when, after council interrogation, it became apparent Tanigawa- who is still in the position today- was incapable of handing the situation Kusaka wouldn’t give up on Troy telling the council she was willing to “send him back to school” rather than replace him.
Though we all rolled in the council chambers isles at that one perhaps if Editor Nathan Eagle won’t look for someone with basic newswriting skills from among the many out of work journalistic casualties of the Honolulu newspaper “merger” debacle- and pay them more than the local paper’s notorious starvation wages- at this point we’d even settle for the “Tanigawa Solution”.
Or at least spring for a textbook Nathan.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
SHHHH
SHHHH: There was a plethora of reported jaw dropping among Governor Linda Lingle and her cronies over the “Hawaii State Bar Association's board of directors' rating of appeals Judge Katherine Leonard as ‘unqualified’ to be Hawaii's next chief justice”.
Strangely enough the news of the rejection of Leonard by the bar wasn’t Starvetizer courts reporter Ken Kobayashi’s lede but instead he stressed the professed outrage of Lingle and her republican cronies in the legislature over the secrecy of the bar’s vote.
But we’ve got a lowered mandible ourselves over Lingle’s colossal nerve to criticize the closed vote, especially considering her own legacy of clandestine operations and the notorious way judges in Hawai`i wield their retaliatory sway over attorneys and others in the judiciary, according to many we’ve spoken to over the years.
Lingle and her administration’s abuse of Hawai`i open records laws has been notorious but for those who want to hear the ultimate story of fear and loathing they need turn no farther than legislative staffer Doug White’s recently revived Poinography blog.
Doug finally explained what he was up to in the year plus absence of his popular blog by telling one of those hilarious-if-it-wasn’t-so-serious tales of the runaround he got over a simple record request of the Lingle administration- not to mention the invoice for his temerity in requesting the records for Lingle’s requests for input on the bills she threatened to veto after the 2009 legislative session.
In My UIPA saga – a $1582.15, twelve month struggle White recounts the evasions, lies, delays and the incredible barriers he experienced at the hands of the Lingle administration making any charges of secrecy from her a joke.
We won’t even attempt to truncate the tale- you’ve got to read it for yourself as well as the indexing and posting of the results which White is busily compiling which are already painting a picture of consultation with everyone who is guaranteed to support her position and avoidance of anyone who might dissent.
Also notable is the lack of consultation with the Lt. Governor and current gubernatorial candidate Duke Aiona regarding which we’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions.
Lingle’s legacy of covert governance and feigned outrage over every perceived slight takes a backseat to no other past state administration’s- and that’s saying a lot.
Strangely enough the news of the rejection of Leonard by the bar wasn’t Starvetizer courts reporter Ken Kobayashi’s lede but instead he stressed the professed outrage of Lingle and her republican cronies in the legislature over the secrecy of the bar’s vote.
But we’ve got a lowered mandible ourselves over Lingle’s colossal nerve to criticize the closed vote, especially considering her own legacy of clandestine operations and the notorious way judges in Hawai`i wield their retaliatory sway over attorneys and others in the judiciary, according to many we’ve spoken to over the years.
Lingle and her administration’s abuse of Hawai`i open records laws has been notorious but for those who want to hear the ultimate story of fear and loathing they need turn no farther than legislative staffer Doug White’s recently revived Poinography blog.
Doug finally explained what he was up to in the year plus absence of his popular blog by telling one of those hilarious-if-it-wasn’t-so-serious tales of the runaround he got over a simple record request of the Lingle administration- not to mention the invoice for his temerity in requesting the records for Lingle’s requests for input on the bills she threatened to veto after the 2009 legislative session.
In My UIPA saga – a $1582.15, twelve month struggle White recounts the evasions, lies, delays and the incredible barriers he experienced at the hands of the Lingle administration making any charges of secrecy from her a joke.
We won’t even attempt to truncate the tale- you’ve got to read it for yourself as well as the indexing and posting of the results which White is busily compiling which are already painting a picture of consultation with everyone who is guaranteed to support her position and avoidance of anyone who might dissent.
Also notable is the lack of consultation with the Lt. Governor and current gubernatorial candidate Duke Aiona regarding which we’ll allow you to draw your own conclusions.
Lingle’s legacy of covert governance and feigned outrage over every perceived slight takes a backseat to no other past state administration’s- and that’s saying a lot.
Monday, August 2, 2010
PEA POD POLITICS FOR PEABRAINS
PEA POD POLITICS FOR PEABRAINS: As many read last week Goofy Mufi Hannemann had his usual blinders on in ignoring an Associated Press article the week before that confirmed what we all knew- that Hawaii Superferry (HSf) Inc.’s claim that they were victims of the courts and those crazy environmentalists was a bogus piece of PR from a company that was actually drowning in red ink created by their own lack of a realistic business plan- although the article missed a chance to dig deeper and find out the ferry was created to fail as part of a military demonstration project for the littoral design.
Mufi’s pledge to bring back the same vessels- even though their size was half the reason for the bankruptcy- demonstrates just how much more damage there is to be done if a Hannemann administration gets it’s hands on the already damaged machinery of the state under the equally mentally and morally challenged Linda Lingle.
And as if to underline some of that damage, in an article about the delays in obtaining an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a UH coral reef research project it was reported that:
Part of the delay is that the state body that could grant UH an exemption to the EIS requirement has not met since Aug. 17 of last year...
The council tried to hold a meeting in late June, but was unable to book adequate state videoconference facilities, Steiner said.
"It seemed like we were moving forward, then it just stalled," she said. "I think that it is not a priority to our state or to our administration to have an active Environmental Council."
Steiner said council members have expressed concern that the group is being penalized possibly for ruling in 2007 that the state Department of Transportation erred when it exempted Superferry harbor improvements from an environmental review. That decision was later supported by a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that eventually led to the demise of the interisland ferry.
Though the administration pooh-poohed the connection it’s just another symptom of how the state apparatus- especially for environmental protection- is still addled by Lingle’s denial of what even proponents view as the boneheaded way she handed the Superferry EIS and how it continues to hamstring the state EIS process, having created a pissed off Environmental Council and an administration bent on revenge.
Hannemann and Lingle apparently share one thing- a pig-headed battering ram style that scares the heck out of those who have been looking forward to a change of approach in November.
Mufi’s pledge to bring back the same vessels- even though their size was half the reason for the bankruptcy- demonstrates just how much more damage there is to be done if a Hannemann administration gets it’s hands on the already damaged machinery of the state under the equally mentally and morally challenged Linda Lingle.
And as if to underline some of that damage, in an article about the delays in obtaining an environmental impact statement (EIS) for a UH coral reef research project it was reported that:
Part of the delay is that the state body that could grant UH an exemption to the EIS requirement has not met since Aug. 17 of last year...
The council tried to hold a meeting in late June, but was unable to book adequate state videoconference facilities, Steiner said.
"It seemed like we were moving forward, then it just stalled," she said. "I think that it is not a priority to our state or to our administration to have an active Environmental Council."
Steiner said council members have expressed concern that the group is being penalized possibly for ruling in 2007 that the state Department of Transportation erred when it exempted Superferry harbor improvements from an environmental review. That decision was later supported by a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that eventually led to the demise of the interisland ferry.
Though the administration pooh-poohed the connection it’s just another symptom of how the state apparatus- especially for environmental protection- is still addled by Lingle’s denial of what even proponents view as the boneheaded way she handed the Superferry EIS and how it continues to hamstring the state EIS process, having created a pissed off Environmental Council and an administration bent on revenge.
Hannemann and Lingle apparently share one thing- a pig-headed battering ram style that scares the heck out of those who have been looking forward to a change of approach in November.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
