[Mainstreet Media, owners of The Pinnacle News, is suppressing truthful reporting about public figures and politicians in Hollister. Without adequate explanation, Mainstreet Media ownership has suspended the Pinnacle News' investigations into Los Valientes (LV), a shadow group using under-handed tactics to influence Hollister and San Benito county government. They have banned reporter Kate Woods from reporting on LV, and removed her weekly "Badlands" column from the editorial page. Fortunately, the HOLLISTER FREE PRESS ONLINE has continued the reporting. They've backgrounded the LV story on their web site. If you want to understand the motives of the Los Valientes group, make sure to read the HFPO editorial on Los Valientes sacred cows. Go to the HFPO site and decide for yourself what is LV's political agenda.]
Bastards!
The Pinnacle Newspaper has censored Kate Woods' Badlands column, which does not appear in Saturday's paper. The paper has also pulled the veteran Pinnacle reporter off of her beat. She's no longer going to investigate corruption and fear-mongering in San Benito county.
Why has Woods' column been silenced? It was "too political."
[at left: Hollister, CA, home of press censorship]
This is like saying Pavarotti's singing is "too good" before canceling his performance. Yes, Woods' "Badlands" column is too political. And too bitingly funny. Too accurate at parodying the foibles of local government and too embarrassing because it names names. Woods' column and reporting has been so "too political" that she's won "too many" California Newspaper Publisher's Association (CNPA) awards.
Woods' Badlands columns were not fluffy enough for Mainstreet Media, which owns the Pinnacle News, the Gilroy Dispatch, and the Hollister Free Lance, and a buncha other crummy shopping supplements passing for newspapers. Mainstreet Media is looking for happy, positive. But the story Woods was covering was seamy, nasty.
And what we've got is ugly. There's a hole in the heart of the editorial page where Woods' column used to be.
The truth is the Truth has been censored. Kate Woods' crime: doing her job too well. She got too close to the bone, threatened the newspaper ownership's relationship with a local Hollister businessman named Richard Place, who's running for election to the county board of supervisors. Woods had been reporting on Place's involvement with an anonymous political group in Hollister called Los Valientes ("The Brave Ones").
(The archive on the Pinnacle News site can be difficult to sift through, for convenience here is a chrono list of Pinnacle stories on Los Valientes, by "Pineackle" reporters Kate Woods and Tracie Cone.)
| DA names LVs public figures named as being among the notorious Los Valientes, the San Benito district attorney announced |
19 feb 2006 |
| Group costs citizens $1 million ... “Los Valientes” has cost the San Benito County taxpayers nearly $1 million in legal fees |
15 jan 2006 |
| Pekin sues county again Los Valientes attorney Michael Pekin has filed charges ... |
08 jan 2006 |
| Los Valientes may have to pay Prove-up hearing slated for Tuesday; Pekin says his rights were violated ... |
01 jan 2006 |
| Bye-Bye, 2005 .. common thread prevalent in the top 10 stories that occurred in San Benito County |
01 jan 2006 |
| D.A. to appeal Pekin indictment visiting judge dismissed without comment seven indictments against Los Valientes' attorney Michael Pekin ... |
26 june 2005 |
| Supes fire Mendiola... planning director Rob Mendiola ... had 48 hours to clear out the office he held for nearly 24 years |
08 may 2005 |
| Witness: Pekin knew affidavit held lies ... Pekin should have known that Richard Scagliotti had not committed the alleged acts of corruption... |
17 mar 2005 |
| Double voter case dismissed .. case filed in the wake of the District 5 supervisor's race has ended without a felony conviction. |
10 mar 2005 |
| Grand Jury indicts Pekin Grand Jury returned five felony indictments and one misdemeanor against Salinas attorney Michael Pekin ... |
4 feb 2005 |
| Scagliotti and Cruz move on ... former supervisors Richard Scagliotti and Bob Cruz are no longer sitting at the county dais. |
06 jan 2004 |
Los Valientes is known for frivolous lawsuits and other intimidation tactics against people they don't like. Woods' Feb. 18 article (see DA names LVs) identifies Place as a member of Los Valientes, citing evidence provided by San Benito county district attorney John Sarsfield. Sarsfield identifies Place as "the instigator of the group."
In that story, Place threatens to sue the special state prosecutor representing the county, Nancy Batelle, who has also identified Place as a member of Los Valientes. "The attorney who told you this is lying," Place responded in Woods' report, "and she should be brought before the (state) bar on ethics charges. I, myself, will bring charges against her before the bar.”
Woods also reported that the county has filed a civil lawsuit against Los Valientes, and that it has evidence of LV's extortion methods and its civil rights violations of San Benitans who got in LV's way.
And it looks like Place had his way, with the Pinnacle. Looks like, instead of defending the public's right to know, Mainstreet Media rolled over. In addition to censoring Wood's Badlands column, they also pulled Woods' follow-up story to her Feb. 18 LV article.
The dirty rotten shame of it is that Woods' reporting on LV was silenced just as she was about to provide details about the identity of Los Valientes' members, and about how the group wields influence through intimidation, character assasination and spurious lawsuits.
The story gets more sickening.
According to the Hollister Free Press Online, Place was a frequent visitor at the Pinnacle offices in Hollister last week. Place is known to have a good working relationship with Mainstreet Media management. He was once a member of the Hollister Free Pants editorial board. And get this....
"Place has been telling many people around town that he "controls" what gets said in the Freelance and the Pinnacle. He has even, reportedly boasted that he will cause the reporter to be terminated." -- from HFPO posting, 24 Feb 2006
Place is apparently right. According to the Hollister Free Press Online, Place was present at a Pinnacle editorial staff meeting where Woods was called on the carpet and pulled from her beat.
True to his boast, Place did his influence to shut down Woods' Badlands column, and silence her reporting. Silenced for how long, we don't know. It may depend on whether this press censorship story remains local (and dies) or whether it is picked up by regional and national media outlets.
The stench is overwhelming.
If you have Saturday's (Feb. 25) Pinnacle nearby, take a look at the Views & Editorials section. In place of the usual Badlands column is a testament to hypocrisy titled "End the Personal Attacks." The editorial attempts to explain the disappearance of Woods' column and the silencing of her voice. It marks the offical end of journalistic integrity at the Pinnacle.
"The Pinnacle is taking a break from Kate Woods' Badlands column. As much as her razor wit is able to delight or anger readers, we are moving into an election season, and we want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry -- we want them to take the issues seriously and to listen in earnest to the various mesages the candidates portend." -- 24 Feb Pinnacle editorial explaining the silencing of Kate Woods
What specious, pompous claptrap. "We want Pinnacle readers to be neither delighted nor angry"... we want them happy and uninformed! As if Woods' astute political commentary wasn't good enough for the Pinnacle. As if political satire isn't a highly valued means of expression in a free society. Or is it free? if you live in Hollister, or San Juan Bautista, or Gilroy, you have to wonder. Has significant information about influential people that you have a right to know been suffocated by people you think you can trust?
"Inciting is easy; communicating is more difficult and listening to opposing points of view with an open mind is the hardest of all.... we simply ask everyone to be thougthful about the issues, respectful toward one another and to remember that cooperation is the keystone that keeps our communities from collapsing" -- more of the specious 24 Feb Pinnacle editorial
Allow me to interpret. As of Feb 24, and the official silencing of Kate Woods, The Pinnacle's new editorial policy is: (a) ask no embarrassing questions of influential people, (b) negative thoughts are not to be expressed, and (c) unless you've got something positive to write about the candidates in the supervisor's race, you best write nothing at all.
This would be an approriate time to amend the Pinnacle's motto to "All the news that's fit to leave out." (In fact, if you look at the Pinnacle's web site, you'll see that Kate Woods name is left out -- it isn't mentioned anywhere on the home page. To get to her archives you have to search on "kate woods".)
As Hunter S. Thompson might observe, the demons are howling at the windows...
It must have also been decided, during Place's meeting with the Pinnacle and Mainstreet Media ownership, that the Feb. 25 Pinnacle front page would feature Place's rebuttals of details in Woods' reporting. Place is given the bottom of the page to quibble over the difference between being a "member of" Los Valientes and just being an "associate" of Los Valientes.
But none of Place's comments in the Pinnacle provide anything close to an adequate reason for suspending Woods' "Badlands" column and taking her off the story she's been pursuing for years. After all, candidate Richard Place's association with Los Valientes is not a matter of national security. It can be reported without compromising the war on terrorism.
The nauseau level continues to rise.
Coincidental to the disappearance of Woods' column and the hijacking of her LV story, the Hollister Free Pants -- the Pinnacle's rival newspaper in Hollister -- published an editorial that describes the DA's investigation of Los Valientes as excessive, and attacks Woods for practicing irresponsible journalism, and basically paints Los Valientes as a victim.
Ignoring the incriminating evidence released by the DA's office that identifies Los Valientes members and "associates" and details their scurious deeds, the Hollister Free Pants disingenuously asks, Where is the Smoking Gun?
The editorial spends half its breath enumerating the details released by the DA so far, then exonerates the members of Los Valientes because the DA's office hasn't won the case yet. Until there is an absolute judgement against Los Valientes, the Free Pants will dismiss all the evidence against LV as innuendo: "personal character assassination through innuendo without proof needs to end," they say. Just as honest reporting of the facts at the Free Pants has already ended.
I agree that it takes balls to walk into a newspaper and tell them to fire their reporter. But you have to remember that Mainstreet Media recently caved under similar pressure from San Juan Buatista council members who demanded Woods' removal from the SJB council beat, and got it. Her crime that time? Truthful reporting of SJB council members and the city manager, who were abusing the public trust (see: San Juan's Shroud of Secrecy).
Who will be the next Hollister person of influence operating under a cloud of suspicion to walk into the offices of the Pinnacle and demand to read next week's issue before it goes to print? Who will be the next to demand a reporter's head because they object to the reporting? In Hollister, whoever uses the best bullying tactics gets to decide which stories aren't covered.
Still not done. There's more fear and loathing to relate.
The Republic of Gilroy has learned, from a Dipsack source, that Woods' censorsing occurred despite the protests of Pinnacle editor Mark Paxson and city editor Dennis Taylor. Paxson and Taylor were overruled, but they may have prevented Woods' termination when they threatened to walk if Woods was fired. But the Dipsack source added that Woods' relocation to the Gilroy beat may be a way of forcing her to quit, a virtual pink slip.
I've also learned that Dipsack editor Mark Derry was present at the meeting where Woods was stripped of the story and demoted, and that he accused Woods of writing for the Republic of Gilroy.
Not true. So far, these posting are all mine. But Kate Woods is welcome to post here.
Are you kidding me? I'd consider it a community service to host Kate Woods. I wouldn't be able to pay her anything, but she'd still be making close to what a Dipsack reporter gets paid.
And the first question I'd ask Kate is, Do these people know anything about journalism ethics? Don't they know that any newspaper doing its job correctly should be defending itself from at least one ongoing crank lawsuit? Don't they know not to allow a vested political interest like Richard Place into an editorial staff meeting where policy and assignments are beings discussed? Don't they know enough not to put Woods on trial with Place, a subject of her investigations, in the same room?
Bullies and other cowards have taken over the newspaper business in Hollister. But this isn't just Hollister's problem. The Gilroy Dipsack's editorial policy also kowtows to local sacred cows (see: Sacred Cow sanctuary).The R of G has said all along that certain influential folks in Gilroy are immune to "negative" reporting. Many parts are left out from the news stories you read in the Dipsack.
.... Dubious congratulations are in order. Bravo Mainstreet Media! You have completely compromised the public's right to know. You've caved to typical legal threats used by Los Valientes, and surrendered any remaining shreds of journalistic integrity. You've utterly failed in your obligation. Fortunately, the Hollister Free Press Online is standing up to these very same bullies and exposing them.
The lesson? Mainstreet Media cannot be trusted. They don't give a damn about a free press. They care mostly about not offending potential advertisers and other persons of influence. Mainstreet Media operations are low-cost centers designed to crank out fluffy, chatty, "newsy" content in order to sell retail ads from big box stores at the mall, OK? That's the aim of community newspaper journalism today.
We should all regret the death of a free press in Hollister. Don't think it hasn't already happened in Gilroy. Unlike Hollister, and San Juan Buatista, we haven't had a Kate Woods to let us know what really goes on.
And what of Woods? Last seen, she was driving away from the Pinnacle packing several boxloads of information, gathered over dozens of investigations of the supposedly anonymous group known Los Valientes. Hopefully she's backed up the information on her computer hard drive as well, because that information might also happen to disappear.
Or did she give the newspaper and the town the figurative finger, and dump the information out the window, watching it scatter in her review mirror as she drove out of town for good? I wouldn't blame her, but that's exactly what the bad guys want her to do.
That's where we'll leave this story. With the remainder of it in danger of not being told, and some despicable individuals running the local newspaper business.
http://www.theksbwchannel.com/news/8164752/detail.html?treets=mty&tid=2654379230813&tml=mty_dailyforecast&tmi=mty_dailyforecast_1_07000203222006&ts=H
KSBW wants to report the news.
Posted by: Michael G | 22 March 2006 at 08:31 AM
Wow.. it gets stranger by the minute. If you Google 'Los Valientes' you will get a listing that says:
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The Pinnacle News - DA names LVs
All of those contacted for this article either denied or refused to comment on any affiliation with Los Valientes. “ Richard Place was the main instigator ...
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BUT !!! If you click on this link, you get a story about cancelling the Biker Rally. So I went into the Pinnacles achives.. and GUESS WHAT ?? The story is gone. Hmmm...
Got to hand it to Richard Place. His intimidation of the Pinnacle News is fairly complete... even got them the clean out their archives.
Can you spell 'conspiracy' ??
Posted by: R Noah | 27 February 2006 at 08:34 AM
The really bad part, to me, is that the readership of the Pinnacles may never get the true story on this. Sure Kate is controversial and the readership has a love/hate thing going with her. Heck, Reports from the Badlands is pretty much the only real humor in that paper.
But the real issue is censorship by a person of power and influence. This Richard Place guy has balls, got to say that. He is also probably just a tad stupid as well... anyone who plays with the media (for personal gain) then gets caught at it can never get out from under that. So he may be digging his own hole by doing this to Kate Woods.
If Kate can't fight back, she'll have a lot of folks who will stand up for her and with her. She's a very good reporter. And a terrific investigator. And... even though a LOT of folks can't seem to understand this -- she is a 'defender' of the average working Joe from being taken down by the parades of carpetbaggers out to steal them blind. People tend to forget that part.
San Benito County just got a little poorer (if that's possible) for the lose of honest reporting.
Posted by: R Noah | 26 February 2006 at 09:35 PM