John Culea, spokesman for Supervisor Bill Horn, bluntly criticized media accuracy in its coverage of the supervisor and its competence in general Thursday night at a panel sponsored by the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists.
Whatever I write can’t possibly match the experience of seeing Culea dissect the media, including challenging a Nazi comparison made to Horn. So I’m going to link to a video clip of Culea speaking. Click on the photo to view the YouTube video of about 5 1/2 minutes.
John Culea, spokesman for Supervisor Bill Horn, dissects media coverage at an SPJ panel discussion Jan. 20. Click on photo for YouTube video.
Three other public information officers were on the panel with Culea, a former TV news anchor for many years on Channel 8. (UPDATE: Thanks Jim Sills, who reminded me of this in the comments!)
They were Ronald Powell, spokesman for the Port of San Diego; Maria Velasquez, spokeswoman for the San Diego Housing Commission; Kim Edwards, spokeswoman for UCSD Health Sciences. SPJ has brief bios of the four.
In a particularly dramatic moment, Culea challenged a description of how Horn appropriated county money for an anti-abortion event, said by J.W. August, managing editor of KGVT-10 news. Culea read from the transcript of August’s remarks, made on KPBS’s Editor’s Roundtable, hosted by Gloria Penner. One of the offending quotes:
“And that, you know, I’m thinking of that and it’s like Hitler youth has a fundraiser and they have a run and the run is Hitler youth run and they give – they raise money and then they’re able to fund the Hitler youth group.”
The segment in which Culea discusses these remarks begins at 1:10 in the video.
In the audience watching all this, I was flabbergasted. And while I personally like J.W. August, I think that comment was wildly inappropriate. One doesn’t have to be against abortion to think so: I support Roe v. Wade as the least worst legal way to deal with abortion. But the Nazi comparison is false and inflammatory.
To be fair, J.W. did say immediately afterward that he was not comparing the group, Life Perspective, to the Hitler Youth. But that’s exactly what he had done.
August was in the audience while Culea was talking, and the video briefly pans over to him.
Christian conservatives have good qualities (gasp!), said the late Cathy Seipp, who grew up among them.
Culea also alluded to the political tension between Horn, a conservative, and journalists, who mostly are left-leaning. As a journalist who happens to be a Libertarian (and thus also outside the left-leaning journo bloc), I can sympathize with both sides. But the onus lies on journalists to reduce the political tension. We are supposed to be curious, not dismissive, about people different from us. If only journalists gave conservatives the same respect they give illegal immigrants (PDF), we’d all be better off.
I’m not saying Culea is right about all Horn’s disputes with the media. Some journalists I respect think the supervisor plays fast and loose with the truth and perhaps the law. Not being a Hornologist, I can’t go beyond what’s published and what Horn says in his defense.
But even if the worst rumors are true, likening Horn’s machinations to those of a genocidal would-be global dictator, one of the most evil people in history, strikes me as just a trifle exaggerated.
Culea also criticized the North County Times, my employer. I don’t mind that at all. While I can’t speak for my editors, it’s my sense they don’t mind either. If we can’t take the criticism, we shouldn’t be in journalism. I applaud and respect Culea for his candor — and by proxy, Horn, his boss, for giving him that freedom to speak. (The candor may be partly due to Culea’s retirement in November, which he announced at the panel.)
Union-Tribune blooper from Google cache. Click image to enlarge.
On a lighter note, the panelists discussed reporter bloopers — howling errors and false statements. The Port District’s Powell cited a recent doozy: a San Diego Union-Tribune story described Steve Padilla as being sworn in as a port commissioner. (Padilla was removed several hours later in a bizarre turn of events).
“The story that ran in the Union-Tribune said he was sworn in with his wife and kids in attendance,” Powell said. “Now anyone who knows Steve Padilla knows — he’s gay! And he was sworn in by his partner. There were no wife and kids there! And that was in the lead to the story!”
Powell said he called up a Union-Tribune editor to ask for a correction.
“I said, hey, where do you want me to start on this one?” as the SPJ audience guffawed. “Was that person even there, who wrote the piece? And the person wasn’t there!”
The corrected Union-Tribune story is here.
Here are other video clips I took of the event:
Journalists turned public information officers describe how they’ve built trust, or learned to distrust, their former colleagues in the media.
Journalists turned public information officers discuss what it was like for them to change roles.
Journalists turned public information officers discuss their dealings with newbie or unprepared reporters.
(DISCLAIMER: This article represents my opinion, and not necessarily that of my employer, the North County Times).