The Morning Report
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Our readers had a lot to say about the purchase of the North County Times by U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester this week. Commenters also weighed in on the mayor’s race, Poway schools and a new bike-sharing program.
Here are five comments from the discussions:
• Janet Shelton on “The Two Faces of Papa Doug“:
The U-T has always been a conservative paper, more in its editorial view but also in its columnists and articles. This reflected an audience that was historically quite conservative. I didn’t always agree but I did feel that the opinions were usually well thought out and reflected the beliefs of most of the community. Today, the community is less conservative and the paper is more conservative. In reading recent editorials, I felt that it had gone over to being extreme, just as the Republican party has. I used to find things to like about the paper and I admired some things about the Republican party. I quit subscribing and rarely read the online paper. Will extremism work for the U-T? It works for Fox. My opinion is that it doesn’t have to. Papa has the money to pay for a media mouthpiece, and he will make big bucks developing the U-T site. No problem. The difficulty comes for the populace when both main newspapers in the county report what reflects their views. Is the media liberal? Well, 20 years ago, I would have agreed with this statement. I don’t think it is any more. The U-T is representative of the extreme right wing that dominates the Republican party. And I’m not sure conservative is the right word any more.
• Omar Passons on “Manchester Consolidates Power with Second Newspaper Buy“:
Apparently there is a term in the foundation/nonprofit world called “appreciative inquiry.” This essentially means to focus on what is working as a path to improving those things that aren’t. Whatever I may disagree with, I think certain things can’t credibly be argued. Papa Doug and John Lynch bought the U-T and said “we are going to do X.” Then they charted a path to do exactly that. This type of goal-setting followed by concrete steps to achieve that goal is a useful exercise that many of our municipalities could really benefit from. I do not agree with a fair amount of the political and social bent coming from the new U-T, but see the bigger picture of clarity and connection between goal and action as something that could be helpful for other endeavors. There are plenty of voices pointing out the things wrong with the U-T (the wretched paywall among them), for the moment I’d like to acknowledge that our city would do well to have some clearly articulated vision based on which to align our decisionmaking. At least then we’d have some sense of why decisions are made and how they fit into a larger view of the future of our city.
• Erik Bruvold on “How Filner Frustrates DeMaio“:
Ask yourself why, in a town with a Democratic lean to registration (Peter) Navarro and Donna (Frye) both lost? Why did the more liberal (and better known) Ron Roberts lose to Dick Murphy? Why, even with oodles of $$, did Francis fail when tacking left.
It is because San Diegans elect “safe”. …
The pathway for victory for either side is pretty clear. _IF_ Bob is seen as safe enough by enough voters, he wins on ideological lean. _IF_, however, he is seen as incapable of managing, he loses. Really not any more complicated than that.
• Richard Gorin on “Poway Hires Forensic Accountant to Review Borrowing“:
An ethical problem arises because the decisions can be made only by present officials and taxpayers. Voters need to be aware that they are the trustees of the future, and when they transfer resources between the present and future need to do so in an atmosphere of due diligence and full disclosure.
• John Stechschulte on “Bike Sharing Is Coming to San Diego“:
San Diego needs real bike infrastructure if a bike share is going to be successful. Having biked in Washington D.C., and Manhattan, I can say they’re miles ahead of us in terms of putting bike lanes on most streets and protected bike lanes or cycletrack on the busier streets. In Chicago, Rahm Emmanuel has made building protected bike lanes a central goal of his transportation policy. They’re also doing bikeshare, but it’s the infrastructure that makes people comfortable to take to the streets on two wheels.
Bikeshare won’t work in SD until we build a real bicycle network for those who want to ride, but don’t feel safe mixing it up with automobile traffic.
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Dagny Salas is the web editor at Voice of San Diego. You can contact her directly at dagny.salas@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5669.
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