Morning Report: Campaign Claim Fails a Fact Check

A new campaign mailer tries to malign Dwayne Crenshaw, one of two candidates running to fill an empty seat on the City Council. The facts in the mailer are true. The implications? Not so much.

Yes, Crenshaw was fired from his job with a community organization. Yes, he got money from the organization and spent it on himself.

But, as San Diego Fact Check finds, plenty of context is missing.

For one thing, it’s not clear why Crenshaw was fired. For another, he sued. And, it seems, won a cash settlement that he indeed spent on himself. As one might do with cash. From an employer you no longer work for.

Fact Check declares that the flier’s claims are “misleading” and presents facts “in a way that leaves a deceptive impression.”

But one of the people behind the mailer stands by it: “The facts are laid out and they’re laid out in the correct order and they’re all correct. There is not one statement in there that is not factual.”

• Fact Check TV, our video version of San Diego Fact Check, examines a claim about the red tape facing craft beer businesses and looks at the president’s plans to smooth things at the main local border crossing.  

Speaking of beer, KPBS says the City Council today will discuss whether to allow certain breweries to open attached restaurants and larger tasting rooms than they’re allowed currently. These types of breweries are only allowed in industrial areas, creating complications for those that want to get into the business of serving lots of food.

For more about the challenges facing beer joints, check our story here.

Reality Checks for Manchester and the Mayor

Last December, I wrote a column titled “Rise of the Brawlers” about two powerful men who were rattling the cages of San Diego’s genteel power structure.

Mayor Bob Filner and Doug Manchester, the publisher of U-T San Diego, haven’t gone at it in a ring. (Good thing: We don’t need to see them in trunks.) And the biggest fireworks at City Hall — mayor vs. council, mayor vs. city attorney, mayor vs. world, etc. — have mostly left the publisher who calls himself “Papa Doug” on the sidelines.

In a commentary, our Scott Lewis notes the things the men share in common: “neither seems to have understood exactly how much influence came with their new jobs. And, after some time in their new roles, they might both be a bit disappointed.”

VOSD Radio Has Got Your Goats

VOSD Radio takes a look at a former politico’s big flip-flop, the state of medical marijuana, the Number of the Week and the Hero and Goats of the Week.  

The Crack-Up

Just in time for the release of “The Great Gatsby,” we have a new submission of a sad sidewalk on Myrtle Avenue in North Park.  

Poor Myrtle. Poor Myrtle Avenue.

Also, our web editor Dagny Salas notices that one sidewalk looks different now than when it was initially submitted.

VOSD’s Chart-Toppers

As a public service, the Morning Report isn’t going to repeat the ugly word for a new style of explicit dancing. (Let’s just say it rhymes with bwreking.)

But we will tell you that VOSD readers flocked to our editor Sara Libby’s commentary about the “twisted logic” behind the San Diego school district’s decision to severely punish students who took part in a video performance. The commentary was our website’s most popular story of the week. (You can check the entire Top 10 list here.)

Quick News Hits

• Filner’s efforts to boost ties with Tijuana made page A1 in The New York Times.

• A Scripps Institution of Oceanography expert is quoted prominently in a New York Times story about how a measurement of global warming has passed a grim milestone.

• The Center for Investigative Reporting notes a loophole in state law: “There is nothing to prevent sex offenders and others with criminal records from becoming alcohol and drug counselors in California, even though such roles give them direct contact with people, including teens, at their most vulnerable.”

At least 23 sex offenders managed to get jobs as counselors.

• Lorena Gonzalez, a local labor leader, wasn’t impressed by our Fact Check verdict about the misleading mailer. She objected on Twitter: “I especially like that it says every fact was true, but still misleads…. Huh?”

Huh indeed. Gonzalez, a candidate for state Assembly, has been around the political block and knows that context matters.

Later, she was challenged for supporting what another Twitter user called “bullshit short-term thinking.” Her response: “I’ll let the folks running that campaign know you feel that way, but after the Lincoln Club 2x huckster lies, doubt they’ll care.”

She’s referring to the conservative Lincoln Club, which supports candidate Crenshaw (never mind that he’s a Democrat) and has twice spread a bogus claim that we called “huckster propaganda.”

Twice? Sheesh. Somebody’s always got to be an overachiever.

Randy Dotinga is a freelance contributor to Voice of San Diego. Please contact him directly at randydotinga@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/rdotinga.

Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit that depends on you, our readers. Please donate to keep the service strong. Click here to find out more about our supporters and how we operate independently.