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Sound Off for June 15, 2008
| Saturday, Jun 14 2008 6:13 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Jun 16 2008 11:58 AM
Reader: Truth at last. Mr. Jenner, you finally told us the truth about why The Californian no longer publishes the TV Guide on Sundays. Last week on Sunday your answer was to a lady who had written who was disturbed about the non-publication of the TV Guide on Sundays. You quoted her as "extraordinarily expensive to produce and the alternative was making deep cuts to local coverage." Well, finally, finally the truth instead of that baloney that you put out for nine months about a survey being made which was laughable to any intelligent person. A reader would see through that promptly. Again, thank you very much for finally telling the truth that it will put a few more dollars in the pocket of the lady who owns The Californian.
-- Bill Tinsley
Mullen: We haven't changed our tune, Bill. The fact is the TV guide was expensive for us to produce, and that reader surveys showed that a small percentage of readers used it. We hate to cut anything, but when push came to shove, cutting less-used features like the TV guide made more sense than cutting local coverage.
Reader: Can you imagine how shocked I was when I got the Sunday newspaper and the front page "headline" read "Stand by our man" with Hillary's picture. What a sexist and degrading line.
What first came to my mind was, hmm, sounds like the editor has problems at home. Where were you? At a bar listening to Tammy Wynette's song: "Stand by your man?"
Is this for real? Is this the best you can do? Your subtitle read "Senator vows to fight for Obama." Why couldn't this have been the headline? But "Stand by our man?" I don't think so.
How about these lines that are not sexist "Yes we can," "Together we can elect Obama," "Let's stand together," or how about this, "Hillary supports Obama with her 18 million votes." I didn't think that was really hard unless, your headline was intended to be sexist.
Senator Clinton is a hero to me and to the 18 million people who voted for her. She went against all odds to become the most successful female presidential candidate in US history (as stated in your article) and the best you could do was "Stand by our man?"
Even Barrack Obama made a statement of Hillary's speech "She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams." And the best you could do is "stand by our man?"
How degrading and offensive this is to all women who continue to fight every single day of their lives for equality. And the best you could do is "Stand by our man." Shame on you.
As a women "Stand by our man" is very offensive to me since I voted for Hillary. Give us women a break. We are more independent than that. Hasn't Hillary's campaign proven that?
Furthermore, Barack Obama could very well be the next president of the United States of America. Address him, as the leader he truly is and not as someone's MAN! He deserves the utmost respect.
-- Cynthia Bell
Mullen: Cynthia, the headline you're referring to was an obvious nod to Hillary Clinton's own "stand by your man" statement during the 1992 presidential campaign. And for the record, the headline was written by a woman on our copy desk. Assistant managing editor James Bennett, who supervises production of the paper, responds: "I liked it for the feelings it seemed to capture, including that a lot of women are disappointed Hillary won't be the nominee (as evidenced by Ms. Bell's letter). She was asking people to 'stand by' Obama who is now 'our man' (at least for the Democrats). But it obviously hasn't been easy for her to admit defeat ('Sometimes it's hard to be a woman ...') and a lot of her supporters are left in a difficult position (as evidenced by Ms. Bell's letter) of supporting the man who defeated their woman."
Reader: I was extremely disappointed in today's paper, June 7th, 2008. Yesterday at CSUB, three graduation ceremonies were held on the campus for the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, the School of Education and the School of Business and Public Administration. Today, the final two ceremonies will be held for the second half of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
In today's paper, there was not a single mention of these ceremonies. These students, both under graduate and graduate students have spent countless hours studying and working hard to finish their college degrees.
I proudly sat at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences with my family and friends to watch my husband, Calvin Fields receive not only his BA in Psychology, but he was also the honored recipient of a generous scholarship given to him by San Joaquin Bank. All of these students deserved to have a standing ovation in celebration of their success.
It is truly sad and disappointing that the local paper did not have the courtesy to cover these graduation ceremonies which are very important to the students, families and the faculty of CSUB. I hope that future CSUB graduation ceremonies will be covered by The Californian so that everyone can read about the graduates who have met their goal of completing college and earning a degree.
-- Jennifer Fields
Mullen: We do make an effort to cover CSUB graduation ceremonies each year in some way, as well as the graduation ceremonies of other local colleges and high schools. We covered CSUB's graduation ceremony on June 7. Several photographs appeared on the Local cover of the Sunday paper.
We are also happy to tout accomplishments of individual graduates, such as scholarships or other recognition they've earned. Readers should e-mail those to Local@bakersfield.com, and we will include them in our "Class Acts" column that runs periodically in the Local section.
Reader: Thank you for your follow-up editorial on Kern County Auditor-Controller Ann Barnett's action. Mrs. Bertia and I agree wholeheartedly with your criticisms.
In some towns, like Bakersfield, the newspaper is the first line of civilized defense for minorities against the moral, uncompromising majority. The Supreme Court is a tardy second.
-- Joe Bertia
Reader: It's regarding the gay marriage thing. I've noticed every day now I see in the newspaper the gay marriage. I'm just wondering, is it getting under The Californian's skin? You guys are upset about this. Why don't you just let it go for a while and see what happens, you know. Many of us believe it will be solved here in a few months and many of us believe that the Supreme Court overstepped their bounds and are legislating right now. If the county clerk doesn't want to give marriages, then let it go.
-- Michael Nimms
Mullen: Michael, I guarantee you we are neither upset nor gleeful about this issue. But we are committed to covering it, no matter how it turns out. I'm sorry if our reporting seems excessive, but the issue of gay marriage is clearly of high interest to our readers, regardless of what their opinion on the matter might be.