Monday, September 29, 2008

It's Wendy Alright, As In, Hot Air


Evidently, owning a newspaper, a radio station, and several weekly and monthly periodicals haven't enabled Wendy McCaw the convey the public image she would like to project. She has now resorted to, the Internet.



Wendy McCaw, the "official website" - complete with a photo that looks like it was taken for the cover of Town and Country - is here.

So why a Wendy website?

Wendy-McCaw.com was created with the purpose to inform the Internet visitor about the goals and vision of Wendy McCaw.

Throughout the Internet there are numerous false statements and misinformation concerning Wendy McCaw and the Santa Barbara News-Press. We hope by providing accurate and factual information, the visitor can make informed conclusions about the life and work of Mrs. McCaw.


It's a six page site, with pages devoted to her biography, philanthropy, philosophy and "current issues." (And who is that imperial "we" that is being referred to?)

Turns out that "current issues" is nothing more than a euphemism for the News-Press controversy. The page is a collection of links, mostly to News-Press editorials and news articles on the paper's battle with the Teamsters. There are also copies of two letters threatening legal action that her attorney Barry Cappello sent to the producers of Citizen McCaw as well as federal judge Steven Wilson's ruling denying the NLRB's request for an injunction that would have reinstated eight fired reporters.

There are 25 different links on the page but none of them link to articles or stories about rulings or decisions that went against the News-Press.

Nope, nothing here about Judge Kocol's ruling of last December finding that McCaw had engaged in numerous unfair labor practices. You won't find anything here about McCaw's suit against Susan Paterno getting tossed either.

The question has been asked before: "Mrs. McCaw, have you no shame?" The answer still appears to be, no.

* * *

"Citizen McCaw" is the definitive documentary on the News-Press meltdown. But if anyone in Hollywood is thinking of doing a dramatic treatment of the story perhaps they ought to consider casting Heather Locklear in the Wendy McCaw role?




* * *

Caught Peter Seaman, one of the producers of "Citizen McCaw" being interviewed on the Creative Community last night, hosted by David Starkey which can be seen on Channel 21.

Peter spends most of his time on the show answering questions about the documentary on the News-Press, but for the first 10 minutes he talks about his other credits as a Hollywood screenwriter which include "Roger Rabbit."

When asked about his work on "The Wild, Wild West" Peter said, "we were brought in as script doctors, but the patient died."

If you missed the program, you have plenty of opportunities to still see it. It's in heavy rotation on Channel 21. Over the next couple of days it can be seen tonight (Monday) at 6:00 pm and Tuesday at 8:00 am and 3:00 pm.