I think that it's safe to say that there's nothing that galls Santa Barbara News-Press owner Wendy McCaw more than when one of her many departed employees gets an award.
Whether it's the former top editors of the paper, including columnist Barney Brantingham, being honored by the Society of Professional Journalists, Jerry Roberts getting an award from the PEN Society, or the way reporters were depicted in Citizen McCaw, Wendy, no doubt, gets jealous. She thinks that she ought to be the one getting some honors. I'm sure that one day the Leona Helmsley Meanie Society will be giving Wendy the recognition that is long overdue her.
In the meantime, she will have to grit her teeth while eight reporters that she fired from the News-Press are honored Saturday evening by the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council.
The reporters are Melinda Burns, Anna Davison, Dawn Hobbs, Tom Schultz, Rob Kuznia, Melissa Evans, John Zant and Barney McManigal.
The event is being held at the Residence Inn by Marriott at River Ridge in Oxnard.
A couple of local bloggers were among those who caught the return of Citizen McCaw last weekend and have posted their thoughts. You can find them at The Average Man and Blissful Ignorance.
I've heard that a few people who attended the screening were confused about the nature of Judge Steven Wilson's ruling denying an injunction which would have immediately reinstated the eight fired reporters. The ruling was briefly referenced in the film.
Wilson's decision did not overrule the findings of administrative law judge William Kocol who found that the reporters had been illegally fired. Wilson merely ruled that McCaw couldn't be forced to take the reporters back while she appeals Kocol's ruling to the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. We are still waiting for the outcome of that appeal.
