When I saw the front page above-the-fold story in Friday's News-Press blaring the headline, "Allegations of mistreatment of Solvang Cougar," I was thinking perhaps that some 20-something guys who were celebrating their graduation from UCSB were saying mean things to a 30-something woman from the Valley who was down here hitting the bars on State Street.
I guess I had a different kind of "cougar" in mind.
Actually, I think that would have made a more interesting story.
Although David Pritchett's announcement that he is running for city council might have initially escaped the attention of the folks at the News-Press city desk, it didn't go unnoticed by Travis Armstrong who wrote in his Friday op-ed page column:
He announced a bid for City Council this week. But despite years of trying to infiltrate the local Democratic Central Committee as a self-serving way to further his own campaign, the party gave him the cold shoulder by endorsing others for the three council spots, according to the committee's Web site.
It was yet another personal rebuke of the guy.
Oh really?
What Armstrong didn't mention was that two News-Press favorites, council candidate Cathy McCammon and mayoral candidate Iya Falcone, also failed to get the Committee's endorsement.
Why wasn't that a "rebuke" for them as well?
BTW, Pritchett tells me that he has no regrets about his decision not to submit to an oral interview with a News-Press reporter.
Unable to speak with Pritchett and unwilling to agree to his condition that he would only respond to questions via e-mail, the News-Press was left to quoting from the candidate's campaign website. But Pritchett feels even that was skewed.
Keri Bradford, the longtime editor of the News-Press' Friday entertainment supplement, Scene, has given notice that she is leaving the paper. She is said to be taking a job in the publications department at UCSB.
Paul Yarbrough, a former sports editor and columnist with the News-Press, and most recently Assistant News Editor for The Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon, is now writing a weekly sports column for Noozhawk. His first posting appeared yesterday, and will run on every Monday.
© 2009 by Craig Smith and www.craigsmithsblog.com
