One can watch it on Access Humboldt later or interview a Supervisor but to get comprehensive information out in a timely manner to the public, being here in person, hearing the discussion is more accurate.
The Supervisors cleared misinformation being put out in media. It was not Sheriff Mike Downey who brought forth the reconsideration request, it was Supervisors Ryan Sundberg and Supervisor Mark Lovelace. They did this after the recent McKinleyville incident involving David Fulton.
Sheriff Downey spoke, Eureka Police Chief Andy Mills spoke, SWAT team members which included Sgt. Blake Massaro spoke and explained how the Mendocino Bearcat was used in the McKinleyville incident and how it was used for citizen and officer safety, which included removing people from apartments, including those that had mobility issues.
This effort is supported by law enforcement agencies, Fire Departments, EMS and Public Health.
Besides the Mckinleyville incident recently, others examples were brought up by speakers and Supervisors. Supervisor Estelle Fennell mentioned watching the Dallas police officers that were shot at, trying to find cover and helping citizens to safety while they were under fire.
How can we be an informed electorate (especially with important elections coming up) if the press doesn't cover controversial issues?
ReplyDeleteMakes me think of the big tv stations in Los Angeles: all news stops so they can cover a car chase: you'll see it on even some cable channels. It's not the public who demands it, it's whatever editor decides what their limited staff covers. And management may have guidelines the editor has to follow.
So the public doesn't get any perspective on why the county decided to spend so much money, has no idea what the vehicle can do, and may be left with the feeling that 'government doesn't care what we think'. No,
if the free press had made an issue of this and people were concerned and turned out to express their ideas it might not have changed the vote but it would have been a much more open process.
Yes, meetings like this can be boring but checking an agenda will give some idea of when a particular issue will be brought up. And the saying "when you snooze, you lose" in this case is, you snooze (and miss the meeting) and the public loses.
I can't speak for the print news but when the FCC deregulated the airwaves, broadcast news was no longer a priority for most stations. For the most part, broadcast news has been replaced with entertainment. Entertainment is more profitable and less controversial. In the old days, the news and sales staff at a station almost never talked. Now they discuss news sponsors. Some of which buy ads so that the news department will think twice about doing a story about the. Like the commercials on CNN for Fighter Jets and off shore oil rigs. Who do you know that ever buys that stuff? They run those ads to keep the news guys off their backs and it works. This has had an affect from the top all the way down to the smallest stations that rely on ad revenue for income.
ReplyDeleteAgree with Tom. It applies to all media. The ones at the top won't let the real few journalists report news.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to side with Tom on this too. The local print media (Times Standard) is owned by a large conglomerate, MediaNewsGroup, out of Denver. They have methodically constricted news, pruned many outlets, cut staff, outsourced other jobs in the name of making a buck, rather than bias. News you might want to read isn't getting reported, save for social media, because there's no one physically around anymore. We have a county the size of Los Angeles Country. There's 10 million people there. They can't report 10 million stories either unless you want a 2000 page newspaper or Facebook page that takes you 15 hours to scroll through. And....people like to get paid for their efforts. Sometimes a LOT. I'm not going to defend any particular bias, but I know that editors have to pick and choose based on available personnel that can write like fire for cheap, but there is a bias somewhere in the mix. And unfortunately, the same old adage applies: If it bleeds, it leads. People like to be excited. And they buy papers when they are.
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