Reliable Local News
Here’s some fun stuff from our local amateur news effort, The Fullerton Observer, from the latest installment.
First, one of the yellowing observers writes in to compliment the production of reliable news and to note that “local” news is the best kind. The editor Sharon “ED” Kennedy goes on to describe other news sources that are less reliable than her own.
You’ll notice that the subscriber, a Ms. Christina Garner, displays the classic muddled logical error of attributing the characteristics of some members of a class of objects, to all of them. A tiger is a mammal. A tiger has stripes. Mammals have stripes. You get the idea.
Kennedy soldiers on in her solicitude to making sure we don’t succumb to the lure of “fake news.”
And yet, hilariously, and indicative that we have now entered an irony-free zone, on the facing page is yet another of The Observer’s funny fact dodging articles about Joe Felz’s Wild Ride and subsequent quitting of his post. The last one didn’t even mention Felz until the third paragraph and never mentioned his first name at all. Here’s the latest:
Here it takes six paragraphs of nonsense to get around to the real reason Felz was forced to quit: he was drinking the night of November 8th/9th, drove off Glenwood Avenue, killed a tree, and tried to drive away from the scene. But of course these facts appear almost disembodied from the rest of the drivel so that any connection drawn between these events will not be the fault of Sharon Kennedy. The reason for this weird version is clear enough given The Observer’s penchant for idolizing of public employees no matter what they do: it would make them look bad.
Now I have no idea whether any of the Observer’s loyal followers actually give a rat’s ass about reading real news; and maybe the reason they like the Observer is because it helps reassure them of their own little weltanschauung. But really? In the “most reliable zone?” I don’t think so.
xx
“and something that I can’t make out.”
“one too small to read.”
I like boldness with which Kennedy republishes an email forward that she couldn’t even read all the way through. Talk about credibility and a dedication to facts!
The best thing about this election is that the media finally dropped all pretense of objectivity. I don’t think blowhard Trump would have won without the media so desperately tripping over itself to prop up Clinton. I hated all of the candidates, but it was fun to watch the wheels come off of the machine.
It is beyond me that THe Observer characterizes the incident as an accident. It does not even mention as a possibility that Felz was intoxicated , and only takes into account what the establishment handed down or presented. The Sappy tree neighbor who spoke at a council meeting, the behind doors investigation…all that never happened….There is not fourth State with guys like the observer
She won’t know what to call it until the city issues a proper press release.
LOL. That’s all they do: A MERE RECORDIED REPRODUCTION OF THE ESTABLISHMENT PRESENTATIONS
Okay, Kennedy presumes to be running a local “newspaper” yet completely leaves out the incontrovertible FACTS about Felz’s escapade. Jeez, when is that woman going to get some BALLS?
BTW, maybe I’m a die-hard optimist in giving her the benefit of the doubt, but I’m still waiting to see an entry for Sappy McTree in the obituaries…
Felz didn’t volunteer to go on leave; he was put on leave until the investigations were complete.
So Felz lied in his letter to the council and to the public. Got it.
“ED”
Editorial Dysfunction.
Notice the all-important “no one was injured” to lessen the import of the whole thing. Victimless, really (if you don’t count Sappy) and therefore hardly worth mentioning.
“A tiger is a mammal. A tiger has stripes. Mammals have stripes.”
Muddled, indeed. This is an example of the logical fallacy known as the “undistributed middle.”
As I stated in an earlier post about Fullerton city manager Joe Felz being so drunk he ran his car up onto a parkway and hitting a tree, only criminals put as many words possible between themselves and their actions. Newspapers only use reliable sources with the hope readers will form educated opinions .
Where moral relativism rules the day in Fullerton’s government, I it is comforting to know Sharon Kennedy’s very local newspaper absolutely backs Fullerton’s police and city council and their appendages like Joe Felz when she places Felz’s destructive, drunk driving three paragraphs from why Felz suddenly decides to retire to raise his teen agers. But maybe chronically unemployable Sharon needs the goodwill of local,police and city government as they annually recommend funding her brother’s job as executive director of the OrangeCounty Human Relations Commission.
Taking a second look at the reliable news sources cited above, I realized I have read numerous issues of The Economist, WSJ, The Hill . These are the best in analytical news written by persons who hold advanced degrees in their fields coupled with oodles of experience.
Comparing Sharon Kenndy’s Fullerton Observer with these “big boys” is stupid. Her homespun newspaper doesn’t reflect the intelligent, investigative journalism found in these news sites.
An excellent source of relevant to our global village world news and articles is the Journal Of Foreign Affairs.
Well…The “financial engineers” ,who were great math brains , and created all the new mixed rated mortgage backup investments infamous in the 2007 crisis , held very advanced degrees. I wish it were as simple as you say.
Reliable news sources are the products of people who have made a life-long commitment to their specific field in journalism.These people often commit themselves to advanced degrees in studying economics, US politics, foreign affairs, and using their education to gather relevant, first hand information from primary sources that these people then determine if it is significant facts or propaganda.
In contrast I need only paraphrase defender of Fullerton Observer, Dr. Shapiro, their reliable news flows from volunteers who are trying to do good.
The Observer can’t even add up the numbers from Whitaker’s campaign statements correctly.
What if they brought up the views and arguments from different social agents and community members, as opposed to just what is handed down to them by the club???? I take one’s right predisposition -a very rare commodity nowadays-over any advanced degree.
The Fullerton Observer has worked hard to provide independent coverage of local news and local issues for many years. Most of the work is done by volunteers who are not professional journalists. They should be applauded for their efforts. They may not always get the story 100% correct, but they try.
If you have a different point-of-view, they almost always are willing to publish it. Let’s support them for the good work that they do in the community rather than knocking them for the few times that they miss.
How can you not see it? What they “miss” is completely intentional. Hence the ostrich.
Dr. Shapiro, most wouldn’t mind the typos, the misspellings, the occasional illiteracy (causeway). What we mind is the perpetual interlarding of what is supposed to be news with Kennedy opinion – it’s been going on for 35 years We mind the knee-jerk defense of any idiocy that comes out of City Hall (did you really read the post?) We mind the “editorial” comments affixed to letters from opposing points of view and the constant and cavalier misrepresentation of substantive facts.
Being a “volunteer” is no excuse to be lazy, incompetent, and bigoted.
Nobody doubts they work hard. So do spinning tires.
Really? The good people of Fullerton should applaud volunteer reporters for trying to do good work? Should I applaud unqualified person for trying to: fly a plane, practice medicine, fill a cavity ? . A newspaper can only call,itself that if it presents the news, or else it is just propaganda.
The Observer is just ye olde timey blog, but without humor or self-awareness.
Absolutely. Turns out my doctor had no license to practice medicine, but he was so darned nice.
van, you hit the nail on the head. Journalism is a profession. Volunteers may get lucky and do it right. Or not. When the operation is run by an ideologue the result is bound to be a failure.
thanks for the compliment, the sadness in it is for decades Fullerton’s snivel servants have trusted the Fullerton Observer to advance their propaganda. But it is not needed as voter apathy, not propaganda, propagates the continued mess in Fullerton’s government.
Wall Number One.
You self-serving pricks collecting public employee pensions and writing letters supporting your ilk at the Fullerton Observer sure seem to like to spend your golden years lying 24/7 in order to preserve your bloated pension schemes that you perpetuated on an unsuspecting public…
Have you no shame man?
You sound like a horse’s ass come to life.
http://transparentcalifornia.com/pensions/2015/calpers/mark-h-shapiro/
Is that… a lot of money to you?
For a horses ass?
Yes.