Hooray! The OC Watchdog of the Orange County Register has been given some sort of “public service” award by some newspaper publishing organization or other. Teri Sforza is crowing about it, here, and sharing some of the important watchdoggin’ they’ve been doing. Well, okay, they’re all in a precarious employment situation over there so a little self-promotion can be forgiven.
On the other hand, when we consider the stories that the Watchdogs have serially ignored, we have to wonder with the Roman poet Juvenal, quis custodiet ipsos custodes? or in English: who guards the guardians?
Here’s a partial list of stories missed, dismissed, or glossed over by the OC Watchdog:
Perjury by Harry Sidhu, candidate for Supervisor.
Janet Nguyen hiring staffers for the 4th District office.
Tom Daly talks Supes (including Nguyen) into buying 2.1 million dollar money pit.
Tom Daly puts do-nothing Sacramento statistic-for-hire on $1700 per month retainer, paying out well over $100,000.
Tom Daly gives $48,000 to campaign contributor Brett Barbre to study sports hall of fame (first reported and then ignored – Jennifer Muir distracted by shoes).
Tom Daly turns Clerk-recorder Department into make work office for relatives of campaign contributors.
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle paid $72,000 per year to find new graveyard for OC Cemetary District.
Pringle paid $250,000 to lobby for OC Children and Families Commission; Pacific Strategies awarded contracts of half a million dollars in three years to run a blog and write PR pieces for politicians; Commission gives “The White House Writers Group” $150,000 to proclaim the good works of the Commission on a bigger stage.
Etc., etc., etc.
The main problem seems to be lack of curiosity and/or tenacity. Then there’s the rather disturbing possibility that some folks in authority just gets less scrutinized than others.
