Should "Media Maven" Marcy Burstiner be commenting on DA's office cases without a disclaimer... same goes for Baykeeper/Dioxin issues given that her husband Jeffrey "yougofree.com" Schwartz works for Paul, whose campaign manager is the "Baykeeper's" wife...
Well, I happen to like her work, and often agree with her conclusions, but this "right wing" blogger thinks the answer is "NO."
For the record, Marcy - it may be wishful thinking on the part of your husband, Paul Gallegos and Jose Mendez to think that people aren't interested, but the Sean Marsh case was topic #1 at the coffee shops, as people expressed utter disbelief that the DA's office wasted time and energy persecuting a good Dad, and based on blog traffic on those Ferndale Enterprise stories, I can tell you it was very closely followed by people here and out of the area.
But you're right about one thing, there is a "bigger picture" that has really been ignored, a story that MUST and WILL be told...
Well, Mendez has been yougo burstiner's protege from day one, so perhaps Marcy was being nice to
ReplyDeleteMendez on his way out the door. It will be interesting to see what new lawyers flock to yougo to learn trial skills now that Mendez has flown the coop.
Burstiner wrote in the 3/1/07 NCJ the following:
ReplyDelete“But a reader often doesn't need more than the initial story and a clear definitive wrap-up when it is over...Here's the bigger picture: Instead of one distracted dad and a rambunctious toddler on a Victorian Main Street, how many Humboldt County children are endangered because their parents in fact, or all but, abandoned them?”
The problem with Burstiner’s limited view of the world is that she fails to see that her lame husband (yougofree.com) is the one who is supposed to be prosecuting big child abuse cases, but doesn’t. The office that he works for doesn’t consider them important enough to put any resources in and few if any cases have been charged over the last year. Certainly, child abuse isn’t over in just one year in this county. If the abusers of Humboldt County kids are not prosecuted by her husband “yougofree.com” then there is nothing (I repeat - nothing) for the paper to write about. Instead the papers correctly inform us about the bullshit waste of money prosecution of Marsh and the loads of other acquittals and wastes of resources. The detail they provide shows us just how assinine are the decisions in that office in the expenditure of precious resources and explain how that office is getting so many acquittals in a row. (How many this year 7 or 8?) The rest of us can understand the importance if Burstiner can’t and frankly I think that her deciding what readers should hear or not hear is snobby and elitist.
Until Buhne's post a few days ago, I did not know Marcy Burstiner was married to Jeff Schwartz.
ReplyDeleteWhat seemed like a reasonable but uninformed comment in the statement you mention above is mind-numbing when you put the two together.
The Marsh case made the District Attorney's Office look BAD. If Burtiner had her way, the community would not be informed that the office her husband works for is wasting taxpayers' money and dragging citizens through court on baseless charges.
ReplyDeleteShe has an inherent interest in the DA's Office not receiving bad press. Her husband is an at will employee working for an elected official. If the public is really informed about the incompetent "leader" elected and the incompetent attorneys, like Schwartz, that he hires, they might actually make an informed decision at the election booth.
Moreover, until he achieved his long sought goal of fleeing what he sees as a cultural wasteland, Mendez was practically joined to Schwartz at the hip. Always in each other's offices not working (ask the staff) exchanging pearls of legal non-wisdom, planning long lunches and early departures. The only surprising thing in the Marsh coverage was that Schwartz did not accompany Mendez and the DA to
ReplyDeleteCurley's ... oops, sorry, "the scene of the crime" which the DA claims he always visits. On the other hand, maybe he did and it wasn't reported. Let's ask Marcy.
Baykeeper has an office on second st. and a store or office on E st. Where do they did the money for rent. donations ? t-shirts? Or do they have pancake breakfasts?
ReplyDeleteFrom NPR:
ReplyDelete2. A conflict of interest in its simplest dictionary term is a conflict between the private interests and the professional responsibilities of a person in a position of trust. An operative word in this sentence is "trust." All of us are in positions of trust when it comes to both our audience and the people and institutions that we cover. To maintain that trust requires that there be no real or perceived overlap between the private interests and opinions of NPR journalists and their professional responsibilities.
OOops - I meant, "yes" she needs a disclaimer - and "no" she shouldn't be commenting without one, if at all.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of disclaimers... Shoudln't The Ferndale Enterprise put in a disclaimer that a witness in the Sean Marsh trial (Jake Drake) used to work for the FE, is friends with the Tituses and even sold them a rental property?
ReplyDeleteAlso, shouldn't the FE's Jack's Corner "editorializing" cartoons be placed in the op/ed section and have a disclaimer that the views of the cartoonist are not necessarily the views of the FE? I don't know. Seems like fair enough questions for some.