THE MOST TALKED ABOUT "SHACK UP" IN SANTA BARBARA

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REDUX: santa barbara media blog
December 28,2006

1. File Charges Against the News-Press By Barney Brantingham, December 28, 2006

"NLRB Cites Many Illegal Moves by Newspaper Management and Sets February Hearing.The National Labor Relations Board today, December 28, filed a complaint against the Santa Barbara News-Press alleging labor law violations stemming from newsroom unionization efforts and set a February 26 hearing in Santa Barbara. nlrb.jpg Charges include the firing of veteran reporter and union leader Melinda Burns, illegal gag orders, threatened suspensions, and cancellation of union activist Starshine Roshell’s column."

2. News-Press NLRB Hearing Ends By Matt Kettmann, January 10, 2007

"Huff, Von Wiesenberger, and Schultz Take Stand; Judge Gets Mad; Hearing Ends. Even less people came for the second day of the National Labor Relations Board hearing about News-Press management's objections to the newsroom's unionization vote. After yesterday's proceedings (see reports on the morning session here and the afternoon session here), it was Teamsters attorney Ira Gottlieb's turn to put witnesses on the stand and show why the "laboratory conditions" required for a unionization vote were not compromised by the four objections raised by newspaper management. And given that Judge William L. Schmidt all but said yesterday that the sole issue remaining in his mind was the threat posted on Blogabarbara on September 11, 2006, that issue ruled most of the day."

3. AJR Says No to McCaw By Matt Kettmann, January 11, 2007

"AJR's Attorneys Refuse Retraction, Make McCaw's Claims Look Silly. In a sternly yet clear December 27, 2006 letter to Stanton L. Stein, the attorney hired by News-Press owner Wendy McCaw (pictured) to sue newspapers and magazines (including The Santa Barbara Independent), the American Journalism Review's attorney flatly refused to run a retraction of the article on the News-Press meltdown written by Susan Paterno. WendyMcCaw.jpg That's the article that also prompted McCaw to attack Paterno herself with a lawsuit, marking perhaps the first time that a newspaper publisher ever used a court of law to individually threaten a writer."

4. McCaw's Second Letter to Lawyers Alliance By Matt Kettmann, January 25, 2007

"Barry Cappello Says "Free Speech" Is the "Spin" in January 23 Letter

"On Tuesday, January 23, News-Press owner Wendy McCaw's attorney Barry Cappello sent a second letter to the Lawyers Alliance for Free Speech, the group of 50 or so well respected attorneys from diverse backgrounds and distinct practices who banded together last fall to help those whose speech has been silenced by McCaw's legal threats."

5. McCaw Hit with Anti-SLAPP Motion By Matt Kettmann, January 30, 2007

AJR's Susan Paterno Uses Anti-SLAPP Motion to Defend Herself

"We all knew it was coming, and on Monday, January 29, in Orange County's Superior Court, it did.

The anti-SLAPP motion -- California's statute aimed at stopping those with money and power from attacking those armed only with First Amendment-protected free speech -- was evoked as a motion to dismiss Wendy McCaw's (pictured) lawsuit against Susan Paterno, the reporter who wrote "Santa Barbara Smackdown" for American Journalism Review. WendyMcCaw.jpg That article is, to date, considered the most comprehensive and probing piece covering the News-Press meltdown, which officially began in July 2006 with the firing/resignation of nine newsroom employees. Since then, the number of newspaper employees fired or leaving under distress has risen to nearly 50. (That number grew by two last week with the firings of reporter Anna Davison and assistant city editor Bob Guiliano.)"

Modern Screen, the drama .  LA Times when it works or try www.independent.com or a Santa Barbara News-Press google search for updates.

From the LATimes:
"In Santa Barbara, News-Press has become the paper of rancor
More firings, more protests: Fallout from the owner's showdown with her staff runs deep.

By Scott Martelle, Times staff writer
February 10, 2007

SANTA BARBARA — After seven months of intense drama — firings, walkouts, boycotts, legal challenges and a union drive — the simplest measure of the impact here from billionaire Wendy McCaw's showdown with her newspaper staff is told by Johnny Morosin.

Someone Morosin knows died recently, and he didn't find out until a few days later. Like countless others, Morosin no longer reads McCaw's News-Press, so he missed the death notice.

'Now I don't know all the little stuff I used to read,' Morosin, 44, said as he rang up lunch-crowd customers at his family's Italian & Greek Market near the newspaper's downtown building. "It'll never be the same…. It's just a crying shame.' "