Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/281401
Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor Editorial Board How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151 ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FaCEbook.CoM/ rbdailynEwS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @rEdbluFFnEwS I took part in a fun run Saturday. I'll pause to allow th ose of y ou w ho kn ow m e pe rs on al ly t o re ga in y ou r composure. At the finish line, the organizer took a co up le o f pi ct ur es o f me w it h a fr ie nd . Mo nd ay I s en t the organizer a note and asked her to send me a photo fr om t he e ve nt o f an yo ne b ut m e. Not that I'm overly shy — though my time was nothing I want made public — it's just that as journalists we try to stay out of the news. In the case of the fun run, it really wouldn't have mattered much whether my name was listed as a participant or not. After all, it's not exactly a controversial topic. But another set of circumstances came up this week that better il - lustrates our need to distance ourselves from the people and things we write about. Red Bluff's City Council planned to vote Tuesday night whether or not to accept a rec - ommendation from the city's Technical Advisory Committee and Parks and Recreation Com- mission to proceed with the de- velopment of an off-leash dog park at Trainor Park in south Red Bluff. The recommendation was prompted by a group of volun - teers lobbying for a dog park. One of those volunteers is Daily News reporter Rich Greene, who normally covers the city council. Journalists live in their com - munities and have issues and causes they care about. Some- times they care enough to get involved, just like anyone else. Could Rich have objectively covered Tuesday's meeting as a reporter despite being involved with it the issue himself? I've worked with him long enough that I trust he would have. But neither he nor I expect you to. Well in advance of the meeting, Rich made ar- rangements for our other reporter to cover it. That reporter had car troubles, so I ended up covering that part of meeting, de - spite my son coming into town for a visit. That's how important it is to us, and to readers, that news is covered by those who don't have a dog in the fight. So to speak. A loss to the community I was saddened to receive a text from a reporter early Wednesday letting me know of the passing of former DN writer, and recent contribu - tor to Tehama The Magazine, Bryon Burruss. I didn't know Bryon well, but our paths crossed frequently enough to know he will be missed by many in the community. Bryon touched many as a teacher and through his in - volvement in The BareStage Theatre. More recently he gained notoriety with, and an enthusiastic response to, his book "Images of America: Tus - can Springs." His contributions to Tehama The Magazine were always lively articles I looked forward to reading. Bryon and his many talents will be missed. Chip Thompson can be reached at 530 527-2151, Ext. 112 or by email at editor@redbluffdailynews. com. Follow him on Twitter @Ed - itorChip. 545 diamond ave. Staying out of the story Cartoonist's take Last week in the DN, under "Wall Street," I read the discouraging news that "Amid world jitters, Dollar General stock fell 3 percent af - ter the company reported its 4th quarter earnings took a hit from harsh winter storms." The article con - tinued, "It also issued a poor out- look for the year." This is local news because the former Holiday Market on An- telope Boulevard, due to fierce competition from Raley's, had been in decline for a number of years until they asked our com - pany to find a buyer. A buyer was found who purchased the site and then leased to Dollar Gen- eral. They paid big bucks for the property, gutted it and gained representation in northern Cali - fornia which was their objective. They also purchased the SW corner of Walnut and Jackson, leveled it and then built a new store thereon. We hope they re - bound and are around for years to come. • • • Safeway Stores have agreed to sell to Cerberus Capital Man - agement. Safeway recently di- vested assets as it struggles to increase sales. In my day, when the meat plant was up and running and prosperous, I would call the Safeway Stores head meat buyer on a Monday and offer them a 40,000 pound load of choice steer carcass at x amount per pound. On Wednesday, I would call back and ask if my bid was ac - cepted. The buyer would say yea or nay. If the latter, I would ask what it would take to sell him that load and he would tell me. I would then accept his price and we would deliver it to the bay area. Price fixing was ille - gal in those days, but that is the way it worked if you wanted to deal with Safeway. This was im- portant, because the price they paid set the market for all other stores on the west coast. They were the largest chain... and every other store followed their lead. However, that is no longer the case today...and I no longer sell beef, which is just as well. • • • In an attempt to convince scoffing readers that a female President of the U.S. is a rea - sonable and desirable possi- bility in the next go-around, Jill Lepore, in The New Yorker writes of history and Hillary. "If the Presi - dential election were held today, Hillary Clinton would deliver her accep- tance speech. A TIMES/ CBS poll found 82% of Democrats picked her over Biden or Elizabeth Warren. A Quinnipiac poll found that registered voters in Ohio chose Clinton over Republican candi - dates Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and John Kasich. But the election isn't be- ing held today…and Clinton isn't even officially a candidate. The apotheosis of Hillary is not in- evitable. She is an accomplished campaigner, a seasoned diplo- mat, and formidable fund raiser. But she strikes many voters as disingenuous and perhaps un- ethical, concerns that will prob- ably be aired again as some thirty thousand pages of docu- ments from the Clinton presi- dential library are being made public. Still, her chances of win- ning the White House are bet- ter than any female candidate's have ever been. In 1937 George Gallop's pollsters asked, 'Would you vote for a woman for Pres - ident?' 33% answered yes and the numbers have been rising ever since. By 2012, 95% said yes. But then Gallop rephrased the question: 'Do you think most of your neighbors would vote for a woman President?' 34 % said no. Most people think Hillary Clin - ton has already decided to run. A better question is: 'Who else will?'" • • • While watching the S.F. Gi - ants spring training games in Arizona, we still chastise the announcers when they start talking about one of our pitch - ers extolling his outstanding control of the baseball. In uni- son we cry "Don't do it" because we know the pitcher will soon begin to lose that control and get lit up as did Matt Cain last weekend. • • • I fear that I shall no longer see, A column photo with Murray and me. The News execs have spoken: The photo shall be a mere to - ken. The only photo DN readers will see Is one the size of a bumble bee. If that be gospel, then I sub - mit, Just print a photo of Murray... and leave me out of it. • • • Last Week's quiz generated no correct answers. Readers were asked to Define Gazebo: It is not just a summer house...it is a round balcony with large win - dows. Piddock: It is a small mollusk that bores holes in rocks or wood in the breastsummers of build - ings. Breastsummer: Is a great beam supporting a wall or some- times a Gazebo. Cotoneaster: Is a flowering shrub. This week's quiz: List 5 words containing double ZZs and three words with "bug" in them. • • • James Madison, our 4th Pres- ident, wrote in 1774,"Christian establishments tend to great ig- norance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects." And, "During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; igno - rance and servility in the laity; in others superstition, bigotry and persecution". You'd think Jim would just come out and say what he thought of religion, rather than beat around the bush. • • • An armed and hooded robber burst into the Bank of Ireland and grabbed a sack full of cash. On his way out one brave Irish customer grabs the hood and pulls it off revealing the robber's face. The robber shoots the guy without hesitation. He then looks around the bank to see if anyone else has seen him. One of the tellers looks at him and the robber calmly shoots him. Everyone is very scared and looking down at the floor. "Did anyone else see my face," screams the robber. There is a few moments of silence then one elderly Irish gent, looking down, tentatively raises his hand and says, "I think me wife may have caught a glimpse." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and au - thor of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchand- murray@hotmail.com. i Say Jitters over Dollar General Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. i'm not happy at all about it. i think it will become a dumping ground for unwanted dogs. we have enough of those around and i believe it will be an out for those irrespon- sible people. Cheryl bush: Facebook comment about approval of a dog park in Red Bluff i'm extremely happy about this. it is a wonderful addition to the city and will al- low more animal (and human) socialization. Good job red bluff, can't wait to take my dogs there to have fun. amanda barth: Facebook comment about approval of a dog park in Red Bluff Chip Thompson The other night I got into bed later than usual and wondered if I had missed the nightly in- stallment of this month's hottest talk-radio topic: the missing Ma- laysian plane and wild theories about its fate. Silly me. The talk- ers were still at full throttle, rant- ing about, The plane! The plane! Daytime talk shows on ra- dio and TV tend to dwell on ba- sic stuff when a sensational story like this one comes along. You know, terrorist plots, govern- ment conspiracies and even mun- dane mechanical failures. But late at night and online — where media are pretty much off the wall, even without a provocative story like this one — the missing plane is sparking nonstop discus - sion about secret landing strips, vast worldwide conspiracies and, of course, UFOs. This much we know: What - ever became of the 239 souls aboard Flight 370 is tragic, as is the uncertainty about their fate that drags on for families and friends. But while actual details — "news," if you will — grows scarce, the media stampede on the story isn't letting up. After more than a dozen days, the "search area" was de - scribed as roughly the size of the continental U.S., perhaps near Australia. That's like say- ing a plane was lost over New Jersey and it could be in the Grand Canyon, or maybe at the bottom of Lake Michigan, or in myriad other places in between. The problem isn't extensive news coverage, which was wel - come at the start. It's exces- sive coverage, when there is lit- tle or no news to report. CNN has moved into drop-every- thing-mode, as if covering the Kennedy assassination. That prompted actress Mia Farrow to Tweet: "Has TV 'news' gone completely crazy?" Of course, Farrow is hardly an objective judge of CNN's product since her son Ronan now hosts a show on MSNBC. Still, her point is well taken. For example, CNN flashed the words "Breaking News" on the screen during mar - athon coverage nearly two weeks into the story. And what was the big break? That a CNN reporter was inside a flight simulator and would show what a 777 cockpit looks like. Even Fox anchor Bill O'Reilly believes the missing plane com - mentary is over the top. "Watch- ing some of this coverage is painful," said O'Reilly. He con- cluded, "It's now corrupting the news business." Cable and the Internet have an unquenchable thirst for sto - ries that tweak the public's imaginations and a keen eye for running stories that could be treated as a BIG DEAL. MS - NBC, for instance, has devoted more time to Chris Christie and his New Jersey bridge scan- dal than any other single story that's come along this year. In 2013, Fox News Channel ran so hard and fast with the Benghazi matter that viewers might have assumed it was the only thing happening on the planet. Television has a long and an - noying history of overdosing on ratings-building stories. ABC's "Nightline" actually began in 1979 with the singular pur - pose of covering the Iran hos- tage crisis. The thread ran for a remarkable 440 days until the crisis ended, after which time "Nightline" stayed on but was forced to cover other things. As for the public, nothing sells like a vast conspiracy theory, ex - cept maybe sex. To hear late-night radio hosts tell it, the 777 is sitting on a de- serted strip somewhere in So- malia, the passengers all held hostage while the plane is re- fitted with nuclear weapons for a massive attack on Israel. Ac- cording to others, aliens com- mandeered the plane and are holding the passengers aboard a UFO. With everyone shouting the - ories about, "the plane, the plane," we should remember where the line was coined. Fan- tasy Island. Peter Funt is a writer and speaker. His book, "Cautiously Optimistic," is available at Ama- zon.com and CandidCamera.com. PEtEr Funt The plane! The plane! Robert Minch OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, March 21, 2014 » MORE AT FaCEbook.CoM/rbdailynEwS AND TwiTTEr.CoM/rEdbluFFnEwS a4