The State of the Union-Tribune: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
Good news is always difficult to convey in formats dependent on headlines for eyeballs.
Therefore I don’t expect this post will be anything close to a viral sensation, with the possible exception of those living in bubbles equating vitriol with virtue. Tons of people in San Diego hate our local daily newspaper, mostly for reasons I'll bet they can’t quite recall.
None-the-less, as somebody who’s been hypercritical of our daily newspapers in the past, I feel obliged to report on --for the present, anyway-- what appears to be a happy ending.
Back in my days in the alt/underground press, writing stories critical of the Union and Evening Tribune was like shooting fish in a barrel.
San Diego Door co-editor Larry Remer and I used to sell a few of the paper’s not-for-sale review albums on Fridays and head over to the Press Room, a bar frequented by reporters. After five or six beers it was rare for us to walk out of there without either a tip for a quashed story or some hot internal gossip.
Here’s a snip from part two of our three part series on the Copley empires, published in April & May 1973:
A perfect example is the story of ex-Union reporter Bob Cox. Cox taped an interview with San Diego Congressman Bob Wilson at the time when the ITT scandal was breaking. In the interview, Wilson spouted off about the now-famous Dita Beard memo…[editing error, I assume, deleted] … freely acknowledged that ITT head Harold Geneen had offered the GOP $400,000 to hold their convention in San Diego.
Evidently, Wilson was unaware that the official position of ITT and the GOP was to discredit the Beard Memo. Cox’s interview was just about as hot as any news story a reporter could hope for.
However, it was too hot for the management of the Union, so they just sat on it. Meanwhile, Bob played the tape for a reporter from the Baltimore Sun, who knew a good story when he heard one. The Sun was more than glad to print the interview with Wilson. And so the Union was forced to rush a watered-down version of the story into print.
For his efforts, Bob Cox soon found himself demoted from the position of political writer for the Union. He was treated to a wide variety of lousy assignments and petty harassments until he decided to leave the Union. His life became so miserable that, though he was not officially fired, leaving was the only alternative open to him.
What happened to Cox can happen to any reporter at the Union or the Tribune that gets too far out of line. There are currently at least a half dozen reporters at the U-T who are trying-to weather a similar storm of harassment for various reasons.
For those of you who might not remember the bad old days. A quick recap:
The San Diego Union (founded October 10, 1868) and the San Diego Evening Tribune, (founded December 2, 1895) were bought by the Copley Press in 1928, and that’s where their slide into mediocrity began.
Up through the mid 1960s, the papers were reliably conservative and uncritical of the local business establishment. Local wheeler/dealers could count on supportive coverage as they engaged in legally questionable activities.
The Vietnam War and the rise of the counterculture pushed a lot of buttons for then publisher James S.Copley. A decade of cheerleading for the war effort combined with a refusal to acknowledge the changes going on in society came to define the papers.
It has been reliably alleged that the papers, along with the news service, worked with both FBI and CIA collection efforts and operations targeting dissent domestically and internationally.
In 1973, old man Copley passed. His wife, Helen Copley, who started at the paper as a secretary and later married James, took the helm. In 1992 the Union and Evening Tribune were merged. While the papers remained politically conservative, the days of not-reporting on stuff gradually ended. Under her tenure, The San Diego Tribune won two Pulitzer prizes.
In 2001, adopted son David Copley took over. The U-T won two Pulitzer Prizes during his tenure as publisher: one was in 2006 for its role in uncovering the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal; the other was in 2009 for the work of editorial cartoonist Steve Breen. David was a socialite in every sense of the word, throwing lavish parties, and donating serious cash to local charities, which got plenty of publicity in print.
In May 2009 the papers were sold to a Beverly Hills investment firm, Platinum Equity for $35 million. These investors redesigned and rebranded the paper; they also brought in Jeff Light, the editor turned publisher who still runs the show. How he kept sane under the next owner is a story that should be told.
In 2012, the then-UT was sold to Papa Doug Manchester for $100 million, heralding perhaps the most outrageous era of the paper. The man had (has) all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop as he pursued an unabashedly right wing agenda. Manchester may have gotten some ego boost out of owning the papers, but they --along with a fledging broadcast operation-- flopped financially. And, as we can see from the increasingly blueish color of San Diego politics, he was also a failure at proselytizing.
The Los Angeles Times bought the papers in May, 2015. Within a month, about a third of the staff was gone, as print production was moved to Los Angeles.
Biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the Times/UT in 2018, pledging to restore journalistic integrity to the papers.
And that’s where this story begins…
I’m enough of an old school guy that I actually pay for a subscription to the Union-Tribune. As I was reading this Sunday’s (5/30) edition, I realized what it was --aside from eliminating the childish bs-- that was making the local paper into a valued part of our community: empathy.
People/Humans/Citizens from all parts of the community are now finding a place in the paper to express their point of view. Moreover, they’re finding financing for some of those folks. Somebody up there is listening.
This week, for instance:
Special Supplemental Section: The Union-Tribune Social Justice Reporting Project* It features summaries (it’s multi-media reporting) by six local “authentic voices,” who were each paid five grand for the submissions.
Jeff Valenzuela interviewed and photographed people who were participants in the migrant “caravans,” made infamous by the hyperbole of right wing media.
Savannah Cadet-Haynes explored issues of skin color through interviews with three women of color.
Nicole Antonacci tells the truth of indigenous injustice through the eyes of local Natives.
Semoria F. Mosley documented various experiences of Black people in San Diego as they move through life.
Beto Soto took a look at the activism work of undocumented San Diegans. (Link doesn't work)
Soon-to-be-posted will be a video report by Jordi Lebrija on the lives the half million people who work in manufacturing jobs just over the border.
(*Hopefully somebody from the Union-Tribune will revisit the links for these stories. Some of them including the one for the main page in the subscriber epaper are wrong or just don’t work)
Sunday’s front page included three stories that never would have appeared in days of old.
An in depth investigation of San Diego County’s child welfare apparatus. Short version: It’s getting better, but the past horror stories are simply awful.
A profile on the life of Maria Eugenia Chavez Segovia, one of three people who drowned at sea when an overcrowded boat ran aground on May 2 off Point Loma. It humanizes her and does a good job of providing context for why people risk their lives trying to get into the US.
A story documenting the deep roots of racism in the US military. Look no further if you have questions about the criticisms aimed at the military for being woke by the know-nothings in congress.
As the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder approached, the paper featured nine essays from community members expressing opinions on the subject.
When I see the video of George Floyd’s murder, I see myself on the ground begging for my life by Jerry McCormick, founding president of the San Diego Association of Black Journalists
George Floyd’s death was not a sacrifice but it was a mirror into this country’s soul by Aeiramique Glass Blake, director of Generation Justice, a youth-led activism, organizing and advocacy organization.
In 2021, it still feels like Black lives aren’t valued in America by former Lakeside resident Jaelyn Kennedy
George Floyd got justice, but justice for one is clearly not justice for all by Pamela Wood, writer, nurse and activist, and a member of Moms of Black Boys.
I have hope a year after George Floyd’s murder but still face racism in my neighborhood by Donna Stewart, news operations manager at NBC 7 San Diego, past president of the San Diego Association of Black Journalists, and resident of Allied Gardens.
I have a unique perspective on George Floyd’s death. I lost a family member to police violence by Tony Abuka, community leader, president of the Alfred Olango Foundation, and resident of East County.
Activism is a sheer necessity for my Black peers and me. So we make the most of moments of joy by Arsema Aklog, a junior at San Diego High School, president of her school’s Black Student Union. and serves as a district representative on the committee to select the next superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District.
A year after George Floyd’s death, I reflect on the wisdom of my father and grandfather by Brandon Harrison, associate campus pastor at The Rock Church in Point Loma and resident of Encanto.
The day George Floyd died could be the most significant day in modern American law enforcement by Ben Kelso, San Diego Police Department Captain and adjunct professor at the University of San Diego.
I’m not saying I agree with everything I read in the Union-Tribune, but it has become a worthwhile source of news and opinion.
There are blind spots and unrealized assumptions underlying articles and commentary at the UT. The privileged status that journalists acquire is all-too-often paid for with compromises made in the name of access. BothSides-ism can warp a complicated story into gibberish.
Gone are the days when owning a printing press was almost as good as owning a mint. The financial structures that supported journalism (and made owners wealthy) have crumbled, making the cost of doing business a dark cloud hanging over almost all of legacy media.
The expectations placed upon being a daily “paper of record” necessitate limitations on what can be accomplished. Eliminate the Sports section and your audience shrinks. Take away the crossword puzzle and you’ll hear the howls from Solana Beach to Otay Mesa.
A death, a bad month in the stock market, or a change in philanthropic interest can all lead to dead print/air via acquisition by financial pirates of the Mitt Romney persuasion.
These pitfalls are not unique to San Diego. Considering the state of the newspaper/media business, we’re lucky to have print journalism at all.
I’ve had a great time in my life as an editor and publisher of (mostly) outside the box media, giving me an appreciation of just how hard it is to do it right. And while the Union-Tribune is a far cry from what many of us would like it to be, it’s time to give them credit.
They’re trying to be a good newspaper. It hasn’t always been that way. Some days they succeed. Some days they don’t. But our lives in San Diego would be poorer without them.
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Email me at WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com