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Record Bee Boners

 

BEE BONERS #1

 

Tuesday, April 22

 

"A sobering tale" reads the headline describing the Personal Support Group's operations in Lake County, the first in a series of five hit pieces aimed at the largest private sector drug treatment service in the county. Armed with a total of one very weak customer complaint, The Record Bee's lead reporter Margaret Gan-Garrison milks a two-part story into a week-long one sided slam-job, which never once mentions the vast majority of PSG's clientele who successfully transit though the rehab process. The fact that PSG didn't have their licensing paperwork in order was common knowledge four months ago, but today it's a headline that has much less to it than a first glance would suggest. The story goes on to describe how thanks to the one whiner client medication distribution and counseling can no longer be conducted at the Cove resort, as if that's some kind of triumph instead of being the counterproductive and mindless nit-picking that it is.

 

Cynthia Parkhill does a story on child abuse awareness which centers on the professional child protectors working for Sutter Graveside, who are making a good living doing it. One of the career anti-abusers makes the odd statement that "We have children die of abuse every single year" (in Lake County), though she offers no evidence to back up the sweeping generalization.

 

Wednesday, April 23

 

Today's headline blares out the latest details of Dosha the wonderdog's recovery from her (his? Do I care?) vehicular, law enforcement and meat locker ordeals, though this isn't the end of the week's ink supply devoted to the hapless pet by a longshot. "A sobering tale " continues, with a hodge-podge of some of the details involving the one unhappy customer and his mommy in treating her depressed and drugged-out son without regular infusions of cash, apparently Mumsey isn't quite clear on the concept of paying for what you get.

 

Cynthia Parkhill and Margaret G-G seem to be having a contest to see who can take the worst front page photo: The contenders are Margaret's snap of a large female-shaped gelatinous blob pointing to the spot where Dosha the wonderdog collided with a truck, and Cynthia's shot of the bizarrely attired mother-and sad druggie-son combo, who don't appear to have half a wit between them.

 

Margaret G-G gives the only important story of the day, a huge water rate increase in Lucerne, a few brief lines that don't even begin to scratch the surface of the matter. Why the big increase? Dunno. What does it work out to in dollars-per-month for an average ratepayer? Dunno. Where is the out-of-county water company based? Dunno. Hey, it's just some old pensioners, it's not like they were important people like chamber of commerce members or something. Just another example of big business coming to Lake County to screw the residents under the cover of another branch of corporate America,

the Record-Bee.

 

Thursday, April 24th

 

How many pictures of Dosha the wonderdog do we need? Apparently two for today, along with more drivel that underscores how much more people care about their pets than their fellow human beings, as the dog is now an international cause celeb. Margaret G-G slogs through a load of boring and pointless details about PSG in today's hit piece, which includes some classic dumb-ass quotes from some of our consistently dumb-ass quotable county supervisors. Somehow Margaret manages not to mention how much money the supes wasted buying the Cove (1/2 mil), or how much was spent by the county on legal expenses (lots), in spite of interviewing county council Cameron Reeves.

 

Diana Griego Erwin's editorial on Iraq is typical of the hideous waste of paper and ink caused by her writing, which seems designed to give liberals a bad name. However, that ongoing gross misuse of the editorial page is more than offset by Stephan Clark's fine and funny piece on ersatz baseball fans, which is classic clever and smart-ass Stephan. To finish off the day Margaret G-G does a short story on the new animal control director, without bothering to mention she's the third one in a year, or why.

 

Friday, April 26th

 

"Questions, concerns from local community" reads the headline in Friday's one-sided journalistic assault on PSG, as Margaret G-G details the hysteria growing in the community of Anderson Springs over the planned move of PSG to an old summer camp there. The locals say the site isn't safe for reasons ranging from rattlesnakes to geothermal wells and power stations, though safety concerns were never voiced by them when the facility was being run as a children's camp. Can you say "NIMBY"? Margaret takes a pass on a Dosha update and gives us week-and-a-half old news about the county budget cutbacks in a piece so weak and vague you can kind of forget that the county workforce has been cut by over 7% (on paper, anyway), or that the worst by far is still yet to come. The Bee editorial staff does a half decent piece on Earthday, though don't seem to be too bothered by the eco-damage caused by their shopping guide disguised as a newspaper.

 

Saturday, April 26th

 

Dosha's back, but by now isn't everyone sick of the meandering pit bull and her white trash owner? More boring PSG data is offered up by Margaret G-G, who is fast becoming a master at listing plenty of meaningless info in a way that leaves you wondering why you bothered to read it by the time you're done with it. This is the final part of the five-day-long series, and Margaret manages to get through it all without ever mentioning the enormous deal of good that PSG has done over the years (And they call me unbalanced?). The water rate story finally gets some half-decent coverage, though another editorial column is wasted on religious mush-mouth George Plagenz. Whoever is responsible for putting Plagenz in the paper on a regular basis should seek counseling, or better yet, find another line of work.

 

Having mostly ads filling the paper all week long wasn't enough for the advertising department, who needed another special section to make room for all the freight-paying space they've sold, so they came up with a special "Spring" section to handle the overload. Generic wire stories fill the space the ads couldn't cover, which also help to dispel the impression that the section was totally content-free (it's only 98% content-free).

 

 

hellsbnd@pacific.net The Boo-Hoo Bees: Record-Bee hits rock bottom  
By Philip Murphy 3-8-03

 

Oh, the horrors of life in the real world! In the 3-8-03 Record-Bee we get a brief glimpse into the day-to-day struggle that the staff of our local corporate propaganda mill has to deal with, the poor dears! In an editorial shot at people deemed to be not-nice, the R-B editorial staff bemoans the perils attached to the awesome responsibility of being the font of truth and knowledge for our isolated little community. The editorial board comprised of Publisher Judi Pollace, editor Elizabeth Larson, reporter Cynthia Parkhill and all-purpose jellyfish Dave Stoneberg get together to set the ground rules for letter-to-the-editor related decorum. The Bee girls (I'm including Stoneberg until we have definitive proof), are unhappy one several fronts, and are particularly disdainful of the fact that there has been a sometimes emotional response to this country's decision to annex any nation that pisses us off and has something worth stealing.

 

Drawing Bee-girl flack are the pro-war people who have used the R-B's editorial page to accuse the peaceniks of being traitors or commies, whichever is worse. According to the Bee-girls, one of the right-wing ranters directed several hateful and derogatory remarks toward the managing editor, though the exact form the remarks took isn't made clear, and we're left to guess which one of the list of usual fascist suspects are responsible. Stories about Lakeport's little flag non-saluter have also been the source of some of the unhinged diatribes coming from the neo-conservative letter writers, while others have chosen poetry to display their absence of knowledge, wisdom and their frighteningly violent tendencies.

 

Also getting told to dial it back a notch or two are the anti-war types, who have been accused of the venal sin of "name calling". Strong words like "delusional" and "brainwashed" have been bandied about by the no-war people, causing nerves to fray among the B-girls, who think that there is an imaginary line that had been crossed when inflammatory verbiage of that kind was employed. Unlike the pro-war ghouls, the lefty's get specific words attached to their admonishments, so it's not too hard to figure out which letter writers are being targeted. Not surprisingly, this author is one of the culprits, who was also referred to as being un-American by one particularly clueless defender of the fourth Reich. So now we know that if we want to debate whether or not this nation should mortgage it's future in order to kill a whole bunch more people in a country where we've already murdered hundreds of thousands of innocents, we have to play nice.

 

But it's not just the war that has the B-girls panties twisted in a knot, it's the search for all-knowing, all-seeing type editorial staff talent, according to the help wanted ad in recent editions of the R-B. "Applicants should be community minded and involved, with an interest in raising the bar for news coverage in Lake County" the plea for assistance reads, a statement that must surely have dropped a jaw or two among the R-B readership. Help raise the bar? They need help figuring out they have a staff of reporters that consists of a gal who has stenography confused with news gathering, and another lass who can't come to grips with the fact that it's occasionally a reporters job to make certain deserving people feel embarrassed or uncomfortable? They can't understand that the drivel they spoon feed their readers that comes from sources like AP, UPI and Reuters reflects the view of reality through the eyes of rich white pinheads, and rarely even mentions an alternate point of view? A fine example of that is the recent AP story on the data coming from a captured Al-Qaeda suspect, a report which is quite thorough except that it fails to mention the basic fact that the guy was tortured by the Pakistanis, which makes most of his info suspect and puts us in the same human rights category as Saddam. They can't discern between Joseph Perkins and William Rusher leading the chickenhawk brigade and the only half-ass liberal they can dredge-up, Diana Gregio-Erwin? They've forgotten that some special people get a free pass when it comes to local news non-coverage of their chicanery, and that other people that should get an mention might as well be invisible? The fact that the publisher herself has shattered any pretense of being involved in honest journalism by running the Chamber of Commerce while pretending to be an objective and even handed reporter and disseminator of information regarding the activities of the members of that same group?

 

Yep, the Bee needs help, if it wants to get the bar up off the floor. In fact, to put it bluntly, the Bee needs balls. Managing editor Elizabeth Larson has them, but seems to be saving them for a later date, when their use might not endanger her employment status. Margaret Gan-Garrison would be genuinely effective with a pair, since she has the other basic skills needed to write the daily local blah-blah stories used to clog up the front page. Margaret's story about the new road tax featuring her one-sided report on

the debate of the issue was a pale shadow of the story on the same issue penned by the Observer's Dirk Damon in their 3-1-03 edition, who at least gave a hint of some of the other angles. Margaret has yet to fully grasp the difference between journalist and enabler, the latter being the current function she fulfills on behalf of the dopes and crooks running our local governments. Dear Cynthia Parkhill can't work up enough interest in the local schools to do any serious reporting in that much-needed area, so she's taken to reviewing books, as if there was a need for that kind of space-filler in a paper that can't manage to handle the essentials. When Cynthia does take a stab at tackling something relevant, the result is oftentimes so watered-down the story winds up being a distant cousin of actual events, like her non-coverage of the Konocti school district administrator reshuffling. Compare the Observer's Denise Rockenstein's 2-15-03 story on the turmoil at Konocti with Cynthia's lame report on the

same meeting and you'll think the two reporters were at different events, Parkhill should be ashamed of her whitewash job, which may have had something to do with her being palsey-walsey with one of the perpetrators.

Judi Pollace (AKA Cruelela De Ville), is rumored to be heading out to pasture in the not-to-distant future, which is the only genuine cause for optimism emanating from the Bee these days. Dave Stoneberg doubtlessly will continue to do whatever it is that the person who signs his paycheck says to, even if it means stifling any and all noble impulses. Chances are good that we'll be horrified at the selection of the new editorial staff advisory members, who are likely to be recruited from the chamber of commerce membership roles. Will the Bee continue to drag journalism in America further down the toilet? Probably, but we can always dream (at least until Ashcroft bans it).

 

hellsbnd@pacific.net
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It isn't often that the Record Bee management takes a position on a controversial subject, and it is even more uncommon when the opinion comes from the editor alone, instead of usual group effort. But in Thursday's edition Mark Bredt writes a piece about the importance of having Planed Parenthood back in operation in Lake County, and he ( and Supervisor Smith)deserve a lot of credit for putting the spotlight back on this much misunderstood subject. Mr. Bredt correctly points out the obvious cause and effect situation we have in Lake County, poor access to contraceptives translates into more unplanned pregnancies, which in turn creates poor performing schools, a full juvenile hall, more welfare, and plenty of work for cops, lawyers and judges.

As it stands now, the decision to give the citizens of Lake County the same level of reproductive health services as found in the rest of the state rests on the shoulders of newly elected supervisor Anthony Farrington, who has not yet made his intentions clear. Supervisors Lewis and Brown have come down hard on the "against" side, and supervisors Smith and(to a lesser degree), Robey are in the "for" column. With Mr. Farrington's close connection with those most in need of the services offered by Planed Parenthood (our youth), it would be hard to imagine him not being pragmatic about his decision, and doing the right thing for our children and community as a whole, by bringing Planed Parenthood back to a county so obviously in need of their help.

Philip Murphy
Lakeport 279-9836
hellsbnd@pacific.net

 Those of us who have been long-time readers of the Record-Bee remember the good old days of that paper, when the letters to the editor section not only had many more submissions, but also had letters that hadn't been completely sterilized by the editors/censors. Those days are now long gone by, due mainly to the fact that for the last three years Judi Pollace has been at the helm of Lakeport's sad excuse for a newspaper. Judi isn't like the rest of us, she doesn't have to struggle with ethical dilemmas since she has no discernable sense of ethics or journalistic standards.

How else can you explain how the supposed watch dog of or community has also served as the head of the Lakeport Chamber of Commerce at the same time as she was running the town's only newspaper? A decent, intelligent and honest person would have seen the elephant-sized conflict of interest, but not our Judi. Part of Judi's "straightening out" of the paper involved putting all kinds of limitations on the size and content of letters that would be printed, one of the most important of which was that you could no longer complain about a business that advertises in the R-B. A perfect example of the benefit of having a free pass came recently when employees of Sutter Lakeside Hospital wrote letters to the Record-Bee complaining about various not-nice practices of the management of that operation.

That type of negativity could not be tolerated since it not only broke the "don't bother our advertisers rule, but also because Miss conflict of interest (Judi) also served on the board of directors of the hospital. One thing you can count on with Judi is that she will always give the readers of the R-B a Chamber of Commerce approved version of reality, with no trace of the voices of the people who get the short end of the stick from the local aristocracy/business community. And when someone has the gall to challenge the local gang of taxpayer funded bandits/business people, they will likely get both barrels from Judi, like council woman DeRezendes recently found out when Pollace and her posse of wealthy friends recently went on the warpath over the Konocti Harbor banners.

Judi also knew that her buddies over at Outrageous Waters are being investigated for major violations of the building and tax code, but ignored that fact and ran pictures of Mike Thompson visiting the park on it's third anniversary instead of telling people about the dirty dealings of that outfits owners. Suffice to say that Judi is the most reliable and effective pimp that the chamber of commerce could hope for.

But Judi's reign of terror doesn't stop there, because if your political vision doesn't match hers, then your letter probably won't get printed either. Add to that the fact that Judi has run off of most of the competent people at the paper, and is depending more and more on off-the-wire stories to fill the space that hasn't been taken by ads, and you get less and less actual news. Judi believes that one of the R-B's main purposes is to train journalists, who supposedly upon becoming competent would move on to bigger challenges and paychecks at other papers. The fact that her newsroom is run by amateurs and chronic incompetents while subscribers and advertisers pay top dollar doesn't bother Judi at all, since as was earlier noted Mrs. Pollace is apparently totally conscience-free. That is also why she doesn't have a problem with her ace political reporter Jim Shock reporting on the BOS meetings or the doings of the county marketing program, which Jim's wife has been quite well paid to run in half-assed fashion at the behest of the BOS for twelve years now. No conscience, no problem!

Three things:
1, did you know that there was a riot at the jail today and the facility was locked down? The brawl began when a pod "C"convict named Baker took offense at a Sheriff's deputy referring to him as a "punk", and the upshot of all this is that eight prisoners were sent to the hole while the entire jail remains locked down as of 3:00 pm according to the inmate who managed to sneak off and call me in the midst of the confusion.

2. Need a lead story? The Lake County Free Press has reached the 10,000 hit mark, not bad for an operation run on half of a recycled shoestring.

3. Noticed that you ran an ad for another local internet news service, which makes me wonder why it is when I placed an ad in your publication the first two days that it ran it was useless due to YOUR typo, then after the typo was pointed out to you and I was assured that a correction would be made you pulled the ad with no explanation and no refund! Now I want either a really good explanation as to why you people feel free to take my money without rendering any service, or a refund (which you can apply as an extension to my subscription).

Have a wonderful week, Phil Murphy
hellsbnd@pacific.net  

The latest insight into the thought process of the Record-bee editorial staff came to us last Saturday, when the Lakeport city council got scolded for not giving Konocti Harbor Resort permission to hang their Summerfest banners from city owned light poles. The "pull quote" says "Don't for a minute believe the merchants of Lakeport don't benefit from the increased tourist trade, which shows exactly why the R-B brain trust has once again missed the key point in this debate.

The city of Lakeport is supposed to be run for the benefit of all it's citizens, not just for the business community. That means that no one business should get a special privilege that no other business or community group or private individual enjoys. The prime benefactor of the Summerfest events is Konocti Harbor Resort, which just like the Record-Bee is owned by out-of-the-area interests who take large sums of cash out of the county and give back a shoddy product and low-paying jobs in return. It is bad enough that the city doles out the taxpayers money to local businesses in the form of $10,000 a year for the Main Street Association and piles of TOT money to the Chamber of Commerce, not to mention special goodies for people like Kathy Fowler.

Obviously the R-B editorial staff thinks that the only way to stimulate economic growth is to give the wealthiest segment of the community more of our tax money to spend, and all us common folk have to do is stand here and wait for the money to trickle down from the hands of the ruling class. Besides, the banners are probably a pretty ineffective method of increasing the turnout for the Summerfest since everyone in the county has heard about it a thousand times on the radio,or read about it ad naseum in the R-B, and the tourists who see them are already here. The Record-Bee has a long standing tradition of whoring for a select group of well-heeled business interests, and the Konocti Harbor gets an enormous amount of free publicity from the Bee, including the "Lake County Live", section that is a regular feature who's main purpose is to promote the resort.

The Bee blames city council member Roy Parmentier for spearheading the opposition to the banner freebie, and also gave Bill Knoll and Shirleen DeRezendes a hard time for joining Roy on the side of reason. This is not the first time that the issue has come up, last year it was Shirleen De Rezendes who raised objections to the free promo. She quickly back-tracked when Greg Bennett said he would pull the plug on any of his support for city of Lakeport sponsored events. Bob Rumfeltl and Max Ruffcorn abstained from voting on the plan, claiming a conflict of interest, though that seldom stops either of them from voting on other potentially conflicting issues that come up.

The fact of the matter is that council members Parmentier, De Rezendes and Knoll should all be congratulated for standing up to the arrogance and selfishness of the Record-Bee and Konocti Harbor Resort.

Philip Murphy

The Record-Bee has gotten so bad lately that we have no choice except to bring the dreaded Bee Boners column back from retirement to give the R-B staff the guidance that they so desperately need.

Tuesday, June 13th

Not too much going on in the news today, Jim Hill repeats most of the information already known about the latest Lake County murder, Jim Shock writes a decent piece on the Forest Service's plan to close a few little used roads in the Mendocino Forest, and Cynthia Parkhill does an article on the "Race Unity Day" celebration that took place on Sunday that features some photos that were rather shabby compared to her usually competent lens work. And speaking of photo taking ability, news editor/reporter/photographer Maile Field has a front page photo of two girl softball players and their coaches that is outstanding, Maile has brought the best photo work to the R-B ever, and that includes Joe Mickey. Joe may be a good photographer in a technical sense, but his work is generally too "formula", and oftentimes came across as lifeless, unlike Maile's fresh,vibrant shots that have graced the pages of the R-B lately.

The day is rounded out with an unusually mediocre Dan Walters column on the state having trouble hiring competent workers, a typically lame piece on why Israel is good and Arabs are bad by Cal Thomas , and one of the worst things to ever wind up on the sports pages, a slobbery tribute to Steve Young by Brett Beherns that glorifies everything that this bumbling oaf has done to the point where you would expect that Steve was being put up as contender for sainthood.

Wednesday, June 14th

Jim Shock completely blows the front-page headline story on the tobacco settlement money fund and the supervisor's looting of the same(see our" Tobacco money: going going, gone!"story), Jim Hill goes into his usual mindless detail in his article on the court proceedings of another slam-dunk murder case (who cares?),and Jim Shock writes a decent story about the first glassy-winged sharpshooter eggs found in Lake County. It's "thumbs up" day,and the editorial staff does it's usual brown nosing and no-brainers bit, and we get a report (and some lousy photos) from Jim Hill on the chamber of commerce sponsored car show that took place over the weekend. No figures of the turnout of cars or people is mentioned, so we can assume that the numbers were down, and we can't have that kind of negativity in our little chamber of commerce run newspaper, now can we? To wrap things up for today we have a weather report that is off by about 10 degrees, not that anyone actually believes "Accuweather" anyway.

Thursday, June 15th

Jim Hill does another bit on the murder trial dejour, and Jim Shock finally remembers that there were a bunch of people at Tuesday's BOS meeting that were mightily pissed by the supes decision to hijack the tobacco settlement money to keep the Basin 2000 project afloat (for now) . Jim still misses much of that story, and we get both Cal Thomas and Donald Kaul (about freaking time!) on the editorial page. Cynthia Parkhill does a piece on the graduates of the ASPIRE program that features some truly abysmal photos, and another column in the sports section (this time by Dave Newhouse) goes into the full ga-ga mode over the departure of Steve Young from pro football.

Friday, June 16th

GAAAK! Day three of the details of the current murder case underway are related to us by Jim Hill, who loves to report on trials that are slam dunk jobs, but shys away from any cases that may be controversial, especially if they involve possible mis-doings by cops. The front page is graced by another great, imaginative photo of a couple of local ballplayers by Maile Field, and Cynthia Parkhill has a front page story all about the "Interfaith academy" , the latest attempt by the local godheads to keep their children free of the rampant multiculturalism and liberalism found in the public school system. Cynthia does a fine job of not asking any embarrassing or pertinent questions, like how much money will parents have to cough up each year to keep their offspring from turning into little pagans. You have to assume that they have that much figured out by now, since they have already been advertising on LCTV, though some of the people involved in this misadventure in alleged education have never been too big on details like how much does this outfit cost to run, or where will the money come from, or how many kids can they accommodate, or who will be teaching what, or having credentials teachers , you know, those kind of annoying little things.

The editorial page sports two good letters, one from a guy who wants more gun laws, and one from a local Indian who does an excellent job of pointing out the hypocrisy of the Native American community in general.

Saturday, June 17th

According to Jim Hill, you just can't get enough murder trial trivia, and Jim gives us yet another dose of meaningless data in today's edition. Jim Shock goes way over the top with his "Westshore pool could close" headline,in spite of the fact that he knows that no such thing is going to happen and he does his usual fine job of leaving any useful or relevant information out of the piece. (The Free Press is working on a story concerning this issue, keep an eye out for it) . The editorial page has a column done by the editorial staff that basically says " if an issue has any importance or meaning we will not take sides because that might be divisive, and that could make people mad, and then the mad people might call us on the phone or write us a letter, or even worse, they might come to see us at our office, and we don't get paid enough to handle that kind of stress, and besides, one of our advertisers might get mad and pull an ad". Joseph Perkins is also featured on the editorial page, and he writes a column about the importance of us having a star wars type system to protect us. The star wars program is basically a litmus test for idiots, if you are for it you pass the test and can proudly call yourself an idiot (go ahead, everyone else is probably calling you an idiot all ready. Another column lifted from a so-cal paper touts a ballot proposition we will see in the fall for vouchers for private schools ( read religious schools), which shouldn't be a surprise given the R-B's habit of promoting Christian school programs. The Bee pulls off one good deed for the week, it sponsored three free guided fishing trips for local dads who's kids wrote some pretty sad stories about why their dads deserved a freebie.

This weeks grade: F

Dear Ms. Parkhill,

Respectfully yours, Phil Murphy

Tuesday, January 18th

Tony Reeds front page story about the Martin Luther King celebration at the Catholic church in Lucerne says that " more than 200 people " were in attendance. Somehow this number swells to 275 to 300 in the caption accompanying the photos of the event, though the pictures show a crowd of about half that size. District 3 supervisor Gary Lewis gets his mug into two of the photos, and we should all be very impressed that he was able to work an appearance into his grueling 15 hour a week work schedule.

Cynthia Parkhill does a piece on the impending reorganization of the family support division, and reports that collections are up 20% over the numbers posted during the time that our D.A. Gary Luck was running that department.

Wednesday, January 19th

An anonymous story reports on the fatal crash of a police helicopter, and the story twice mentions that some of the funeral attendees arrived in "prowl cars", whatever those are. The story also forgets to mention that the pilot was under qualified to fly under the conditions encountered during the flight, and was without a doubt killed by his own very poor judgement.

Thursday, January 20th

Jim Hills front page story on the double murders in Kelseyville goes into long and dramatic detail describing how the victims died, but says nothing about possible motives for the shootings, like the possibility of it being gang related, or the fact that the antagonistic father of one of the victim's girlfriend owns a car that matches the description of the assailants car.

An anonymous article on the extension of Steve Hedstrom's contract with the county to prosecute two slam-dunk murder cases. No one is able to answer the question of how do you get experienced prosecutors on your staff if they don't get the opportunity to actually try cases.

The middle school voices section features a report from Oak Hill middle school where as usual, the first thing mentioned is the alleged positive influence of the school uniform policy. The truth is that school is a mess, with very low teacher morale and many recent defections among it's staff.

Friday, January 21st

A front page story on the economic impact of the wine industry does not once mention Lake County. Cynthia Parkhill does her third story on garbage this week. This one is actually worth reading , because in it solid waste manager Kim Clymire points out that the plan to require mandatory trash pick-up in Lakeport to increase recycling is a scam that will mainly benefit the garbage company.

Gary Lewis's image rebuilding campaign continues with his second front page photo of the week featuring our $45 dollar an hour supervisor's smiling mug, this time Gary is donating blood.

Randy Ridgel teams up with the ACLU to defend baseball player John Rocker's right to publicly display his homophobic-racist side, which should not be a surprise given Randy's past record.

Saturday, January22nd

The Bee's editorial staff does a piece on the idea of building a replacement for Pierce field, which makes you wonder where this pack of weasels have been ever since the crooks running the city of Clearlake stole the airport in the first place.

Darryl Watkins writes another one of his goofy letters with the usual creepy sexual overtones. Another letter of thanks is written by outgoing night news editor Aura SANDERSON, who is jumping ship for a better paying job at LCTV. Aura has privately ripped publisher Judy Pollace and editor Dave Stoneburg , but has always avidly defended her oftentimes indefensible staff who will all miss the skills and dedication that she brought to the job. I, for one, will miss messing with her mind in order to provoke the always amusing response generated by this column or our e-mail exchanges.

This edition displays no less than three ads for Steve Hedstrom's campaign, so it probably means that the paper will endorse him.

The Stars of Lake County event is detailed in a front page story and this years list of nominees features most of the usual suspects in Judy Pollace's annual power-trip charade

This weeks grade: D

The Record-Bee has done it again, open mouth insert foot, all the way to their hip. This sounds like another load they think they can shove down the public's throat. Pardon me, "Perennial Star of Lake County Judi Pollace" and "David Brown nose Stoneberg," probably the author of this pile of poop. Gee, the poor supervisors have to go to so many free dinners, catered fund-raisers, not to mention another wine auction. Please I'm stuffed, I mean I work so hard. These are qualified supervisors?

Dave, you say you're willing to pay qualified people a decent salary? What about Joe Mickey, all of us miss that minor part of photography called focus. I dare anyone to go down to the Record-Bee and apply for any of the reoccurring jobs available there. You'll find out how much truth that statement in the column of crap, otherwise labeled as Our Opinion from the Record Bee dated Saturday, Jan. 15, 2000 has. The person with the most experience would get a higher salary&emdash;bull. I know people who have had extensive experience and have worked there. One man worked the night shift, for which most employers pay more. I think he was called a press room assistant. This is not digging ditches folks. He could and did run their very expensive press for them and many other duties. Most newspapers have other employees for doing his other duties. He worked for them for four years and when he left he was making $6.50 an hour. This must be that professional salary that Judi and Dave brag about in their editorial. They give their employees a whopping 2% a year raise, about 12 cents a year or less, he had to work up to that $6.50! Gee if you worked for them for 20 years you might make 10 bucks an hour. Burger King in Rohnert Park pays 10 bucks an hour to start for flipping burgers, no experience required. Try this. Go down and tell Dave you want to take Aura Sanders job as news editor and see for yourself what the publisher and editor of the Lake County Record Bee call a professional salary. Do you want fries with that?

palindrome34@hotmail.com

Dear readers, I am sorry that I have not updated the Bee Boners section lately, but it has been hard for me to think much about matters outside of my own family recently. About two weeks ago I got a phone call from my sister telling me that my mother had been admitted to the hospital that afternoon but it was no big deal, as she would be able to come home in the morning. Thirty minutes later my sister called again and before she had finished her first word I knew that she had bad news. She tearfully told me that my mother had died, her heart had finally worn out and our lives were about to face some big and unpleasant changes.

My mother was without a doubt the finest human being I had ever met. She was the most thoughtful, compassionate, hard working, responsible person imaginable. Every decent action I make or thought that passes through my mind is probably the result of her being such a positive influence on me.

 She taught me that reading is a wonderful form of magic, and that nothing that man creates can rival the beauty of nature. She taught me that it is EVERYONES duty to participate in this democracy of ours, and that one person can make a difference. More importantly than anything else she taught me that there is no more important a facet of one's character than kindness. yes, I know that I have some trouble remembering that.

 A great person has left us, and the world is not likely to see too many of her caliber anytime soon.

A front page photo of a cross on someone's front lawn is accompanied by only a scant bit of information in the caption, wouldn't it be nice to know who's yard this thing is planted on, whether or not this person or family is black or Jewish, and why did the land owner leave it up? Talk about missing a story that walks up and slaps you in the face.

Cynthia Parkhill writes about a meeting that was put on by the County Office of Education and the Business OutReach Team. A total of eight educators and local business people attended the meeting, where they tried to figure out what to do with our kids after the school system is done with them. Several ideas to improve the job-shadowing program were floated, but no one asked if the lack of qualified job applicants has anything to do with the shabby job the local schools do educating our children.

Last week I commented on the dramatic improvement in the quality of staff photographer Bob Minennas work, and held my breath waiting for him to make me wish that I hadn't. Well, maybe it wasn't a fluke, because this weeks crop of photos were properly focused, correctly exposed and well composed.

Wednesday, November 24th

Jim Hill does a respectable piece on the anti-hate meeting held in Clearlake. Notable no-shows at the event included the entire Clearlake city council, who should have rated a thumbs down in the thumbs up/down column that day.

Jim Shock writes a decent story on the ongoing saga of the Cove Resort/ rehab center.

Friday, November 26th

A couple of large page three photos proclaim the alleged success of erosion control measures taken by the managers of a local vineyard development site. What the Bee hasn't got the guts to show you is the wild flaunting of the law and common sense that isseen at many similar operations. One major source of erosion is a vineyard development on the very same hillside as the featured "model" vineyard in the photos. Since when is it journalism to celebrate the normal and ignore the blatant wrongdoing?

Cynthia Parkhill adds to the display of lackluster journalism skills and environmental awareness with her fluff piece on the county having the cleanest air in the state. Bob Reynolds, Lake County Air Quality Management District manager, (jeeze, what a mouthful) gets to spew out a string of ludicrous statements of the kind you would expect from an operation that does virtually nothing. Cynthia does her part by not asking any intelligent questions like how many times have you cited or warned violators of the burning regulations in the last year, or how much does the nearly nothing that this government agency does cost us a year? Maybe Cynthia could have asked what ( or who ), was making the bulk of the aerial contamination, or who was the biggest commercial polluter, or could have pointed out that our great air quality is primarily the result of a combination of geography, prevailing wind direction and low population density.

Saturday, November 27th

This week has been a short one for the Bee, (just four editions) but it was as bad as any that I can recall as far as slipshod reporting goes. Saturdays edition fills out the down slide with it's front page promo for the Stars Of Lake County Awards. This bit of silliness is primarily an ego-boosting program for all of the well heeled and well connected participants. The Bee uses more front page space to give us more details about the twelve college students who became candidates for the Darwin awards by killing themselves with their own bonfire. Last week a dozen Cubans drowned trying to sail to the United States, and in spite of their courage they didn't receive a F-16 fly over like the rich white kids did.

A page three story on the Skunk and Northwestern Pacific railroads ignores the fact that the NWPRR has given many dates for reopening that have all been wrong. The NWPRR is the most poorly managed publicly funded rail line in the nation, but the Bee's article gives no hint of that fact in this press release disguised as a news story.

This week's grade: F

After a several week long vacation, Bee Boners are back! Has anything changed since the Record Bee's unsolicited consultant last reported on Lake County's testament to mediocrity in journalism?

Amazingly enough, there is one thing in the R-B that has dramatically changed recently, and that is the photo work of the staff lens man Bob Minenna. I had given up any hope of Bob ever becoming an adequate photographer, But I'll be damned if his work this last week wasn't on par with ex-staff shutterbug Joe Mickey. For sports action shots Dave Fromer still has a significant edge, but if Bob ever gets the relationship between shutter speed and focus figured out he just might close that gap too.

So what did the R-B staff screw up last week?

Tuesday, November 16th

The R-B's political goto guy, Jim Shock, does his usual hash job on a story about the televising of our county's BOS meetings. The headline for the article is "Reaction sought for board on TV ", which would lead you to believe that the BOS really wants to hear what their constituents think about the televised meetings. What Mr. Shock doesn't tell you is that they have a phone number you can call to register your opinion, but you can only give them a yea or nay input.

You can't pass along comments like " Why don't you put the show on in the evenings on a regular schedule so that working people can see what's going on , or" How about putting the show on LCTV ", so that people like myself who live in an area that is not served by Mediacom could see the broadcasts. It would also help if the Yuba College students who handle the video camera work would do some major editing of the proceedings to spare us as much of the mind-numbing tedium as possible. That should leave about two to three hours of worthwhile programming a week ,I should think.

Wednesday, November 17th

Jim Shock screws up another big news story with his headline " Various county groups at odds with proposed placement of effluent swamps ", which is completely wrong. No effluent swamps are planned in the the areas the two groups are opposed to, it's wetland creation that is causing the fuss. One group is against the wetland proposed for the site that is being considered for the never- going -to -happen convention center. The other group at odds with the plan is the richie-riches at Paradise Cove who don't want to live across the street from an eight foot tall levee. That's two groups of " nimbys " and no effluent swamps, Jimbo.

The Bee's editorial staff gives a " thumbs-up " to the Public Service Department's curbside recycling program for getting an award from the state for it's very mediocre performance.

On the plus side, Terry Knight writes an article that is so informative that I felt if I ever got the urge to fill a small bird with lots of small pieces of poisonous metal, I just might be able to pull it off.

Thursday,November 18th

" BLM asked to save forest ", reads today's headline, but no one thinks to ask why the BOS (and Bill Merriman in particular) had to wait until this treasure (the Black Forest), was on the verge of destruction before they could figure out that it was worth saving. This property had been on the market for quite a while and will now undoubtedly cost more to save.

Friday, November 19th

Big Jim Shock does it again with his story about a petition drive to rescind the 40% pay raise that the supervisors gave themselves recently. Jim goes on to state that the pay rate went from $33,718 to $40,649. Swell math skills Jimbo.

Saturday, November 20th

" For the record", the Bee's in-house boo-boo fixing department catches Jim's screw-up on the pay raise story. Donald Kaul writes a great article on the incredibly stupid "millionaire" game shows plaguing prime time TV, and Bob Minenna finishes up the week with a very nice front page sunset shot.

It all goes downhill from there. The editorial staff slobbers over a couple of very undeserving politicos, Clearlake city administrator David Lane and representative Mike Thompson. Ironically enough, David Lane is mentioned in a front page story about the city of Clearlake losing it's court case over a major scam involving it's redevelopment department. David Lane was a major player in that fiasco and the wildly illegal diversion of TOT funds to the camber of commerce, an extremely corrupt and ineffective operation that is also regarded as a blessing by the Bee's brain trust.

Mike Thompson, (AKA" representative wine bribe"),is considered a blessing too, since he is an accomplished pork-barreler. Mike Thompson is a fine example of much of what is wrong with our political system today. He spends much more time milking fat cats for campaign contributions than dealing with ordinary constituents, and the fat cats always get their moneys worth when Mike has to vote on their special interest legislation. He is also a loyal partisan Democrat who has no trouble abandoning common sense or reason if the party bosses tell him to . In short, the guy is a phony and a sellout.

This weeks grade: D

About a week ago I wrote the seventh installment of the Bee Boners series, but after a lot of thought I have decided not to post it. There are several reasons that I have done this, one being the fact that it just wasn't very well written. Another reason that it did not go up was that almost all the complaints that I made about the Bee staff I had already made many times before. How many times is useful to say that Jim shock seems to be asleep at supervisors meetings, or that Cynthia Parkhill is a pretend reporter, or that Bob Minnena is missing the art chromosome? I will never be able to understand why the only consistent quality writing in the Bee comes out of the sports department, when Dave Fromer does a piece on the importance of keeping child molesters out of children's sports programs that is a better piece of journalism than any of the dreck that the news department has churned out this year, you have to wonder if the dullards in the news dept. even read the sports section. Terry Knight also did a story on weeds in our lake that showed that he too knew how to use basic writing techniques to tell the story in an informative, interesting and thorough manor.

But there is another reason that Bee Boners is taking a break, and that is because I have very little time to spend writing for this website and would like to cover more interesting subjects than the bumble Bees. I have declined several offers of money to help fund this website project, so I will never owe anyone a favor or have to meet a deadline, two luxuries that the record Bee staff will never have. I do this website thing because I love his country (in spite of it's many faults), and I realize that when the news media does not do its job that our nation is in peril.

Part of that problem got worse the other day when I found out that The Outlook had folded. I don't get down in the dumps very often, but I can tell you that my heart was in my boots when I saw that the racks were gone. I had already decided to quit the Outhouse out takes section because of two articles written by the Outlook's Miquel Lanagin. One of the stories was about a board of supervisors meeting that was absolutely riveting. The Bee's Jim Shock covered the same meeting, but you couldn't tell that from his half assed report on the event. I thought that Miquel had proved that he was able to be trusted to accurately tell the world what was going on in the city council and supervisors chambers, but just when I felt that my work was done, (or at least greatly diminished), it looks like the only thing standing between the forces of evil and the general populace is the Free Press. So what are we going to do? Well, we are going to do the same thing as the Bee, just a lot better (aim low I always say). Just don't expect too much out of this unpaid hack and the other malcontents that help around here, we all have to feed ourselves before we can save the world. By the way, thanks for reading this crap, we have had over 4000 hits on the website since we fired it up so we know that someone cares. Have a great weekend,

Philip Murphy

Tuesday, September 21st

Not much news today, but the editorial page is pure gold. Another great state politics story by Dan Walters and Cal Thomas begs Pat Buchanan to stay in the Rebumblcan party. But the really interesting thing is the letter written about the supervisor's pay raise by Ed Robey. Ed says that since Sonoma county supervisors get $62,000 a year, so our supes are a deal at $40,000. Ed cleverly forgets that Sonoma county's people get about $.15 per constituent, while Lake County's supervisors get about $.80 per resident. Ed also forgets to tell you that Sonoma's median family income is almost twice that of Lake County's inhabitants. In other words, Mr. Robey thinks that he should make three times as much money as the average full time Lake County worker for doing a part time job. The really sad part about this is that Ed is easily the best of the bunch, the other cowards didn't have the courage to defend their self-sanctioned looting of the public till. Based on any measure, (number of constituents, size of budget managed, or hours worked, our supervisors are overpaid, especially in view of the fact that this county is in a shambles.

Wednesday, September 22nd

Virtually no local news today, so the only really interesting stuff is on the editorial page where the Bee editorial staff gives a thumbs up to the board of supes for getting an award from the Forest service for frittering away $148,000 in grant money.

John Jacob writes a good editorial on how commercial development can be an economic burden, and how Gray Davis is selling out again.

Terry Knight is back on track again with his piece on the department of Fish and Game's shortsightedness and stupidity.

The Lifestyles section features yet another big-buck fundraiser for the local bluebloods.

Thursday, September 23rd

Jim Shock writes an article about weed control techniques being used in our lake. None of the story makes sense, with quotes and statistics in meaningless context.

Two more big rig accidents shut down major traffic routes in Lake County, an all too common occurrence.

Friday, September 24th

About the only item of interest is another small time pot growing bust, with the standard ridiculous figures of the hauls value coming from the Sheriff's department.

The right hand of God, ( Darryl Watkins ), writes a letter that proves that he is still unable to put two coherent sentences together.

Saturday, September #25

Jim Shock does a front page piece on the "Slash in", and goes into great detail about one airplane (the Seawind), and ignores the beautiful classic aircraft in attendance. Jim hypes the " state of the art" Seawind, unaware of the fact that the builders of this aircraft used their first customers as the flight test department, and that the performance figures, building instructions, and technical support is all bogus. This aircraft is regarded as a major scam in the experimental aircraft community.

The editorial staff cobbles up a lame column on weed control efforts in the lake that says nothing that has not already been said a hundred times.

This weeks grade: I'm getting soft- C+

Tuesday, September 14th

Cynthia Parkhill does another front page story on the "Harvest Moon" fundraiser for the Holy Family school. This event, like most hyped by the Bee, is for the local fat cats, with the participants spending about $250 apiece. Another annoying aspect of this shindig is the fact that they are selling a powerful drug that creates huge health and legal problems to subsidize their children's education. Of course, Mike Thompson couldn't resist the intoxicating mixture of money, wine, and drunks with checkbooks.

   The editorial pages choice of columnists is getting better, with Dan Walters stories on our totally corrupt state government turning up on a regular basis.

Wednesday, September 15th

  Another front page centered around an alcohol based fundraiser, this time for the Clearlake performing arts. Cynthia Parkhill finally does a real news story on a proposed road tax.

Sports editor Brian Sumpter shows some real talent with his nice shots of the wooden boat show participants.

  The staff reports that the supervisors have chosen their puppets for the new layer of bureaucracy that they have created in the county marketing board.

Thursday, September 16th

  Jim Shock does a truly bizarre front page story about an award the forest service gave the board for spending $148,000 on a few park benches and two signs. Of course, Jim doesn't ask which rat hole the bulk of the money disappeared down.

  Cynthia Parkhill writes a respectable piece on one of the bigger scams going on, the 50% mandatory waste reduction by 2000 plan. Lots of finger pointing in the local garbage business these days.

Friday, September 17

  The Bee staff reports that a big rig wreck spilled 34 yards of sulfur cake on Socrates mine road. They don't tell you what it is used for, or where it came from or where it is going to.

  Oddly enough, the letters section features a bit about the Clearlake Oaks water district and it's shortcomings that ran as an editorial in the Outlook two weeks ago.

Terry Knight complains that there are not enough deer around, but this morning I saw a very large and very dead buck on the side of highway 29. I frequently have to swerve to miss them on the way to work, and see them every day inside Lakeport's city limits.

Saturday, September 18th

   Jim Hill reports that a major assault case has been thrown out of court on a technicality, but is apparently is too timid, stupid, or incompetent to ask what that technicality might be, and who screwed up.

   Bob Minenna continues his visual torture with his front page photo of hot air balloons. If Dave Stoneberg doesn't pony up some cash to send the lad to Joe Mickey's photo class my eyeballs will soon start to form scar tissue.

This weeks grade: D+

Tuesday, September 7th

  The lead story of the day is the 39% pay hike the board of supervisors are trying to give themselves after using other counties too high salaries for cover. You can sense a slight hint of disapproval in Jim Shock's piece on the pay hike, but Jim misses a perfect opportunity to point out how little time these people actually spend doing supervisor work, how they all have other jobs, and how lush the benefit packages are.

  Jim Hill does a reasonably good article on the county fair, and lo and behold, photographer Bob Minenna gets a bunch of decent shots of the event for a change.

   Cynthia Parkhill gets the job of pimping, I mean promoting the fundraiser de' jour at Holy Cow Catholic school in her front page story. The article says that in the past funding shortfalls were made up for by the former local Bishop, who is currently embroiled in " legal troubles ", which is a nice way of saying that he is on his way to jail for being a crook. This school, which has a grand total of 45 students, gets a suspicious number of "news" stories written about it's mundane doings.

Wednesday, September 8th

  Jim Shock reports on Tuesdays supervisors meeting where the board gave themselves a big pay raise. That fact is no surprise, but what is amazing is that Jim barely mentions that the supes " discussed" turning on the video camera that sits in the middle of the supervisors chambers. Jim let the cowardly supes get away with putting off flipping the switch which would instantly put supervisors meetings on local cable channels. All the equipment is in place and there is nothing to stop the show except for the fact that the supervisors would much prefer that the average person not know what the supes are up to.

  There is an excellent Donald Kaul column, and a great letter on the convention center planned for the north shore, and also about the effectiveness of county economic development programs.

  Cynthia Parkhill does as good a job as is possible reporting on an uneventful first day of school. Cynthia also does a rambling, incoherent story on the Saratoga Springs resort, and forgets to tell you how to get there.

Thursday, September 9th

What can I say? The biggest local news story of the day is about a turkey vulture that fried itself on some power lines and started a small fire in the process. On the back page is still more free advertising for the " Harvest Moon" fundraiser. Judging from the lively looking bunch in the photo of last year's event, the primary goal of this function is to consume as much wine and your husband's money as is possible.

The Bee has a tradition of misidentifying flora and fauna, and todays front page photos of a trumpeter vine called a honeysuckle continues that proud legacy.

Friday, September 10th

The Bee acknowledges it's flower misidentification and the sad fact that more people complain about this kind of gaff than complain about the obvious reporting screw-ups concerning important news stories.

Mark Bredt reports that the Clearlake city council ratified the appointments of Bob Mingori, Jim Kennedy, Jeff Smith and Frank Cammarata to the city's transportation and roads advisory committee. This group should insure that very little gets done besides the creation of jobs and money for their friends.

The sports department puts out a very slick fall sports pullout section, and as usual is the only part of the paper that does a first class job.

Harold La Bonte writes up reviews of the summerfest rock bands in the Greg Bennett section. You didn't know that the paper had a Greg Bennett section? It's sometimes known as the "Lake County LIVE "section, where Harold as always writes favorable reviews for all the washed up, " B team" county fair circuit bands that where rounded up for the summerfest series.

Saturday, September 11th

Nice artwork graces the front page instead of the usual inane photos.

  Jim Shock does a piece on the county's crackdown on the Wig Wam trailer park in Nice. Jim is apparently unable to ask why it took two hundred violations over three years to get the DA to do something about this tweaker filled hellhole that has been a blight on Nice for decades.

  Reporter Cynthia Parkhill is chosen as employee of the month for getting picked on by Internet meanies. Remember Cynthia, we split the twenty-five dollars 50/50.

This weeks grade: C- thanks to the sports dept.

Tuesday, August 31st

  An almost new Kelseyville, with the biggest news reports featuring the celebrity golf tournament, including the standard underexposed and poorly composed photos of Bob Minenna.

  Cal Thomas has another brief encounter with reality when he points out how gambling interests have corrupted our political system, and Dan Walters does a great story on how Gray Davis is using and abusing his power. On the amateur side of the editorial page we find two crackpot letters, one from a senile crybaby cigarette smoker, and one from local godhead whack job Darrell Watkins.

Wednesday, September 1st

  Featured in the sports section are more of Bob Minenna's photos of the celebrity golf tournament, with the all important captions, so you can tell which blob is which. Bob makes up for it by getting dramatic photos of a white trash encampment that was threatened by a small brush fire that Bob happened upon. Bob did a better job of extinguishing the fire than photographing it, which his neighbors would probably say is a good trade off. Bobs not done yet though, because the photographer/ fireman stud's next assignment is to drag Voris Brumfield and Jim and Wilda Shock up mount Konocti. The usual dreary photos accompany the write -up, though one of the photos is pretty funny. The humorous photo is the one of Voris Brumfield at rest with a " I'm tired, my feet hurt, and I sure as hell don't want my picture taken " look on her face.

  Even stranger than the motley crew of hikers is the fact that Jim Shock writes an interesting and informative narrative of the trip. Who says that Jim is brain damaged from attending too many board of supes meetings?

  The gutsy Bee editorial staff gives a thumbs down to a self -confessed serial rapist - murderer, how bold!

  Usually Terry Knight, ( AKA "the Outdoors man" ) is the most level headed and articulate spokesman that the "we kill for fun "crowd could possibly hope for, but today Terry goes all the way off the deep end when he says that logging in our national forests is at an all time low, and that pristine forests support very little wildlife. BULLSHIT! And shame on you Terry, Clinton and the lumber thieves are raping the forests faster than ever, and just because someone doesn't want to shoot a particular animal and eat it or put it up on the wall, it doesn't mean that it doesn't count as wildlife. I haven't noticed any shortage of dead deer on the side of highway 29, and I wish that deer hunters would understand that nature should not be altered for the sake of giving them more targets.

Thursday, September 2nd

  Cynthia Parkhill, queen of the slowpitch marshmallow, does her typically dippy bit on the first day of school. Cynthia gets a couple of great quotes from upper lake superintendent Lyle Graf who proclaims that " If kids come to school they will do much better than if they don't", and " Our kids are the cutest in all the land ". Do they get great drugs in upper Lake or what?

  Peter King writes a funny story on wagon train rivalries, and we get another dumbass letter from someone defending Kelseyvilles Indian logo.

 Another episode of "Hank the cow mutt " rounds out this days newsless paper.

Friday, September 3rd

 Another slow local news day, with a lot of AP stories for filler. The highlight of this issue is a page two photo of a car salesman and a cop who look like they are having a contest to see who can appear to be more constipated.

 Another good Dan Walters piece on why our state political system is so dysfunctional. The editorial page seems to be improving somewhat.

Saturday, September 4th

  Jim Hill plays the straight man for the Lake County Marijuana Price Support Unit, I mean suppression unit, when they use "cop math" to suggest that the marijuana that they found was worth 8 million dollars. Using the same calculations, every fortieth person in Upper Lake would be a multimillionaire, and Middletown would have a Ferrari AND Rolls Royce dealership.

 The editorial page takes a sharp downturn when the Bee's team of editorial wizards makes a foray into the world of education. The pointy headed gang is all excited about the uniforms that Oak Hill students are being coerced to wear. Team clueless overlooks the facts that making kids wear uniforms is #1 clearly unconstitutional #2 A perfect example of the misplaced priorities of many school administrators. #3 it's an insult to any thinking person who values their own identity and individuality. #4 a huge waste of money that will probably be declared illegal,since word is that Konocti unified parents are going to sue the district for discriminating against the children who refused to leave their rights and dignity at the schoolhouse door. The same thing happened at Kelseyville primary, where principal Helen Frost decided to give candy to all the kids who wore uniforms, which cased kids to cry and adults to yell. The Bee dunce squad forgets to tell you about the other Lake County school uniform program which is a complete failure and exists only on paper.

This weeks grade: D+

Tuesday,August 24th

The Bee finally remembers to inform us that Marc Nelson had died eight days ago, but does not mention that he was a well liked local family man who will be greatly missed in the community. The Bee also gives short shrift to aircraft crash victim Paul Lowen, who's Lake Aero Styling and Repair is world famous in the aviation community and has brought Lake County much favorable exposure. A bad news day filled with car wrecks, arrests for drunkenness and a drowning. Wednesday,August 25th Summerfest hyping blitz has begun. The Bee gives a thumbs up to Lake County student's sub -par performance on state tests instead of pointing out the fact that our local schools are a disgrace and a huge obstacle to improving the economic and social health of the county. Jim Hill writes a lifestyle section piece with lots and lots of guy talk in an attempt to solidify his guy credentials. Dan Walters column should be required reading for all Californians, especially those who voted for Gray Davis.

Thursday,August 26th

The front page is dominated by a goofy promo for a goofy fundraiser written in goofy, incomprehensible fashion by the always goofy Cynthia Parkhill. This issue contains no less than four photos of Bee publisher Judi Pollace, who is not likely to be the first Bee employee that leaps to mind when thinking about swimsuits. Judi is having her usual struggle understanding the difference between publisher and pimp, the latter being the role she plays for her chamber of commerce and high roller type friends. The concept, participants and coverage of this ridiculous scheme are all equally lame. Next up is another story so badly written that no one would claim it as their own, so it's probably Dave Stoneburg's work. This piece deals with yet another pipedream golf course plan, and omits any useful information like how much will it cost to build, who is paying for it, when will it be done, what will it look like, etc., etc. A phone call to certain county community development types might give some idea of how likely this plan is to actually happen, but that would require basic reporting skills. Jim Shock reduces this weeks board of supes meeting to dry, boring drivel that keeps readers from being informed or interested. Jim could have pointed out that our deputy Sheriffs are now getting between $34,138 and $39,520 a year plus benefits, which is more than the starting pay for any Lake County teacher. Jim could also have pointed out that farm labor is a far more dangerous occupation which pays about a third of what Sheriffs deputies make and usually has no benefits. Jim also skips over the bit about the Merrit road reconstruction project, which is a scam by Parnum paving to get paid to repair the road that their trucks have destroyed and will destroy again as soon as they are done fixing it.

Friday, August 27th

  The front page is in its typical form,which is basically a promotional tool for local businesses with only one local news story wedged in. One whole page is devoted to kissing Greg Bennet's ass, and even the board of supes gets into the act. Forgotten in the fluff are the facts that most of the jobs that Konocti Harbor generates are not that great, and that most of the money generated by that outfit goes to out of county investors. No one has the guts to point out that besides Steve Winwood and a couple of country music acts, this years shows have been pretty forgettable. Not one first rate rock /alternative band has played there this year. Bee photographer Bob Minenna captures the elusive Konocti Harbor sign in all of its inanimate, uncentered glory. Jim Shock reports on the contract negotiations between the Lake County Employees Union and the county. Quote of the day comes from union boss Chuck Smith who says that even though most union members will get a raise, "for some it will be a bitter pill". Those not getting a raise are the people who are demonstrably overpaid already, and if Mr. Smith wants to find out what a bitter pill really tastes like he should try working in the local private sector where there is typically no union support, no benefits or job security, and positive results are demanded on a regular basis. Recent pay raises for deputy Sheriffs and other county workers have been dealt with now so that the supes can slide their own obscene 38% pay increase through with a minimum of whining from labor groups. The scenario will probably play out like this: First there will be a compromise increase of about 25% floated, with Robey and Merriman voting no because they are both up for election next year, and Macky, Lewis and Smith voting yes because they are not up for reelection. Page three has a story about a woman who has made a career out of turning her families tragedies into profits. It's hard to say who is more pathetic, the people who feel the need to add more unpleasantness to their lives, or the woman who shamelessly exploits her family's misfortunes for personal gain. Mark Bredt writes a fairly good article on the response to the grand jury's suggestion that the Redbud Health District be dissolved.

Saturday, August 28th

Bob Minenna has another bad day, god only knows how much film was wasted to get the lousy photos of the celebrity Quarterbacks. And while we are on the subject of photography, lets not forget the story on ex-Bee photographer Joe Mickey who gets some free hyping for the Mendicino college photo class he is going to teach. The idea of the embarrassingly illiterate Joe teaching a college course is about as funny as Joe claiming that he is a journalist, which he has in recent letters to another local paper. For the fifth day in a row the front page is primarily devoted to hyping local businesses and features almost no local news stories. Cal Thomas shows us again what a narrow-minded simpleton he is with his one sided piece on school vouchers.

This weeks grade: D-

Submitted by Philip Murphy 8/23/99

Week number one

   Tuesday: August 17th- A front page article about senior citizens paying too much for prescription drugs is typical of the confusing, contradictory information that the Bee churns out on a regular basis. Based on a survey done by Mike Thompson's office, Lake County prescription drug buyers pay an additional $58.64 to$109.52 per prescription for the five drugs most commonly used by seniors. They do not say what baseline they are using for reference and forget that everybody, not just seniors are paying too much. They also do not tell you if that cost difference is yearly, monthly or on a per refill basis.

Mike Thompson claims that local pharmacies are not gouging their customers and that it is the manufactures who are ripping us off. So what is Mike's answer for this problem?Higher subsidies for drug buying seniors, which means that the rest of us, ( including myself) who need daily prescription medications will continue to be robbed. This article stank so bad that no one would claim it as their own, a common practice in the Bee.

Another front page story is Jim Shock's typical jumble of vaguely connected information on the 1999-2000 county budget. If size equals importance, then the Miss Lake County pageant must be about five times more important since the pageant got about five times as much coverage as the $104 million county budget. The editorial page featured a very rare intelligent Cal Thomas article and the always good Donald Kaul.

  Sports writer Brian Sumpter rips the Giant's pitching staff without mentioning Rob Nen. Sorry, Brian, I couldn't help it.

  Wednesday, August 18th- An article says a study of the Middle Creek wetlands will cost a million dollars, but of course nobody asks why it will cost us a million dollars to confirm the bloody obvious, because it is not local money paying for it, unless you pay state or federal income tax or state sales tax.

The Bee then breaks its own rule in the letters section where the "you can't complain about a business " because the bad guys are not locals and do not advertise in the Bee, so no advertising revenue was at risk. Mark Nelson, who's motorcycle accident was the lead story on Tuesday, had died Monday night but nobody could be troubled to report that fact. They also forgot to mention that Virginia Strom-Martin had introduced legislation to legalize commercial hemp production, a potentially important crop for Lake County.

  Thursday, August 19th- The Bee finally prints state school testing results after the Free Press article on the subject reminds them to. The article is penned by Cynthia-can't ask a follow up question -Parkhill, who lets Lake county assistant superintendent Chris Thomas get away with claiming that "Lake Counties test scores are in alignment with state scores", which is a blatant lie. Lake county schools were sub par in 26 of 43 areas tested, and the states averages are nothing to brag about either.

Cal Thomas is back in his usual pinheaded form, and there are two good letters championing differing viewpoints on the Kelseyville Indian logo debate. As usual, the Bee devotes more space to the godawful "Hank the cowdog" than any news story, and gives no breakdown on individual school districts performance like the Outlook did.

   Tuesday, August 20th- For once the Bee staff cobbles up a reasonably good article on this years pear harvest, and Dan Walters piece on wasteful state agencies is right on the mark. Jim Shock's story on the Lake Sands motel is unusually lucid for a change.

   Saturday, August 21st - Cynthia Parkhill goes back to lobbing softballs to county bureaucrats with her piece on the family support division. As is so often the case, she lets the bumblers spew unchallenged bafflegarb in spite of the fact that this department was one of the worst in the state when last measured. There are many locals who could give great examples of why this department has a reputation for incompetence and inefficiency, but then Gary Luck might get upset. Jim Hill reports on the 2nd local plane crash this week in a way that shows that he does not understand what makes an airplane fly or crash. Bob Minnenas page 9 photo of Konocti Harbor's sign underscores the difficulty of photographing inanimate stationary objects.

This weeks grade: D+

August 21, 1999

   Has anyone else noticed how the classified section of the Record-Bee is very often dominated by ads to replace workers there? Maybe this constant turnover of employees is why the paper lacks in-depth reporting and has biased coverage of issues like overtime pay. The constant turnover of photographers, reporters, receptionists, sales people, and the workers in the press and mailrooms shows a lack of respect for their employees, most of whom would take another job for 15 cents more an hour. Fifteen cents an hour would probably take most of these employees years to achieve at the Record-Bee.

   This is all too common in Lake County. Steve Buchholz, our local Chief Probation Officer, said, "this is reality" speaking about minors working 10 hour days in a pear shed for minimum wage. How true that is, a job with no future, seasonal at best. A career, I don't think so. He also said that if they weren't working there they would probably be on his probation roles.

   Give responsible people of all ages some credit Steve. We can't all have jobs in the fastest growing industry in America, the prison industry. From your point of view we are nothing more than a society of suspects.  

Submitted by Philip Murphy 8/17/99

   How is it that something as important as the local school districts rankings in this years statewide testing would not rate some coverage in the Record Bee? Maybe they were under pressure from local politicos who did not want the voters reminded of Lake Counties chronic underachieving. Or it could be just another case of the record Bee missing the obvious, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between incompetence and deceit. That story deserves statements from all Lake County superintendents and comparisons to last years figures including charts.

   That is obviously not as important as say, devoting almost two full pages to the Miss Lake County contestants story. Actually, having Cynthia Parkhill do fluff pieces is a good idea, since she has absolutely no ability to report "hard" news stories. The paper that did report the test scores was the Outlook, who's Migual Lanigan did a rather mediocre job of putting the numbers in perspective.

     For the people unfamiliar with the Outlook, it is a spastic weekly collection of occasionally good reporting and amateurish clutter, with lots of blurry photos. Sometimes the Outlook reports on news stories so much better than the Record Bee that it is amazing that the Bee does not try to learn from the obvious disparity. A good example of this is the Outlooks coverage of the meetings of the Lakeport city council and the county board of supervisors, which is much more detailed and accurate than the boring, confused garbage penned by the Record Bee's Jim Shock.

       On the other hand, the Outlook has it's share of awful writers and Frank Taylors butt kissing of local politicos like Mike Thompson and Rob Brown is getting out of hand. The latest example of this is in the 8/11 issue of the Outlook where Frank gushes over superviseral candidate( and school board member) Rob Brown and then lets Rob make unchallenged remarks like "Kelseyville has the highest test scores in the county". According to the test scores published in the 8/4 issue of the Outlook, Kelseyville aced their local competition in language and math skills in the second grade only,and in the all important 11th grade (the last year that they test),

   Kelseyville could not even match the states very mediocre averages. Actually, it is suprising that Rob even mentioned his work on the board considering that the KUSD is in a state of disarray, thanks in part to Rob's lack of management skills.

      So how do we get the local papers to do some legitimate journalism? Well, starting next week, we will have two weekly columns titled Bee's boners and Outhouse out takes to chronicle the shortcomings of the Record Bee and Outlook. Maybe a little public humiliation (or credit , if deserved), will make them better newspapers, hopefully.

July 23, 1999
Record Bee Goes AWOL
An Editorial by Philip Murphy


As usual, the record Bee has provided us with plenty of fresh examples of how their news department is manipulated by their editor and publisher to fit the needs of the advertisers.

First there is the letters to the editor column, where you can write a letter bashing Kragens auto parts, (who do not yet advertise in the record Bee) but you cannot complain about the local auto parts stores that do advertise in the RB.

Then you have the selective memory syndrome with stories involving local businesses, like with Lake Community Bank. For the customers and employees it has been a bumpy ride since June 19th, when what was supposed to be a one-day minor inconvenience has turned into a five week long computer generated nightmare. The problem was caused by the mating of their computer system with the systems of the two banks that Lake Community Bank merged with a few months ago. Ironically enough, the Record Bee reported at the time that the merger would result in improved technology instead of ATMs that do not work or give out wildly inaccurate information, which is what actually happened. So did the Record Bee tell their readers about a local current news story that directly impacted many of their readers? Of course not, but they were able to find the time and space to report in their Wednesday 21st edition that Lake Community Bank and their new partners had posted a 31 percent increase in earnings over last years numbers.

Next on the list is assembly bill 60, which was signed into law this week, and restored overtime pay to millions of Californian workers including the underpaid hourly wage earners at the Record Bee. The salaried editorial staff wrote a mean-spirited and wildly inaccurate editorial opposing the bill. So what? Well, editor Dave Stoneberg received letters from State Senator Wes Chesbro and State Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin that objected to the paper's viewpoint and the inaccuracies of the editorial. Where are the letters? In the garbage with all the news stories and letters that make the Record Bee and it's advertisers look bad.

Then there was the Monday night city council meeting where the fate of Kathy Fowler's incentive package for her new dealership was decided. The Record Bee reported that the city handed Kathy the goody bag, but did not mention that about five minutes before they were going to vote, planning commissioner Richard Knoll announced that there was a new part in the plan that would likely refund $50,000 or more in city sales tax back to Kathy.
Detail, details.

Actually, the real story that night was how different people get different treatment from the council. Karen Mackey got the fast-track for her Main Street Auxiliary Chambers of Commerce Program and Kathy Fowler got her goodies with no debate or discussion by the council. So what happens when a regular guy like the owner of A-1 body shop shows up with a city induced problem? He is told that his problem is going to have to wait until next month to decide.

The shop was installing a new spray booth valued at $32,000 which the city was claiming was an improvement to the building, even thought they knew the county wax taxing the booth as personal property, not real estate. The problem was that if you did more than $20,000 in improvements you have to pay for curb, sidewalk, and storm drain type improvements if they have not already been done. But the shop is located on Grace lane, which is a narrow, one lane road where it would be impossible to make the required improvements.

The council could have told the owner not to worry about it until they had a chance to revise the code, or they could have said that the rule would only apply if the property changed hands and the booth remained, but the council does have their priorities, and unless you are like Kathy Fowler who has Karen Mackey running interference for you, it's a crapshoot.

Philip Murphy
hellsbnd@pacific.net
 

RECORD BEE- THREAT OR MENACE? 7/10/99

" For all the news of your community turn to the Record Bee " reads the banner at the top of the page in a recent edition of the Record Bee. That is a lie. The Record-Bee frequently ignores news events that would cast certain entities and persons in an unfavorable light. Legitimate journalists realize that they must maintain a degree of separation between the business community and the media so the media can fulfill its obligation to report on commerce related news events in a thorough and objective manners

That simple principal was officially laid to rest recently when Record-Bee publisher Judi Pollace was chosen as president of the Lakeport chamber of commerce. Any pretense of professional journalism disappeared with that move which secured the Record Bee's position as the unrivaled deaf dumb and blind cheerleader of local commerce.

Often times when the national or state level media reports on an issue you have several sources of information on a story, but for Lake County news your sources are much more limited. That means that is even more important that our local media not become shills for the local fat cats, like the Record Bee, Observer, and Outlook have become.

A recent example of how the " right people " control the content of the RB was the June 20th battle of the car shows in Lakeport. In spite of the fact that the Volkswagen club has had its show on the same weekend for years, the chamber of commerce insisted that their " red hot and rolling " show be held the same day. The Volkswagen show had about forty contestants and at least forty more non-judged cars in attendance, for a total of about sixty cars that came from out of the county.

In contrast, the "red hot and rolling " show had about ninety-five cars in the judging with about half of the cars coming from out of the county. In other words, it is quite possible that the Volkswagen show brought as much cash, humanity and good PR to Lake County as the " red hot and rolling " did.

So how did the news coverage compare? Red hot and rolling got two photos and half of a full page of Record Bee coverage including full judging results. The VW show? One small photo of possibly the ugliest car at the show was all to be found, in spite of the fact that several of the cars in attendance had been recently featured in major international publications. Coincidence? Not likely.

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