Reporter Joe Nelson
Sun / Daily Bulletin
Monday, July 12, 2010 – 10:45 am
Last Updated: Monday, July 12, 2010 – 12:08 pm
One thing is obvious these days. Investigative reporting by local newspapers is long gone.
More and more local newspaper reporters are becoming increasingly pliable to ignoring facts when it suits them. A prime example today is a one-sided story in the Barstow Desert Dispatch related to action by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on the Nursery Products LLC – Hawes Composting Facility near Hinkley.
County supervisors are set to take action to adopt a staff recommendation to give final approval for the facility to start construction and operation.
Investigative stories on this site and at iepolitics.com highlight several irregularities and competing interests involved in opposing the High Desert operation.
Irregularities which have been ignored by news reporters.
Why wouldn’t a competitor throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars to influence an outcome of a business approval be newsworthy?
Our question exactly!
Nursery Products owner Jeff Meberg has been screaming over the whole environmental attack on his business. He appears to be correct that McCarthy Farms/Liberty Energy, his competitor, is behind this well-orchestrated scheme.
McCarthy Farms activist (not Hinkley) Norman Diaz says there won’t be a large presence at tomorrow’s board of supervisors meeting. Maybe it’s because no one really cares other than his employer.
But similar conduct sure is newsworthy as long as the conduct involves developers and alleged conspiracy theories.
It sounds like political intrigue is a requirement to engage the press.
Mostly this site and the aforementioned iepolitics.com blog focus on local media’s withholding of information in published stories, expecially when the information conflicts with the papers own political agenda.
The same can be said for not seeking out the truth in reporting.
For years I’ve heard reporters use excuses such as; the editor cut the material because he or she felt the story needed balance; there wasn’t enough column inches in the budget; it’s not a public concern; or the editor wants quadruple confirmation.
Yes, the Sun actually used that last one on me.
I’m not sure if the newspaper budgets is really the true excuse, or if it’s just plain laziness. Nevertheless, the public suffers.
Reporters often complain they are overtaxed on their story quotas. As a result of this, there is a tendency to regurgitate material from previous published stories, even if inaccurate or dated.
Last weekend, in a published op-ed column, Frank Pine, editor of The Sun/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin newspapers was lamenting how the public is getting its news from different sources other than print media.
Pine was trying to make the case that newsprint would never go away, even though the trend says otherwise.
I beg to differ. As younger more technological teens become adults the Internet will become what they know best.
It’s my belief that incomplete or skewed reporting leads people to seek their news elsewhere. The ever increasing popularity of blogs exemplifies these points.
Increasingly, blogs are routinely being referenced in mainstream network news stories.
Of no surprise, InlandPolitics.com and iePolitics.com combined, usually receive more than 100,000 hits per weekday.
Just something to consider.
Pine is about as smart as a 2 X 4.
That is why I read The Sentinel!!!!
The charges against Norm are your typical half baked Ad Hominem attack. You have no proof that he is being paid by McCarthy farms, you know nothing of the man, and you know nothing about his families long history in the area.
If you want a fight on sludge why not a fight on Nursery Products’ history, a fight on the science behind sewage sludge, or a fight on the weaknesses in the 503 regulations. We will welcome that fight
We are a grassroots organization that is concerned about Nursery Products well documented history as a bad actor and the increasing tide of proof that composting sewage sludge is bad practice and detrimental to the environment.
When it comes to Norm you are guilty of your own accusation. Meberg (you Mispelled his name by the way)makes baseless accusations and you report them as the truth.
Exactly what is a bad actor?
You know I think Burum must be involved here. Since he allegedly runs everything.
Might as well be….
I like to call it the ‘copy, cut and paste media’.
Besides, nobody can really make a living working for any of the so-called local newspapers.
Nursery Products is a non-story (what better place to put something like this) but the Sun would still miss the story unless it stood up and walked into the editorial room. Besides, most of our electorate is not into reading about corruption or politics as is evidenced but the June election results.
You can’t win with people such as Steve Smith, if you say it’s white he say’s it’s black, and he’ll say it until the day he dies, no matter how much scientific evidence you put in front of him. Joe Nelson is correct, Norm and the other HelpHinkley cronies, are only interested in satisfying their employer, McCarthy Farms. Being an 11 year veteran to the composting industry, I can tell you that their arguments are not valid, and are enormously far fetched.
I get extremely irritated by stupid arguments such as, I just don’t want it. This site is miles away from anywhere, and the only way people will know it exists is if they take a drive and go look for it!
Steve, prove to us all following this story that you guys are not guilty of what you have been accused of. Open your books, your doors and if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.