Monday, August 14th, 2006...3:18 pm
Clue on Santa Barbara News-Press
Doc and the Santa Barbarians are still trying to understand why Wendy McGaw, owner and publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press has acted the way she has over the past few months. [For those of you out of the loop, go Google Santa Barbara News-Press to get the picture.]
From there I sit: Folks, it’s all a simple matter of control. Wendy McCaw shows by her actions that the paper and the radio station are her "property" and she can so as she wishes. It is something I’ve seen in people of means do for years. It’s the I own it, so I can do as I want, Theory of Management. McCaw has no background in publishing or broadcasting– and even journalism. Despite the personal spin PR McCaw created in buying the paper, with all the personal involvement in this or that local cause, it’s all total crap. It is about control: the type of control that crosses the lines of traditional journalism ethics, keeps the paper off open searches on the web, like Google News, and the radio station offline, because she wants to be paid for everything she owns. It has nothing to do about the greater good to the Santa Barbara community. By exercising this control McCaw keeps the paper’s behavior directly away from a larger or expanded audience. Or so she thinks.
In reality Wendy McCaw’s missed the boat. No matter what she and Dr. Laura Shlesinger think about blogging, such as "… as though every errant thought should be embraced by the outside world as having greater significance than the burp it really is." They are wrong. Sorry girls. Blogging gives us the ability to openly ask questions, question a behavior or process, consider new things and ideas, and move forward. It is not just for our personal gratification. It is to share, learn and change things, hopefully for the better. Much like Dr. Laura’s radio show tries to do. Only difference– we are in control not you.
So Doc, unless they are paying clients. Don’t waste your breath.
Tags: Doc and the Santa Barbarians, Santa Barbara News-Press, Wendy McCaw, Dr. Laura Shlesinger, control
