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The Starting Line – 17,000 Readers Said “No More”: UT-San Diego Sunday Circulation Plunges (UPDATED)

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Since taking over ownership of San Diego’s daily newspaper last year Publisher Doug Manchester and CEO John Lynch have responded to criticisms that their style of far right advocacy might be alienating readers by claiming that readership was rising.

Sorry guys. The people don’t love your act. The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) numbers for the year ending this last September are in. Last years’ Sunday circulation beats this year’s Sunday circulation by 17,051 copies, including digital and ‘branded’ editions.

Sunday editions in the newspaper world are critical barometers. Sunday is the day that advertisers crave. Readers typically have more time to peruse the paper and copies of the paper are more likely to be shared. So losing readership on a Sunday is a big deal.   [Read more…]

Fighting the Bias of the ‘Voice of San Diego’

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by Larry Remer

 How would you feel if you were a baseball player in the World Series and you found out that the first base umpire was on the payroll of the other team?

That’s kind of how I feel about the Voice of San Diego’s coverage of Proposition Z.

I am running the Yes on Prop. Z campaign; and for months I’ve sparred with reporters and editors from ‘Voice of San Diego’ about the negative slant of their coverage. And they just parried back and defended what they’d written, as reporters usually do when campaigns and public agencies complain their stories.   [Read more…]

Women for Romney? (Plus: Official Republican Party Rape Advisory Chart)

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By Kit-Bacon Gressitt

“How can women possibly vote for Romney and Ryan?” She looked dismayed, my friend, and I understood how she felt.

How indeed, with the 2012 campaigns’ incessant flow of prejudicial comments spewing from white, male Republican mouths to splatter women with such idiotic statements:

As, abortion is never medically necessary to save a woman’s life and “Health of the mother has become a tool for abortions anytime, under any reason” (Rep. Joe Walsh, running for re-election); pregnancy that results from rape is a “gift from God” (Richard Mourdock, U.S. Senate candidate*); “forcible rape” is just “stock language” (Rep. Paul Ryan, vice presidential candidate); “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down” (Rep. Todd Akin, running for U.S. Senate);…   [Read more…]

The Starting Line –Three Halloween Stories About Politics That Should Send Chills Up Your Spine

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Politics takes a back seat today as the nation casts its eyes towards the East Coast and mid-west , which are under assault by Hurricane Sandy barreling from the southeast and an early winter storm coming in from the northwest. Here on the left coast life goes on and there are headlines to report.

The Giants won, the Chargers suck and there are too many political commercials on TV this week. That about covers it for today.

In the absence of any major breaking news, I’m putting out three stories that illustrate what a tangled web the media can spin when it comes to politics.   [Read more…]

Mitt Romney, Serene and Credible?

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After the last presidential debate the San Diego Union-Tribune waxed romantically about how serene Mitt Romney appeared to be and all I could think was:

What kind of HD do they have that can make a man who looked like he had chugged some unsweetened lemon juice, seem to be serene?

Wearing an expression on your face that’s like a cross between a smile and a grin – a “smin” perhaps – is not a picture of serenity. A bit too Cheshire Cat for me.

They followed that up by citing a poll that showed that 60 out of a 100 voters thought Romney had looked credible, aka pretty good, on national security and I wondered “Should these people be voting?”   [Read more…]

Hey Obama Democrats, Don’t Get Fooled Again: DeMaio and His Big Money Friends Are Out to Screw San Diego and Ruin California

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 “We have a conservative movement that has learned, over the decades, to mimic many of the characteristics of its enemies.”  ~ Thomas Frank

During the run-up to the June primary Carl DeMaio used a quote from one of my OB Rag columns in a mailer attacking Nathan Fletcher that implied the Rag’s support for his candidacy.  My response was a column, “Carl DeMaio is a Dangerous, Mean-Spirited Liar and Other Tales of Fear and Loathing in San Diego” where I observed:

As Frank Gormlie noted in an OB Rag piece last Saturday, Carl DeMaio used a pull quote from one of my OB Rag columns describing Nathan Fletcher as a “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” . . . What is not at all surprising here is that DeMaio uses my piece and the OB Rag logo out of context, without permission, implying our endorsement of him.  That kind of sleazy, unethical behavior is his raison d’etre.  .

  [Read more…]

We’ve Changed Our Minds about Prop 35, but NOT about Sex Trafficking

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Editor’s Note: During a meeting of the SDFP Editorial Board this afternoon, some of us expressed reservations regarding our stand, as a group, on a YES endorsement of Proposition 35. We agreed that we would do more research and report back. Below are the opinions of two of our members, whose views mirror my own and are expressed much more eloquently. ~ Editor du Jour, Patty Jones

SDFP Editorial Board Member Anna Daniels

Wading through the propositions on the ballot this year required both time and effort.  I have felt largely confident about the positions I had taken on issues and candidates, except for Prop 35, the anti-sex trafficking initiative.  Along with the other SDFP editors, I had cast my vote in favor of the initiative, although it was apparent that there could potentially be fall-out for individual lives and broader civil liberties that I definitely would not support.

Come inside for the details…   [Read more…]

The 2012 Elections: Vital Issues That Affect Latinos

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By Jimmy Franco Sr./LatinPOV.com

The growing Latino population within the country has now reached 50 million people of which 24 million are registered to vote. This population is predominantly located within the large urban areas and in the key political states of New York, California, Texas and Florida. This is a generally young population which works and pays taxes that benefit all of our society and will do so for many years to come.

It is this youthful sector within our society that will play a particularly important role in the country’s future by working and supporting the growing number of retired and elderly persons by paying taxes into Social Security, Medicare and other government programs which will bolster the country’s social safety net.   [Read more…]

Debunked: 6 Lies That Biotech and Big Food Are Telling Voters About Prop 37

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By Katherine Paul, Ronnie Cummins / AlterNet

Since Oct. 1, Monsanto and the rest of the Biotech and Big Food gang have been pounding the California airwaves with nearly $36 million worth of boldface lies and twisted truths.

Their goal? Misinform and confuse California voters into believing they’d be better off not knowing what pesticide-makers are hiding in their foods, than they would be if food manufacturers had to label genetically modified foods.

The ads are having an impact. After enjoying a 26-point lead for the past six months, the YES on 37 campaign has dropped 19 points in the polls.

But the YES team is fighting back, calling out the lies. And the liars.   [Read more…]

Romney’s Job Creation Plan That No One Is Talking About

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Mitt Romney has a jobs creation plan if he becomes President, alright. But no one, including Mitt Romney himself, is talking about it.

Remember the $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military? That $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military which the Pentagon doesn’t even want (but Defense contractors certainly do) translates into a huge jobs program.

What Romney is really advocating here is more government spending, but government spending of the right wing socialism (otherwise known as fascism) sort: a military buildup, exactly the kind of military buildup that got Hitler’s Germany and Roosevelt’s America out of the Great Depression.   [Read more…]

Desde la Logan: Día de los Muertos, We Commemorate Our Dead

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By Brent E. Beltrán

 Every year on November 1st and 2nd we remember our dead. Give them food and things they appreciated while they were alive. We build altars in our homes. We share stories. Remember loved ones, family and friends, heroes and historical figures. We go to gravesites and clean tombstones and markers. Leave cempasúchils (marigolds) and sugar skulls. Maybe a little tequila if they liked a drink in their day. For the children we leave toys and candy.

November 1 is Día de los Inocentes (Day of the Innocents) when deceased children are honored and November 2 is known as Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) where we pay tribute to adults who have passed away. These dates correspond with the Christian holidays of All Saints’ Day and All Soul’s Day. Though las días de los muertos were coopted by Christianity they are not Christian holidays or celebrations. Their history can be traced back thousands of years to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess Mictecacihuatl.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line— DeMaio Campaign Tactic Backfires, US Atty Under Investigation as Calls for Resignation Mount

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It all started with “a staff member” from Carl DeMaio’s mayoral campaign leaking an email from U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy, who was unhappy with Congressman Bob Filner for lashing out in response to attacks by the City Councilman, who had just re-stated his oft disproved claims about Filner’s pension.

This ‘leak’ was to be yet another salvo in a last ditch campaign to portray Filner as too unreasonable and hostile to be Mayor of San Diego. Instead, it’s blown up in his face. Questions about whether Duffy was in violation of the Hatch Act, which restricts the activities of government employees in partisan political campaigns, are now at the forefront of the controversy.

Now this action by the DeMaio campaign has led to calls for the U.S. Attorney to resign and a review of her actions by Justice Department officials   [Read more…]

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