Is The East County Californian, the local weekly (and formerly daily) newspaper of record since 1892, trying to change its left-leaning tilt with the hiring of longtime local news hound Greg Eichelberger as editor?  One might have hoped.

The paper’s 12/27/07 “A year in review: 2007,” by Nick Pellegrino, noted as one of the year’s top stories the announcement by perennial-office-seeker Vickie Butcher that she would now seek the Democratic nomination for the 52nd Congressional District.  Good for her, making the list of the year’s most significant stories.

Yet, nowhere in the yearly recap was any mention of the similar announcements by Republicans Duncan D. Hunter, Brian Jones, Ken King or Bob Watkins.  It speaks loads that the declaration by one that has run unsuccessfully multiple times for city council is deemed more noteworthy than that of, say, Councilman Jones, or School Board Trustee Watkins, or even Hunter, son-of-the-current-congressman.  Apparently, from a news standpoint, such titles are of the chopped liver variety.

Maybe it’s not because the writer deemed none of those announcements newsworthy as much as he was only including in the News Roundup his opinion of the most important of the lot, or – dare it be said – maybe even only that of the candidate he hopes will win.

To be sure, the open 52nd seat will be filled this year by someone other than the senior Congressman Duncan Hunter…for the first time in 28 years.  That’s a pretty important event for East San Diego County, not unlike North County two years ago in the Duke Cunningham-vacated 50th congressional seat.  In the news business, fairness and thoroughness would dictate that nearly any announcement to run for the office is significant.

Okay, then taking off the rose-colored, unbiased glasses, maybe a good reporter also looks at some other gauges of newsworthiness, such as whether the candidates have had any prior election success.  Or, perhaps even whether any of the announced contenders are related to the current officeholder (can you imagine the media having ignored Mary Bono’s announced intention to go after Sonny’s seat?).  If not from a fairness standpoint, when measuring news value it might as a stretch even come into play which party’s nominee is likely to win in a heavy GOP district like this (whether the reporter likes it or not).

All that said, Eichelberger’s choice as the new Californian editor several weeks ago was a good one.  Greg has a track record of being a fair journalist and good reporter.  When I heard the news, I personally hoped that the paper’s moves in recent years towards representing very little of anything “East County,” either news-wise or editorially, could be at least somewhat revised under his leadership.  I hoped that its downward spiral toward irrelevancy could be turned around in a market where credible alternative newsprint sources are desperately needed (all due respect to the Union-Trib, but the more legitimate resources available, the healthier the news environment).

To be fair, in the same year-end edition, Eichelberger includes his own story about a local billboard honoring an El Cajon Marine, recognized with the Silver Star for bravery in Iraq.  Prior to Eichelberger, such a story in the Californian would have likely been ignored, yet anything about any anti-Bush or anti-Hunter protest anywhere in San Diego County would have been sought out and included.

So, now, I would ask the powers-that-be to let Mr. Eichelberger do more than simply copy edit the staff’s submissions and write his own content.  Let him lead.  Let him tutor the young reporters.  And, that means let him and the paper cover the news.  All the news.

Have a great week!

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.