1 week Ago By Mike Wolcott
Dear Gov. Newsom,Was it something I said?Last time, I mean: the last time I wrote about how you came to our area with your hand-picked media, but kept our local reporters stifled during your visit.As I recall, after you visited the Camp Fire burn scar with a Sacramento Bee pool reporter in 2019 — but denied our efforts to come along — your top communications official actually called me at home at 9:30 on a Sunday night to apologize.
Profusely, and sincerely.“It’ll never happen again,” he promised, or words to that affect, after reading our editorial.Except it has happened again.
In fact, if my count is correct, it has happened again, and again, and again.And now again.This most recent example of you swooping into the Great North State with out-of-town reporters of your choosing may have been the most exasperating to date.
First, your office never bothered to tell us (or Action News Now, our outstanding local TV outlet) you were coming. The good folks at Chico State, figuring the presence of our state’s highest elected official at our own University Farm on Earth Day was newsworthy, let us know.So both newsrooms rearranged schedules, cancelled plans to cover other things and sent journalists to the farm — only to be told by your staff that we were not allowed to go on the tour.
Turns out your people had invited a TV crew from Los Angeles — KTLA — to tag along. They were the only media allowed on the tour, we were told repeatedly, and would serve as the “pool reporter.”Except once the tour started — surprise! — the Sacramento Bee was on it, too.
(Again.)Mr. Governor, you may have noticed one determined young lady persistently asking for equal access.
At one point, one of your aides ran alongside her as she was taking a photo — as if to stop her forward progress as you walked past the sidelined local media during the tour.That was Molly Myers, an outstanding reporter who graduated from the very institution you were visiting. Only Molly’s dogged determination got her a spot for the remainder of the tour — and even then, she wasn’t allowed to ask questions.
We have newspapers, TV stations and radio stations right here in Chico. Really good ones, too!I’m not sure if your team knows how bad of a look that is up here, but let me try to put it in terms you might understand. You coming to Chico with hand-picked media from Los Angeles makes about as much sense as you showing up at a Sacramento banquet to honor your city’s outstanding chefs of the year — but having it catered by the French Laundry.
(Sorry. Too easy.)For us, this opened old wounds.
In the aforementioned 2019 post-Camp-Fire visit, we tried to tag along, only to be told that the Sacramento Bee (here comes that “again” word again) was your “pool reporter” — and while we could use whatever photos and information they provided us, we couldn’t participate in the actual coverage or ask you any questions.At the time, we had just found out we were a Pulitzer Finalist for our coverage of that very fire — one of only two finalists in the entire country. Ten of our employees lost their homes in the fire.
We even had Camp Fire evacuees literally living in our parking lot.So, yeah; we probably had a few insights into the reality of the carnage that others didn’t, and we deserved the chance to ask our governor some questions on his visit.Again, your staff apologized afterward, promised we’d be the “pool reporter” next time and would stay in the rotation for the future.
That promise lasted exactly one visit. It’s been several years since any local media outlet has been invited to any of your Butte County appearances; in fact, in most cases, nobody knew you’d been here until your staff sent a news release hours after your departure.(At this point, dare I suggest some lessons from your predecessor, Jerry Brown, might be in order.
He always made sure the local media got to ask questions — even going so far as to call our reporters from his car on the way back to Sacramento. And might I also suggest this ongoing picking-and-choosing of outside reporters strikes us as rather, well, Trumpian?)Anyway, all this aside, I write you today not to complain (well, much) but to seek a solution.You see, I actually think the timing for this particular kerfuffle could not have been better — because you have a fantastic opportunity to step up and lead us in a direction that, frankly, needs a whole lot of leadership these days.
As is the case all over the country, there’s a lot of angst in our purple little town. Donald Trump won the presidency (and the Butte County vote) over Kamala Harris. That leaves tens of thousands of county residents who are unhappy with the new administration’s policies, and many have been quite vocal about it.
A lot of that ire has been directed at Congressman Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), whose Chico office has been the site of protests every Friday for the past couple of months.A big complaint about LaMalfa is that he hasn’t had any town halls in Chico for several years. We tried filling some of that gap with a Q&A with the congressman last month — a story that drew a fair number of complaints from blue-leaning readers for not being “tough enough” or for asking more follow-up questions.
But there was one part of that story that didn’t draw a single complaint, or even a comment, and I find that fascinating. And here it is, in the congressman’s own words:“I tell him (Newsom), ‘Come have a town hall with me. I’m not here to set you up.
I want to have a productive conversation with you. I will help save you from the mean people because I want to have that conversation.’ ”Beautiful.
What a great idea. A co-town hall with Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep.
Doug LaMalfa, right here in the heart of the north state.I can already hear the screams of protest from both sides of town (I’ve had plenty of practice), but hear me out on this one.Liberals are mad because LaMalfa hasn’t “faced the public” with a town hall and claim he’s afraid to do it; LaMalfa has said he’ll likely have some later in the year, but doesn’t want them to turn into a screaming circus as has happened in the past.
And you, Mr. Governor? Your reputation among many of your constituents, warranted or not, is that you’re unwilling to meet with real rural red-leaning folk on this end of the state. (Sorry, the University Farm doesn’t count.
) Even worse is your reputation for ducking in and out of our area before anybody other than a Los Angeles TV news crew knew you were coming.So, you and Rep. LaMalfa are basically facing the same complaint but from opposing sides of the aisle.
Here’s your chance to fix that.I think your presence in an open forum would assuage any of the alleged concerns Mr. LaMalfa might have about crowd behavior, and I likewise believe the congressman would keep his word in keeping any rowdies on the right side of the aisle from treating you disrespectfully.
I mean, this might blast political posturing from both sides right out of the stench-filled swamp water, and God, how I love that thought. Don’t you?We would have two of our area’s most powerful politicians, with opposing letters after their names, participating in something together. On behalf of the people for a change.
What could possibly be the harm?Besides, Mr. Governor, you know the drill, and you know it well. You’ve been on Sean Hannity’s show.
You’ve sat down with Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. You even debated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with Hannity as the moderator.
Trust me: A town hall in Butte County isn’t going to be any tougher than that.You’ve got out congressman’s number. And he has yours.
You’ve both got fantastic staffs. Work out the details. Make it happen.
May this little exercise in the First Amendment today be the first step toward something groundbreaking, and maybe even make our citizens — from both sides of the aisle — feel like they’re part of a true democracy.Again.Mike Wolcott is the editor of the Enterprise-Record.
He can be reached at [email protected]. Thank you, Mr.
Governor, for reading this letter..
