Bullfight

As an FYI, Dan, Sekhon has taken out papers for Congress in Sutter County.

Thanks, Robert.

AJ Sekhon starts with one big advantage - more district-wide name recognition since he's been on the ballot several times. And he's got a compelling biography on paper.

This is the type of "think" I can get behind and support; taken from:

trinitydistrict2.blogspot.com/ - 19k -

Monday, August 22, 2005
The Public's Right To Know

This is a letter sent to the editor of the Trinity Journal in response to the information in a recent article regarding the Regional Transportation Plan. Orignal article can be found here

http://www.trinityjournal.com and scroll to Westside Bypass story. If a week or so has
passed just to to the site and search "Westside Bypass". My letter is as follows:

UPDATE - As of 8.22, to their credit, the Trinity Journal has published the entire article
(barring what I suppose is minor superficial editing) on their website. Hopefully this is
indicates more attention to this type of matter in the future.

August 19, 2005

To the editor of theTrinity Journal,
Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming) published a book upon leaving the U.S. Senate entitled “Right In The Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping With The Press” which is one of the better commentaries on what should be an ethical standard for journalists and a thoughtful outline of how the media could better serve the democratic process. This book is more valid today than ever, 8 years after it was published and not just on a national level but right here in our own local “media market”.

In last week’s Trinity Journal there was an article regarding the public workshop that was held for the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) that California counties are mandated to update every four years. I personally have been following transportation issues here in District 2 since moving back from Los Angeles where traffic jams are like breathing and have become intimately familiar with the data and perceptions that relate to our local situation. Although there are many quotes from the consultants that have been hired to coordinate the update of the RTP in last week’s article, there were no quotations from members of the public, nor from the Transportation Commission (which is the Board of Supervisors with different hats on their heads). A headline of “Westside Bypass Is Now Urged” and the following article make it appear as if the Transportation Commission is blindly moving forward in a fear driven state because of projections that, admittedly, may or may not occur. This wholly misrepresents the events that took place that evening.

What the article failed to mention is the discussion that took place between the few members of the public who were in the audience and the Transportation Commission. Much of the conversation was focused on how we all needed a bit more time to analyze the options and the need for more discussion at an additional workshop to hash out how to proceed. The article also missed the comments from both the Commission and the public regarding their disappointment with the partial dismantling of our public transportation system last year and the concern regarding multiple conflicts within the data that was presented (traffic levels, housing projections, employment levels not matching each other). The Transportation Commission no more urged a Westside Bypass (Westside Connector) during the meeting than they urged that the Weaverville Basin be filled up with water to create Lake Weaverville as a new economic development strategy. But you would never know that if you just relied on what was reported in the Trinity Journal.

So, after reading the article, I performed my due diligence and called the reporter to ask why this information was not included within the article. After discussing the matter I realized that the article as submitted to the editor of the paper included all of the pertinent information. The article was revised by the editor of the newspaper, who also chose the headline, not the reporter. This was not a matter of the information not being available but rather a matter of choice. Now, I understand that editors of newspapers are under time and space constraints, especially late on a Tuesday evening with a Wednesday run. However, those pressures occur on a weekly basis for this publication and seem to go with the territory. I will leave it up to the readers of the Trinity Journal to interpret why those changes were made. I’m still baffled as to any good reasoning behind it.

I believe editing a story so that it stands the facts/events on their head, whether it’s for a political reason or just for space considerations in the newspaper, does us all a disservice. It depletes the credibility of the paper, the reporter, the editor and worse than those it erodes the trust that the public has in the media for accurate reporting and the public’s willingness to get involved. This is not the first occurrence of this in the Trinity Journal and I would wager that it will not be the last. I hope that the readers are looking at these stories with a critical eye to the “fact” that all the facts may not be included. It’s disappointing that we are not getting better information from this local media source and more disappointing that they seem to have lost track of who it is they serve. To paraphrase Senator Alan Simpson, journalism should not just be based on the public’s right to know……it should be based on the public’s right to know the truth. Hopefully we can all continue to work through our messy world toward that end goal and support the reporters and publications that are doing their best to support that same effort.

Respectfully,
Jeff W. Morris
Trinity County Transportation Commissioner
Trinity County Supervisor - District 2
(530) 623 - 1217

This is great! It's high time that the Democrats run a strong candidate against Herger. The Democrats need to put more resources into the valley and the north state districts. If they would do this, we could elect Morris as well as Charlie Brown, and also elect Democrats to the Legislature. Also if Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, he will bring out a lot of Democrats and working class voters who will vote for Democrats down the ticket. It's been a huge mistake on the Democrats part, in writing off these districts.

As a resident of Red Bluff and a former Congressional Candidate myself ('04) I would hope everyone interested in ousting Herger to take a moment and go outside.

There's a scent in the air, a sudden drop in the political barometer, a rare and mighty storm is coming and it is called "change". What that possible change means for us here in the 2nd District is that this election cycle represents the best moment we've ever had to change our representative in Congress. It is a matter of choice, whether we watch and see if change is going to happen like gifts from heaven, or whether we are going to roll up our own sleeves and MAKE it happen.

Folks, every year the pundits are are taken by complete surprise by the ousting of some entrenched incumbent. Its our turn, its time for the 2nd district NorCal Dems to pull it off. Let's surprise the hell out all of them this year. Let us roll our sleeves and get it down.