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Calling out the SLO New Times Shredder

April 18, 2019

SLO New Times Editor Camillia Lanham

OPINION by T. KEITH GURNEE

This week, one of my friends told me that my name was in the April 11 issue of the SLO New Times and The Shredder again. Since I don’t read the New Times anymore, my friend read to me what it said.

The Shredder tried to drag me into the Grover Beach homeless controversy (something I know very little about) urging opponents of the homeless shelter to contact me (calling me the “King of the NIMBYS”) to help them fight it. I’ve been called a lot of things in my life, but this is the first time I’ve heard that one.

The Shredder, who takes great joy in reveling and thriving in the salacious, is nothing more than an anonymous propagator of hate, rumor, and nastiness who doesn’t have the courage or decency to disclose his or her name. Content to hide behind a shroud of secrecy while tossing slanderous hand grenades at those he or she reviles, The Shredder is quite simply a coward.

But this latest jab caused me to reflect upon how far our two local printed newspapers have descended into irrelevance. The slant, bias, and inaccuracies of the Tribune and the New Times have relegated themselves to our local version of “fake news.”

By contrast, Cal Coast News and reporter Karen Velie does far and away the best job of true investigative reporting on the Central Coast, far better than our local print media. It was CCN who followed the case and broke the news with a video about the city employee cold-cocking a young woman at Mr. Ricks bar, only to have the Tribune report it two days later.

This week, the Shredder actually complemented Velie on breaking that story while dissing her out of professional jealousy for losing a legal battle that she will ultimately win. After all, it was Velie who exposed the waste and corruption of the Integrated Waste Management Authority (IWMA), not the Tribune or New Times.

It was Velie who uncovered the unreported contributions by the marijuana barons to the winners of the last city elections, prompting the panic-stricken victors to quickly amend their campaign-finance reports, a story utterly ignored by the Tribune and the New Times in the interest of protecting their darlings on the City Council.

So thanks to CCN for being the only locally consistent provider of the truth. As for the Shredder, grow up and get a life! At least this writer is not afraid to sign and stand by what he writes.


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My understanding is that it has always been Glen Starkey. He was identified in my being in the piece on one occasion, a false story I will gladly elaborate, and I was threatened by someone who was friends with Glen Starkey and said I could be in it again. Both business related issues. He is a viscous player, not a storied music critic, in this town.


4

It’s sad how much the default reaction for most of the readers of CCN is to instantly oppose some perceived enemy, be it local government or those who may criticize idealistic libertarianism—the obvious opinion of the majority of CCN readers. I wonder whether Karen Veile or Daniel Blackburn meant for this forum to become a hotbed of said libertarianism.


My general opinion is that information in the New Times is far more informative to the average SLO County citizen than anything on CCN. What I tend to find here are examples of the typical yellow journalism which has always proliferated in America for decades—if it bleeds or is salacious or reveals dirt—it leads. I might remind readers that a court of law recently judged CCN to be incorrect on some of its reporting.


Don’t get me wrong, I think CCN serves its purpose—I mean, who else would publish the ramblings of Gurnee—and provides entertainment to a section of society—an all white, older and middle aged section.


-34

Where in NT would you find usefull information unless it was for another bar, but as far as news or finding crooks or some real reporting, you don’t find that in NT, well other than hill and that gang but NT usually puts that bunch on a pedestal.

NT is a joke its only use is for bird cages and lighting the fireplace.

Maybe Karen and Dan should buy whats left of the Tribune hire some real reporters instead of the internet readers they have now and put a real newspaper back on the streets.


22

Well, good comeback. I figured no one really paid any attention to my posts other than to give me the down sign. You’re probably right, NT is a good place to find out what’s happening at local bars. And CCN does find crooks and has real reporting, I guess, although Veile always struck me as a wannabe who just couldn’t write that great muckraking book. Anyway, touché to you “Myself.”


-3

So much for racist ageism…


10

I would let that go . Shredder is SO eighties . Just junior high school stuff now , and frankly you are “high profile “ ( important) enough to mention. So in some weird way , it’s a shout out to you . But New Times is old and stale and just a paper conduit for advertising weird stuff , like the old yellow pages . Don’t give it too much importance. This platform is relevant ( CCN) and the future . Sure glad Steve Moss isn’t around to see his passion demeaned so utterly .


36

Isn’t Lanham actually the shredder or is it a mean-spirited group effort?


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