Aguirre’s return on KPBS records request
Admittedly, some of us over here were scratching our heads when City Attorney Mike Aguirre told us he was “investigating” KPBS’ cancellation of the daily news program Full Focus. (This post by Nicole Lozare on KPBS blog, Off Mic, includes an interview with station GM Doug Myrland about Aguirre’s request.)
Aguirre said a constituent complained about the cancellation, and so, as the “people’s attorney,” he felt obligated to look into it—and also look at how the station decides which editors will appear on the Friday morning program Editors Roundtable. He’s not to happy that U-T editorial page editor Bob Kittle has a guaranteed seat on the show every other week, and that the Kittle/Tim McLain/John Warren trio is the only group of editors whose segment is broadcast on Channel 4. (Even when our editor Dave Rolland is on Editors, the show’s not broadcast. And Dave’s got an adorable mug.)
Yesterday, Aguirre let us have copies of e-mails he got from KPBS. No smoking gun. Most of it’s dull administrative stuff, but there were a few items of interest, such as: * As of Wednesday, Aug. 22, complaints about the cancellation of Full Focus outnumbered praise for the return of Nightly Business report 6-to-1.
* Full Focus host Gloria Penner forwarded Myrland an e-mail from banker, former mayoral candidate/former port commissioner/former head of the Centre City Development Corp., Peter Q. Davis, in which Davis laments Full Focus‘ cancellation given that four City Council seats, mayor and city attorney are all up for election in 2008. “While [Mayor Jerry] Sanders seems a shoe in,” Davis writes to Penner, “I think democracy is best served when there are competitive races for each office—and I believe democracy is also best served when their [sic] are experienced reporters, and you are the BEST–questioning the candidates.” Davis told Penner that Irving and Hughes, a commercial real estate advisement firm, felt that the “best return on their advertising dollars was from sponsorship of KPBS programs.” Penner suggests to Myrland that they ask Davis for advice on finding a sponsor in the banking industry for a “weekly public affairs program that could be the platform for elections.”
* Myrland sent an e-mail around encouraging the stations public-affairs directors to be more proactive in reaching out to the public, especially regarding negative reader comments to a piece on voiceofsandiego.org’s SLOP blog. “It makes us look weak and vulnerable” Myrland writes. “Our unwillingness to engage makes it look like we have no strong arguments…. I want to make it clear that my advice is to get on these blogs and get our message across. Myrland sent this after he got on the station’s own blog engaged in a rather spirited debate about the station’s obligation to its members. Myrland later sent this e-mail around to station management:
I apologize to you all for being a bonehead and using our website to post an unpleasant message. I tried to do some damage control afterward on Friday and again this morning. Read it and weep, as they say. Now I am gonna leave well enough alone. Hopefully I have learned my lesson. If you hear from staff about my post just tell them I am a bonehead and I have apologized for it. I have asked [KPBS spokesperson] Nancy Worlie to go on City Beat blog and on Voice of San Diego and wherever else these program changes are being discussed and get some of our message out. I’m not gonna do it because I am not diplomatic enough…. I don’t think we should “leave well enough alone in this case. Misinformation tends to take on a life of it’s own, so I want us… to be a bit on the defensive.
* Also, looks like Gloria Penner (we can only assume it’s Gloria because most names have been redacted, but this one identifies the sender as “Host, Editors Roundtable”) pointed Myrland to CityBeat blogger Carl Luna’s post in which Luna suggests that KPBS should at least do a weekly “San Diego-in-review sort of program” that would air on Sunday. Myrland passed the suggestion on to Keith York, who heads TV operations at the station. Not sure what became of that.
That’s about it. Likely this info appeals only to the wonkiest of local-media followers. Aguirre’s request covered only post-cancellation, and apparently he’ll be putting in another request.
