City Attorney Mike Aguirre totally lost his temper with Union-Tribune reporter Alex Roth at a press conference today. Aguirre held the conference in Presidio park to discuss his re-election campaign. Roth was trying to get a few questions answered an upcoming story about the California state bar’s investigation into Aguirre. Aguirre refused to answer. Later, Aguirre and Roth walked about 20 feet to one side and Aguirre began yelling at Roth. An alert NBC camera man captured the whole thing on tape, though the sound was poor because of the distance. Aguirre accused Roth of practically becoming part of the Scott Peters for City Attorney campaign and losing his credibility as a result.
“You’ve become part of the campaign. You’ve crossed over the line,” Aguirre said.
At one point he tells Roth, “You should see a psychologist. Seriously, you’re a young guy.”
Later he asked Roth if he had any relationship with San Diego State University or KPBS, referring to Roth’s coverage of Aguirre’s accusations of corruption at KPBS. Roth’s wife worked at the station two years ago, and Aguirre suggested Roth should have included that fact in his stories. Roth seemed to think that was not a sensible idea.
Roth and Aguirre have a tense relationship stemming from Roth’s often critical coverage of the City Attorney.
February 19, 2008 - 4:46 pm at 4:46 pm
That Aguirre. He sure is a firebrand, ain’t he? If he gets replaced, I will miss his… oh what’s the word I want to use?… dramatics.
Aguirre’s lame attack on smoke shops rubbed me the wrong way, but I have to admit that the coverage of him in the UT and on KPBS smells something stinky, too.
February 19, 2008 - 4:49 pm at 4:49 pm
Well, I watched the video and could barely hear either man, and Aguirre definitely wasn’t yelling. He was just talking like he always does, rapidly and insistently. I wouldn’t have wasted time on Roth, who is terribly, blatantly biased, but you can’t blame Aguirre for getting fed up with the constant and very unfair attacks sponsored by the U-T. We call the Roth/Vigil hit team the Vigilantes.
February 19, 2008 - 9:56 pm at 9:56 pm
Typical Aguirre behavior. The guy’s a reporter, it’s his job to ask tough questions, and a question about the bar investigation is totally legitimate. The UT drives me crazy, but Aguirre doesn’t get a pass just because they write articles about allegations against him. Mr. Aguirre, as the highest paid elected official in the city, and one who calls attention to himself frequently, has to expect intense scrutiny from the press as part and parcel of his job, and not react as he did. But I was highly entertained by the video! Love how Aguirre stands upslope so he can maintain eye contact! Next Interim Report will probably be on NBC violating his privacy…
February 19, 2008 - 10:48 pm at 10:48 pm
I’m sorry, but this guy continues to act like such a jerk. Can he count on more than one hand the number of people he thinks AREN’T out to get him? If San Diego’s going to grow up, we need to get beyond this man’s paranoia.
February 20, 2008 - 7:54 am at 7:54 am
I think its a sad statement on the current day when people are far more interested in drama than action. It’s true with Aguirre and it’s true on the national politics level. It doesn’t matter that Aguirre is the only person working for the people, look at his style! Oh my gosh, Hilary is crying, who cares about her policies, we need to vote for her.
I doubt we can ever go back to a time where people pay attention to what anyone actually says or does but if we don’t we’ll continue to see the City and the Nation screwed into the ground by crooked politicians and special interest groups.
February 20, 2008 - 11:55 am at 11:55 am
Paul, you are right, but:
Many times it has been the case that serious-minded democratic people and politicians have not responded to unfair attacks, and the outcome has been to get run over by the liars, exaggerators, and bullies. It seems to be the nature of progressive, serious, scholarly people to ignore blatantly unfair attacks [think Gore, think Kerry (Swiftboat), on a national level], the idea being that any rational, thinking person will discriminate and will recognize the attacks for what they are. Aguirre understands that he can’t let the biased reports and loaded questions go unanswered. And that is fine with the Aguirre haters, because then they can do the “doesn’t play well with others” attack.
I absolutely think it is fair for any reporter to ask the toughest questions possible, but the questions have to be fair and based in truth. Recall the old mock law school trial exercise, asking “when did you stop beating your wife?”, for which there is no directly responsive answer that isn’t incriminating. That is the type of Vigilante journalism allowed by the U-T, and Roth is not clean in this regard.