Santa Barbara News-Press

Editorial From the publisher: We are living in Tyranny

The following is an opinion piece written by Wendy P. McCaw, the co-publisher of the News-Press:

If there were any doubt the Wuhan virus, through our elected officials, has taken over every aspect of our lives, Gov. Newsom’s arbitrary and unconstitutional actions prove it.

Until this virus became a political weapon it was just another run-of-the-mill virus. Look to see what both Pelosi and Fauci were saying in January and February versus what they are both saying today. It became clear they could use the virus as a weapon to make their political policy changes and to further damage a duly elected president.

When the virus became political some governors — Newsom is a good example — became dictators. Yesterday’s most recent stupidity was to close “ALL [stet] beaches and all state parks”. Mayor Murillo, never one to show leadership, acquiesced to these new “rules” saying “we will follow his order…”

Today it is unclear as to what Newsom is really going to do. He’s now saying he will close the Orange County beaches, not ALL beaches as he threatened and issued in a letter from police chiefs yesterday.

But we are not a country of sheep.

This virus has been made out to be the bogeyman by the propagandists; it serves their purpose to get their candidate in office by tanking the economy, keeping people in abject fear of what could happen. Feeding fear is a powerful tool and it’s been used effectively by those in offices elected and unelected and it’s been used very effectively by dictators in the past.

Think of all the businesses that have shut down because of dictates that are unproven. We have not been given numbers that have substance, if one questions what’s been foisted on us by mainstream media we are called “deniers”, like in “climate change.” Apparently we can’t question any of these “experts.”

Who is asking questions? If one has an opinion which may be different from the propaganda we’ve been fed, their posts get removed from Facebook, YouTube, etc., if the question ever gets there in the first place.

We are living in tyranny right now brought to you by tinhorn dictators in governors’ offices, and medical professionals and elites in ivory towers who have never run a business in their lives.

Newsom recently spent over a BILLION of our tax dollars on masks from China at $5 a piece (apparently there is no sign of these masks arriving) and is now giving $75 million of our tax dollars to illegal aliens.

Dissension and our civil right to protest is being denied. Our liberties are being stripped for what, a virus?? Think about this.

If this country can be put into this situation by a virus, what would it take to completely turn us into the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany? We are not that far away now, having to stand in line to get into supermarkets, finding the shelves empty of products that were in plentiful supply before the virus and now the rationing of products. When food shortages arrive watch to see how bad it will become.

We need to stand up, question, confront. We desperately need to get businesses back up and running NOW, take the shackles off the economy and get the bureaucrats off our backs. If we can’t do that we will forever be under the thumb of tyranny.

Wendy P. McCaw is the co-publisher of the News-Press and the views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the SBNP staff.

So the blowback - the Editor-in-Chief couldn't handle it and just had to put a disclaimer at the end of her opinion piece. Then it looks to me like he got fired, considering she's the owner of the Paper. lol

‘Santa Barbara News-Press’ Editor and Owner Part Ways over COVID-19

Wendy McCaw Likens Public Health Restrictions to Nazi Germany; Chief Editor Nick Masuda Ditches Paper

[www.independent.com]

Santa Barbara News-Press owner Wendy P. McCaw and the newspaper’s latest editor-in-chief, Nick Masuda, have parted ways due to an editorial that McCaw wrote dismissing the COVID-19 pandemic as an exaggerated gambit concocted by liberal elites to bring down President Donald Trump.

“Our liberties are being stripped for what, a virus??” McCaw wrote. “Think about this. If this country can be put into this situation by a virus, what would it take to completely turn us into the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany? We are not that far away now having had to stand in line to get into the supermarket.”

Masuda, who took over the helm of the long-flailing News-Press a year and a half ago, found himself in terminal hot water with McCaw for posting a disclaimer at the end of her missive. It stated that the views expressed were those of McCaw’s only “and do not necessarily reflect those of the SBNP staff.”

Words were reportedly exchanged between the two. In one version of events, Masuda — a former sports writer who has done a yeoman’s job trying to reinject local news coverage into the front pages of what was once a proud and vibrant daily newspaper — quit. In another, he was fired.

McCaw’s editorial appeared the same day a caravan of protestors — wielding and waving their red, white, and blues as rhetorical cudgels — circled De la Guerra Plaza in their vehicles, honking their horns to protest a host of social distancing restrictions imposed by Governor Gavin Newsom and Santa Barbara County Public Health Officer Dr. Henning Ansorg.

Masuda acknowledged his departure from the News-Press on Facebook, first expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to have functioned as the newspaper’s editor-in-chief and how that had long been a dream of his. Then, in an aside appropriate for a May Day missive, he added, “But, we all have bosses, and sometimes you simply don’t see the world in the same way. Sometimes you are subjected to things that no person should be subjected to. Sometimes you simply can’t co-exist especially when views go against all that you stand for as a human.”

Masuda did not specify exactly what he’d been subjected to, but it’s hardly the first time that McCaw and the hired help have not seen eye-to-eye. Masuda’s departure, however, could qualify as the final death knell for a newspaper that, from the outside looking in, seems to have already died a thousand self-inflicted deaths at the hands of McCaw, whose personal wealth, presumably, has been the only thing keeping it from collapse.

To an uncommon degree, Masuda had sought to restore some semblance of journalistic content and credibility to a newspaper that for years went out of its way to alienate and infuriate the community. McCaw endorsed Trump in 2016, one of only three papers in the country to do so at that time, in a county that voted for Bernie Sanders in that year’s primary and Hillary Clinton in the general election.

But the poison between McCaw and the community runs far deeper than mere ideology. McCaw has never been one to hide her contempt, and the community has responded in kind. In this context, Masuda’s ascension to the top editorial post was both perplexing and welcome. For the first time in years, local news stories began to show up on the front page. To the extent the News-Press had been consumed by a drawbridge mentality, Masuda was clearly not swimming in that moat. It was, by all outward manifestations, an exhausting undertaking. Anecdotal reports suggested that Masuda was running himself seriously ragged. Those who could afford to lose a little pocket change had started a betting pool: How long could Masuda last?

Journalism everywhere is in deep trouble for a host of structural reasons. Even in that context, the News-Press has been an outlier, pushing the envelope in terms of subscribers and employees lost, and positions left unfilled. The paper’s troubles began in earnest in 2006, when a flood of employees quit due to McCaw’s interference in the newsroom. Masuda’s departure is no cause for celebration — it is a sad victory for the bitter, the paranoid, the kooky, and the wacky.

Correction: Nick Masuda began directing news at the NP a year and a half, not three years, ago.


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She sounds great!

She's getting a lot of attention on Twitter - and all the Media-Hypers are ripping her to shreds -

[twitter.com]

Good stuff

This country is not gonna stand for this nonsense

For very long

Bad actors with bad incentives like newsome will fail

And the whole thing stands on a fake test.
Incredible