Lassen County Times in Review - Backtracking A Bit

I was waiting for this....

The week before last, Barbara France, the editor for our local paper, The Lassen County Times, published a column on the goings on at a recent Susanville City Council meeting and specifically discussed the behavior of my favorite local conservative, Kurt Bonham. Kurt, who as many of you know, publishes his blog, Fly At Night, finally responded to Barbara's column.

It is tempting for me to use this opportunity to again lambaste the Lassen County Times, given that in this instance Kurt and I seem to have found common ground against the same adversary. However, I don't attend City Council meetings and since I do not have first hand knowledge of the situation, I'll let Kurt and Barbara hash it out. However, Kurt echoed my main complaint about the Lassen County Times - one I have brought forward in Times editorials, letters to the editor, and here at Northstate Science: their consistent inability to write opinions with any kind of factual basis. Kurt writes:

A reporter should not write articles based upon what she and her friends believe. A dose of facts and some leg-work to visit the source might be of assistance in getting the story straight the first time...France can write what she wants when she wants but I think that it would be refreshing if she were to find a way to gather the facts before spouting off on a subject that she has no knowledge of and can’t possibly comprehend and granting herself the badge of “power” over someone who is simply doing what he campaigned to do.

I don't know whether France is correct in her assessment of City Council meetings (and Kurt in particular) in this instance. I wasn't there and haven't gathered any "facts" to address the issue. But I do think the LCT has a track-record of writing irresponsible opinion pieces in which they cherry-pick information or simply fail to gather any data on an issue at all. I have also accused them of fostering opinion from a particular religious perspective - although the LCT has been quite on this front for a while, I have no doubt there will be ample opportunity to address this issue in the future.