Well, that’s what he said

It must be the first rule politicians learn when they assume office:

When in the hot seat, blame the media.

Just say you were misquoted or speaking off the record, or my

personal favorite, taken out of context.

The latter is what we are hearing these days from the reigning

king of all hot seats, Newport Beach Councilman Dick Nichols.

Nichols, if you haven’t heard, told our Newport Beach City Hall

reporter June Casagrande that he opposed expanding the grass areas at

Corona del Mar State Beach because “Mexicans” show up and take over

the turf.

Nichols is now claiming the quote was out of context because he

had been talking about all sorts of problems he had with the state

beach upgrades, not just the “Mexicans.”

But Nichols knows it was not out of context, it was simply the

biggest bit of news of out of everything he had to say.

That’s how we determine what to print and what not to print. We

weigh the newsworthiness of stories. We did in this instance, as

well.

When Casagrande finished with her interview of Nichols, she

quickly summoned her editors to discuss what had transpired. She told

us about the quote and of the rest of the interview.

It was pretty unanimous that the most newsworthy bit of

information she had was that a sitting councilman was speaking out

against a group of people (Mexicans) using the beach.

That’s what we went with, and we stand by that decision no matter

how many times Nichols says it was out of context.

Granted, it might have been out of sequence and one part of

several items he discussed that day, but not out of context. That,

however, is how news is reported.

Let me share with you a bit of history.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson was giving his State of the

Union speech. It was widely presumed at the time that Johnson was

going to run for reelection. During the speech, Johnson spoke of a

number of weighty issues, Vietnam, civil rights, his Great Society

programs. But at the end of the speech, he left the crowd with this

little bombshell:

“I will not seek my party’s nomination for president of the United

States.”

So what do you think became the big news story in the papers the

next day? The other important pieces of the speech were hardly

remembered.

Anyway, back to making us the scapegoat.

The next time you hear a Nichols supporter say that he is just a

stand-up guy who speaks his mind and is honest, think about this:

If he’s such a stand-up guy, why is he blaming our reporter for

his outlandish statements and not just taking the blame himself?

That’s what real stand-up guys do.

This all reminds me of the time I was accused of taking a quote

out of context in a story I wrote 10 years ago when I was covering

Newport Beach City Hall.

The story was about the rising costs of repairs linked to the

Americans for Disabilities Act, a federal law that requires cities to

make their facilities accessible to the disabled.

I interviewed then-Newport Beach Building Director Ray Schuller at

length for the story, and he said that the city had two years to make

basketball and volleyball courts and other city parks accessible to

disabled people. Then he said he thought the law was going too far

and he gave me this quote to amplify that:

“Where does it say that a guy in a wheelchair has to play

volleyball? Some of this stuff gets ridiculous. I’m not sure they’ll

ever use [the volleyball courts], but that’s what the act says.”

I knew then Schuller’s quote was going to be incendiary, but he

was a city official speaking to a reporter about a news story. There

was no need that I could see to sugarcoat his feelings. Still, my

editor at the time predicted that Schuller would take heat for the

comments, and he did.

Sure enough, the Daily Pilot received a letter to the editor just

a couple days later from Schuller. Here’s how the letter began:

“In last Tuesday’s Daily Pilot appeared an out-of-context quote

attributed to me which needs to be corrected.”

Out-of-context quote? What context could he have meant it, I

thought? The story was about the cost of upgrading city facilities,

including volleyball courts, spiraling out of control, and this is

what he told me.

I always knew Schuller to be a nice, gentlemanly sort, so I called

him and asked him what was up.

He told me that indeed the quote was correct but that he had

written the letter because he and the city were coming under fire

from the public because of his comments.

So there you have it. Politics 101. When you are taking too much

heat, there is always an easy scapegoat.

Blame a reporter.

*

I wanted to take a moment to thank local insurance agent Peter

Rabbit for inviting me to come speak at the Newport Beach Business

Club last Thursday.

The topic was ethics in journalism.

“Isn’t that an oxymoron?” one of the club members asked as I

walked in the door of the Riverboat restaurant.

Of course he was just joking, right?

Either way, I had a nice visit, and we had a good talk about all

of the problems the media has faced in the last few months about

ethics and plagiarism.

Anyway, if you ever want to chat about journalism topics or have

me chat with your group or classroom, just drop me a line.