FULLERTON — A Nance County Journal co-owner posed a question to the Fullerton City Council last week: Do they believe the newspaper is trying to tear the community apart?
NCJ co-owner Rick Holtz spoke to the council to discuss an incident that occurred at the newspaper’s office earlier this month. Fullerton City Administrator Patty Noble accused the newspaper of trying to tear the community apart. She did not provide any evidence.
The following is Holtz’s prepared statement to the council:
I appreciate the opportunity to address the council. I had asked to be on the agenda tonight because I wanted to address an incident that happened earlier this month.
I can count on one hand the number of times I have spoken at a meeting. As a member of the media, it is my job to cover the news, not be the news.
On Aug. 6, the city administrator stopped by our office to pick up a copy of the newspaper. The conversation almost immediately turned hostile. I let the conversation go on longer than I should have, but eventually I walked over to my desk and picked up my phone and started recording the conversation. I told her if we were going to talk let’s do it on the record. And for the record, every conversation you have with a member of the media is on the record, whether I am taking notes or recording it.
The city administrator asked me what I have against the city. She said that people have come to her to ask why I am trying to tear this community apart. She pointed out that I do not live in Fullerton and again made the baseless claim that I am trying to tear the community apart.
I can only guess that the hostility stems from articles we have published. In recent months, my newspaper has published articles about the trees dying at the city park (something first brought up at a council meeting), the city announcing it was the victim of a wire fraud scheme (again, which came from a council meeting), and most recently covered the problems with selenium in the water (which the city posted about at the post office and put out a notice in the newspaper). I get that they have not been positive toward the city but point to something we have reported that has been wrong. When I have an error in an article, we run a correction. No one has ever said there were errors in our coverage.
When the city administrator first sent the selenium notice to us, I asked if she wanted a news story or a public notice. She said a notice was fine. That does not mean that I am not going to write a news article about the issue. It just means that I was willing to save the taxpayers the cost of running a notice too.
I guess the thing I need to find out is this. The city administrator speaks for the city. Was she speaking for the city when she accused me and my newspaper of trying to tear this community apart? Is it the official position of the city of Fullerton that that Nance County Journal is trying to tear the community apart?
I get not liking the coverage. It has not put the city in the greatest light. But all of it was stuff the public has a right to know. We cover the good, the bad and the ugly.
So, council, mayor, do you feel that my newspaper is trying to tear this community apart? Can we agree that doing so is not the smartest business move?
Fullerton Mayor K.C. Rieken responded to Holtz’s statement during the meeting.
“You’re reporting real news,” he said. “It’s just how you distribute it.”
Rieken said that some of the issue could be that articles are posted to social media and then people in the community comment on those posts. He acknowledged that the news must be reported but asked if the newspaper “could tone it down.”
“I haven’t seen where you are trying to tear anything apart,” Councilman Bryan Dubas said. “I like the coverage.”
Councilwoman Lisa Lassek said she agreed with Dubas.
Councilwoman Wylene Novicki said she has seen things on social media.
“That’s where the haters come out and get real brave,” she said.
Novicki said that people commenting on social media were getting off the subject. She said that “most of the uproar” comes from things on the newspaper’s Facebook page.
Councilmen Riley Lane, Art Mach and Mark Monroe did not respond to Holtz’s statement. Noble has not said if she still feels the newspaper is trying to tear the community apart.