Hold the Presses! San Diego Union-Tribune Runs Primary Pre-Election Story…Today??

By Bill Cavala
A veteran of over 30 years in Sacramento

In today’s San Diego Union Tribune there is a story about the 78th Assembly District primary election – which ends by helpfully telling readers the primary will occur on June 3rd. You know, three days ago.

Tomorrow’s news today? No, Yesterday’s news today.

In the body of the story it is disclosed that Auday Arabo received over $200,000 mostly from “liquor stores and markets”. Although Arabo failed to break 20%, he gets most of the attention in this article. And, knowing he took liquor money might indeed have affected some of his votes. No small matter when only 400 votes separate the two top contenders.

But it’s hard to see how a story describing the contributions of a third place finisher are relevant to November.

It caps the poorest coverage of an election campaign in recent history. The alternative San Diego Reader at least took notice of the Independent Expenditure campaigns of selected interest groups.

By contrast, the Union-Tribune set a precedent by providing a pre-election story in a post election context.

What’s the opposite of a Pulitzer?

Comments

Posted by: Jay Gould at June 7, 2008 01:20 AM

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