SJ looks down its nose at SBC – unfairly
”
Fury on the Range,
”
the headline screamed from the front page of that usually
serious metropolitan daily to the north.
SJ looks down its nose at SBC – unfairly
“Fury on the Range,” the headline screamed from the front page of that usually serious metropolitan daily to the north.
The San Jose Mercury News has, once again, discovered that there are people living in San Benito County, and that they interact from time to time.
The two-part series amounted to some 7,000 words, detailing what most of us grew sick of months ago.
An anonymous handful of people who – ironically – went by the name of Los Valientes (the Brave Ones) cooked up some charges against local politicians in an effort to create a few distractions and to sidetrack a few careers. The district attorney attached himself to the controversy like a pit bull on a drumstick. Attorneys got involved. We were treated to dozens of repetitive news accounts. And here comes the San Jose Mercury News.
To distill it: the long, weird Los Valientes episode can be summed up in considerably less than 7,000 words. A few people who are unaccustomed to not getting what they want perceived other people in the county might present obstacles, and they sought to remove those obstacles in a series of baseless legal stratagems.
The Mercury’s breathless reporting notwithstanding, it’s not unique to San Benito County. People play hardball in San Francisco, in Washington, D.C., in everyplace where money and power are available to the highest bidder.
What’s different here is that the tussle got considerably more newspaper ink than it deserved.
The Mercury’s story has been in the works since before the June primaries, so it likely represents a significant chunk of a reporter’s life.
And for what?
The frustration is not that the big city newspaper noticed that we exist. Every few years some metropolitan newspaper seizes upon the idea of seeing what’s going on out here in the sticks. Sometimes it’s the “Earthquake Capital of the World” angle. Other times it’s about commuters from the hinterlands.
But none of it’s new. None of it’s original. And – most disturbing of all – none of it is remotely fair.
To use a broad brush to paint the community in terms of good vs. evil, black vs. white ignores that we’re considerably more complicated than that.
In fact, a convincing case might be made that none of the players in the Los Valientes debacle or the larger community is all good or all bad and that we’re considerable more skilled at getting along with one another than most urban residents. We have to be.
When we agree to disagree, it might not interest the big city newspapers, but it’s what we do.
I’m certain that the folks from the smoggy north are not trying to be unfair. It’s just that they don’t get it. When you live with a million or so neighbors, it’s relatively safe to vilify a few of them. Chances are, you’ll never meet.
But in San Benito County, the character you assassinate today is likely to meet you across the produce aisle tomorrow. Los Valientes sought to change that by personalizing disagreement.
But you all were too smart to buy it. Again, we agreed to disagree and we continue to get along, mostly. Congratulations.
What’s that smell?
Press Release o’ the Week was a slam-dunk this week, and the honors go to the Gilroy Police Department. Gilroy’s finest reported a rape dating back to Oct. 2. The release featured a composite drawing of a balding, heavyset man with a sparse goatee.
The release describes the suspect as a Hispanic male with an accent, but “did not appear transient and did not have any odor about him.”
Reporting the smell – or lack of same – of a suspect is a first in our book, but the Gilroy PD gets snaps for sniffing out crime.
Notebook is compiled by Pinnacle publisher Mark Paxton, with contributions from other staff members as noted. To submit items, e-mail mp*****@pi**********.com.
