Irvine Council member Christina Shea really needs a lesson in how the First Amendment works. Publications that are critical of your work as a council member are not necessarily political hit pieces. Her ongoing target is the Irvine Community News and Views, which is published regularly, has researched news stories that carry actual bylines, and sells advertising.
This is America. And anyone with a printing press can publish a newspaper. Early American newspapers were extremely partisan. And while the Irvine Community News and Views started as a slate mailer, it’s a legitimate publication that I’m happy to read. The Irvine World News simply isn’t the paper it used to be.
We wrote about how Shea got her panties in a bunch over the News and Views being available at her local Albertson’s store. This prompted calls to Albertson’s corporate office to keep the papers in the rack. Her attempts at censoring the Irvine Community News and Views are now extended to her doctor’s office. Her post on Friday from Facebook was sent to me by a faithful reader of this blog:
Christina Shea
Today I went to my doctor and there were the Community News and Viiews at his front desk. I asked him who delivered these, he wasn’t aware they were there. His nurse stated someone dopped (sic) them off and said you know the Register used to have the Irvine World News as an insert but no more …so this is the replacement for that insert…. No that isn’t true…the Register didn’t suggest or replace Larry Agran’s Communtiy News and Views as a replacement for the Irvine World News. This Community News And Views is a political hit piece and not a replacement for the Irvine World News. Additionally, the publisher lives in Northern Califonria so how does he know anything about our City events or issues?
Well, the current publisher from the OC Register comes from Las Vegas. Can we extend the same argument?
And as political hit pieces go, the IEs from the last election cycle claimed:
- Sukhee Kang supported the Irvine Republican slate, even though he didn’t.
- Sharon Wallin was part of an “Irvine Education Team” that featured Steve Choi, Jeff Lalloway and Ira Glasky, even though she wasn’t.
- Irvine Police supported Jeff Lalloway even though the Irvine Police Association did not give their endorsement to Lalloway.
And let’s not forget Dick Ackerman’s “Irvine Cares” website that keeps increasing the millions “wasted” at the Great Park.
You’d think that after a couple of decades in office, Shea would have had a tougher hide. The LA Times published a few editorials criticizing her abuse of power when she was mayor in the late 1990s through 2000. Does that make them a “phony” newspaper?
Rather than demand a newspaper that stories critical of her work on the council be pulled (censored) because of her opinion, she has some options:
- Write a letter to the editor of the Irvine Community News & Views to correct any factual mistakes
- Ask Dick Ackerman to publish a glowing review of her work in Irvine Cares
- Sue for libel if she feels she’s been defamed; Shea loves to send nasty lawyer letters to try and shut people up, as she did to Katherine Daigle after the November 2012 election.
And lastly:
- If you can’t take the heat, get out of office. Resign. Don’t run for re-election in 2016.
Does anyone know who Shea takes her dry-cleaning to, or where she gets her car serviced? We need to get more copies of the paper to those locations as well.
Quit trying to pass your propaganda rag off as a legit newspaper and no one would have a problem with it. You called it a political slate mailer during the elections, what has changed? Certainly not the slanted and biased content. Dan, no one is suggesting you don’t have the right to express your opinions or even the distribution of the News and Views, but labeling it as a newspaper insults the intelligence of the citizens who don’t know better.
when they start publishing stories featuring BatBoy or BigFoot sightings, then its a fake newspaper. Sorry, it’s a paper critical of the Republican majority. And I called the paper a Certs: it’s a breath mint and a candy mint. Now its just a newspaper.
Are you suggesting that Irvine residents are so dumb, they can’t tell the difference between a newspaper that publishes news about the community instead of a publication with Batboy in it?
Dan, I would never think of the Irvine voters as being dumb, even after not electing me to the Council. I have the utmost respect for them and they did me a favor as I would not have done well as a politician. That said, there are many new resident who aren’t up to speed on the Larry Agran days of smoke, mirrors and propaganda. They see your political slate rag and confuse it with a regular newspaper. While not always achieving the goal, legitimate newspapers make some attempt at presenting an objective analysis of the topic. The Irvine News & Views does not do that and instead bends and manipulates information to discredit the new Council majority. It is certainly your right to do that, but people need to understand what they are reading is not a legitimate paper.
Its a legitimate paper Pat. Deal with it