Simon Weston: Some thoughts on the local “Newspaper”

By admin — Simon Westonthe column heading is the writer's name, as published; the post was published under the site account

Local Media

I still read the local rag, The Signal. Why, I don’t know because over the thirteen years I have lived in the Santa Clarita Valley it has steadily declined as a newspaper. The sports page is still the place to go for local high school information, but as far as local news reporting it is usually a few days behind the West Ranch Beacon (WRB).

It used to have some good local writers, such as Chris Sharp, Roger Gitlin and Betty Aranson, but no more. Chris is now writing for the WRB (and thank god we have him), Roger has apparently been banned because according to the editor he needs to write about something other then immigration.

If writing about a diversity of subjects is now a criteria for writing for the Signal then why is the Tuesday “Democratic Voices” column still ongoing? Talk about a one-trick pony: seven years of “It’s the fault of Bush”.

Betty has been reduced to writing letters to the editor, either by choice or she was given the same treatment as Roger. And the Signal used to have three humor columnists; Dave Barry, John Boston and whoever wrote the Tuesday column for the local democrats. Now we have Tim Myers, Gary Horton and the same Tuesday bunch. Somehow they are not in the same league.

For example take Tim’s Sunday article on “personal responsibility and integrity.” Now one would think after his dust up with the WRB he would have declined to write an article on that subject. One would be wrong! I found it an amusing little article with just a hint of hypocrisy.

Wednesday is Gary Horton day and I can save you the trouble of reading it because they are all the same. Whatever the subject somehow he finds a way to blame Bush. He could be writing about the ocean cruise he and his wife went on and the fact that it rained one day and it would be you know whose fault. It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic.

In the thirteen years I have lived here the population has tripled and the circulation of the Signal has declined. The publisher and editor should be embarrassed by that but apparently are not.

Simon Weston Commentary

Simon Weston is a resident of Stevenson Ranch. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.

Comments

3 · as published

Leslie
Leslie Says: July 30th, 2008 at 2:53 pm Yes, they do a decent job of covering local sports, nothing else. That’s a shame because this valley could use a local newspaper that covers both sides of an issue instead of the side that they and the City want us to hear. I am coming to sites like this, which are FREE, to try and understand what some of the politics are surrounding annexation or if we should consider creating our own city. The local “rag” isn’t giving that to its diminishing readership. Leslie
john
john Says: July 31st, 2008 at 6:20 am I have not read Horton since his stupid story about lunch at the TPC. He and his “corvette” cost the signal a subscriber.
Chris Sharp
Chris Sharp Says: July 31st, 2008 at 9:02 am Thanks, Simon. I can be at times as wrong as anyone. But what keeps professional writers going is to at least be interesting even when you’re wrong.