Late Friday evening, the San Diego Union-Tribune, a formerly legitimate and trusted news publication in San Diego, posted an article attempting to undermine the Republican Party of San Diego County (RPSDC). They also try to throw the San Diego News Desk under the bus, claiming we asked for unrestricted access to their photos and quotes.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In an email exchange between the U.T. and Communications Director Will Seykora, reporter Deborah Sullivan Brennan requested press credentials to attend Monday’s Central Committee Meeting. In response, Will Seykora said “…on the condition we are approved to use all photos and quotes taken at our event on San Diego News Desk (With proper credit of course) we can approve your credentials! ” The important aspect of this response being “With proper credit of course.” The U.T. seems to believe the San Diego News Desk is ready to claim any photos or quotes as our own, as written in their article “Organizations that are covered by the newspaper are free to post links to photos and stories on their own websites or social media, but they are not normally permitted to publish them as their own content.”
Nowhere in the email exchange does Will Seykora mention claiming material, the opposite occurred. The U.T. also seemingly didn’t understand the purpose of Monday’s event, claiming it was a “campaign event” in their headline and mentioning that Kevin Faulconer and John Cox were not listed as speakers. If the U.T. did any amount of research past the email exchange they would be able to correctly state that Monday’s event is a Gubernatorial Forum where each candidate will be allowed 10 minutes of speaking time (order selected by random draw) and that both Kevin Faulconer and John Cox attended and spoke at our April Gubernatorial Forum alongside candidates Doug Ose and Major Williams.
However, only legitimate news organizations do research, and clearly, the U.T. has given up that title. They also include a response from the Executive Director of the Republican Party of San Diego County Jordan Gascon. When asked about the San Diego U.T. and their inflammatory article, Mr. Gascon stated “It’s a shame that properly citing a news article or picture is looked down upon by the U.T. staff. The San Diego News Desk does our best to report news. Every once in a while the U.T. gets something right and it’s proper to give them credit. A free press relies on the ability to share others ideas with proper citation, and that’s all we were looking to do here.”
Editor in Chief of the U.T. Jeff Light also seemingly attempted to threaten Will Seykora in an email stating “Hi, Will. You might want to think this through and reconsider.” After being told that the conditions did not change he attempted to use scare tactics as a way to gain entrance into a private event. In an email to Deborah Sullivan Brennan that he CC’d Will Seykora, Jordan Gascon, and Chairwoman Paula Whitsell on he stated “Denise…. can your group prepare a story about the terms the local republican party has required as conditions for access for journalists? I think we should also be in touch with their candidates about their perspective if we can.”
The Republican Party Of San Diego County isn’t going to miss the U.T. at their event either, Jordan Gascon stated “Our event will be covered by KUSI, FOX San Diego, FOX LA, NBC, ABC, CBS, The Washington Post, POLITICO, and many other legitimate news agencies. We don’t need a lying publication to cover our candidates and events.” The event will also be streamed on the RPSDC’s Facebook page.
Despite their best efforts, the U.T. did not gain access to Monday’s event, so in typical liberal fashion, they threw a pity party for themselves and cried about it on their website. Other news organizations whom the party declined picked themselves up and found actual stories to break. However, the U.T. isn’t known for actual stories.
