These are frightening times for many reasons. On this Independence Day, one that is especially troubling to me is Donald Trump’s war on the media and the First Amendment.
Trump’s actions reflect those of autocrats and dictators across the world and throughout history. Some prominent current examples are actions to curb the free press by Vladimir Putin in Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. Trump and his supporters also have helped fuel an increase in alternative news sources that traffic in “alternative facts,” a euphemism for lies.
Lies, distortion and “alternative facts” aren’t just a national issue. They also are a local concern. For that reason, I think this Independence Day is an appropriate time to reiterate the mission and core principles of West Hollywood Media Company, the publisher of WEHOville.com, West Hollywood Magazine and the newly launched GayLifeLA.com, and to thank our readers for your support.
We see our mission as fostering engagement in civic life among members of the communities we serve, whether they be residents of West Hollywood (served by WEHOville and West Hollywood Magazine) or members of the greater Los Angeles LGBTQ community (served by the new GayLifeLA).
To do that we must tell you, our readers, what is going on and provide you with a platform on which you can publicly discuss and debate community issues. It’s clear that you are doing that. WEHOville.com, our first publication, was launched in September 2012. As of today, we have published more than 26,000 of your comments on local news and issues, with 11,386 of them published in the last 12 months alone.
In realizing our mission we adhere to core principles of journalism that I learned from some great editors and reporters during my 44 years in the media business. The first, of course, is telling the truth. The second is to report the news without fear or favor.
The truth isn’t always easy to discern. I got into journalism because I have been a skeptic since childhood. (As the late Stuart Dim, one of my most memorable editors, used to say: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”) Early on I became fascinated by our inclination as human beings to construct myths (aka “lies”) and see the world as we want it to be and not as it is.
A local example is that WeHo myth about Fran Solomon, the former deputy to the current mayor. The L.A. Weekly and WeHo News, the news organization that preceded WEHOville, both reported in 2010 a “credit card scandal” involving Solomon on the day before a City Council election. The two media outlets called out expenditures of $13,000 in ten months of 2010 and quoted local activist Ed Buck’s claim that total expenditures for the year would be $100,000 or more. The fact is that the expenditures were on a card used by many city workers and that Solomon only spent $2,000 on legitimate work-related meals and other things over 12 months. Despite that, the heavily reported allegation of corruption by Solomon somehow still lives on.
Reporting the news without fear or favor requires a thick skin (my friends suggest a flak jacket). In other words, it doesn’t matter to me whether or not you like what I publish, so long as it is true. Also, being my friend won’t deter me from publishing a newsworthy story that you don’t like (as much as it might pain me to do so). That’s something I have had to do many times in my career, with the most recent example a story last month about a lawsuit against a friend’s business. On the other hand, the fact that you dislike me or WEHOville, or that you are a competitor of West Hollywood Media Company, won’t stop me from publishing a newsworthy story that may call out good things you do.
Sadly, reporting without fear or favor isn’t something practiced by other hyperlocal media. For example, there’s a new blog that quashed a story by a freelancer, who said its publisher objected that it was critical of Christopher Street West, the controversial producer of L.A. Pride. (The publisher of that blog also recently took content from WEHOville.com and republished it word for word, despite objections from me and the author of that content). Then there’s the new “gay” newspaper whose editor has told me he’s careful not to publish stories that will upset certain influentials, a practice that raises doubts about the truthfulness of what that paper does publish.
Ethical journalism also means money won’t buy you love. Offering to publish a story in exchange for ad dollars is a highly unethical practice that is openly engaged in by another magazine that purports to cover West Hollywood and was the recipient of a major WeHo Chamber of Commerce award, in part, according to the chamber’s CEO, because of the benefits of that practice to its members. There is a now-defunct local gay magazine that offered to publish a story about a friend who is an artist, but only if he paid $1,200. In our magazine and on our websites we want to tell you what’s going on, what actually matters, not what people with money want you to hear.
We also don’t choose what stories to publish based on their likely popularity — stories called “click bait” in digital media. We charge our advertisers a flat rate that isn’t tied to how large our traffic is or how many people view their particular ads (although we are happy to provide that data). And we don’t lie about our readership, unlike other local media and organizations that sell ads. There is that magazine, for example, that claims a circulation of 35,000 copies and whose printer says he prints only 7,000 copies. And there is that WeHo organization whose claims of massive traffic are debunked by any professional analytic service. We actually provide a copy of our ComScore media analysis to anyone who requests it (For last month, it showed 65,000 unique readers of WEHOville who visited a total of 224,000 times).
WEHOville has been criticized for its willingness to publish op-eds by several local activists, with the critics alleging we are taking sides on an issue. In fact, I reach out to people on all sides of the various major issues affecting West Hollywood and invite them to contribute their opinions. Your not being willing to share your thoughts with the public doesn’t mean someone who thinks differently should be barred from sharing his. Not only do we encourage different points of view, we help prepare them. I helped one prominent local politician who wasn’t confident about his writing skills prepare an op-ed condemning WEHOville for one of our editorials.
We also have been (properly) called out by you for inevitable but regrettable errors that, thanks to this being a digital medium, we can quickly fix. Community copy readers such as Dan Morin, who never misses a typo, and some folks in City Hall are especially good at helping to keep WEHOville accurate. I encourage more readers to reach out about errors or concerns by emailing me at [email protected] or texting me at (917) 335-6962.
On this Independence Day, I want to thank you, our readers, for making WEHOville possible. Since launching this news website I have been astonished at the passion you have for this city. That passion has inspired me to keep working on WEHOville, a costly endeavor but is hugely profitable in the self-satisfaction it gives me as a journalist. I hope it also is valuable to you in providing you with the clear and unvarnished truth you need to keep this city the place we love.
I too was a skeptic from childhood, with many commenting on my facial expression from an early photograph at 3. Perhaps transmitted through my DNA, I believe the gift came by way of my grandfather an esteemed professor of Ethics, Logic, Greek and Ancient History in Berlin and my father, a triple engineer and patent attorney. I was taught early on the benefits of detail, accuracy, curiosity and reason, qualities also embraced by a mother disseminating the tools for life. Seeking the truth rather than listening to friendly parrots was the only sure way of obtaining a grasp on the… Read more »
Dear Ida Claire: Information referring to the Fran Solomon myth was not propaganda. The original sordid campaign was a multi faceted hateful message of Rashamon proportions that infected and affected many beyond its borders and whose claims were disproven. Early on witnessing the ugliness up close, while all the players assembled to act out their unfortunate roles, was not a pleasant experience, but a useful one. Most of the instigators have failed to move on holding fast to their original deceptions . Although the catalyst for the campaign envisioned themselves to be a warrior, they were clearly not. “A true… Read more »
How did the Fran Solomon propaganda find it’s way into this article? Weird
Once I got the ability to see regular stories, I have been on regularly. It’s clear that you run a quality paper; we are lucky to have you.
I was compelled to write to the LAT editor, because the US/UK media refuses to publish the Seymour Hersh article about the truth about Syrian chemical weapons (sarin) attacks. The fact that in spite of the massive resistance to POTUS, the go-to publications for real news are reliably pro-war and pro-administration, whichever party is in power.
There are two articles.
Go here: https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165906452/The-Fog-of-War.html
Thank you Hank – you’re greatly appreciated!
How about the truth of “fake questions” largely based on innuendo?
How about the truth of “Who Owns WEHO” which you started to work on years back?
Very valuable indeed……Thank you Wehoville.
Interesting that the local “myth” example used in this article is from 18 months prior the launch of WEHOville. As Hank has previously pointed out, the only legitimate news source at the time was WeHo Daily. The WeHo Daily article “City of WeHo Says Solomon Charged Under $2,000 on Card” simply quotes a city hall press statement regarding their internal investigation of the alleged credit card misuse by both Solomon and the city manager. I don’t know Stuart Dim but his quote “if your mother says she loves you, check it out”, (in my opinion) deserves an example that’s been… Read more »
Hahahahahah
Thank you, HANK SCOTT, for being a bearer of facts and ethical journalism in times that cry out for a rediscovery of our founding ideals.