Media

Ramping Up the War on Christmas With Fox News

December 10, 2018 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

It’s the most wonderful time of the year for the town criers at Fox News, when reality intrudes on their dreams of a White (Evangelical) Christmas.

This year the outrage was triggered by a church nativity scene referencing hypocracy about attitudes toward immigrants and an asssertion about The Left opting for child pornography over Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer for holiday entertainment.

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Ode to California and the San Diego Free Press

December 6, 2018 by Source

By Colleen Cochran

It was 1975. My parents got the bright idea to escape the Philadelphia winter by taking the kids on a two-week California trip. This vacation wasn’t well-planned and cushy like the times we stayed at the Greenbriar, the Waldorf, or those hotels in Italy. The California vacation was an impromptu, free-wheeling, down-and-dirty road trip. Maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

It was an ambitious, almost insane, venture. Parents and five kids, ages toddler through pre-teen, crammed ourselves into a rented station wagon and winged a sight-seeing tour in which we drove from San Francisco all the way down into Tijuana. We stayed at whatever cheap hotel would have us.

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The Old Broad: Saying Good-Bye to the San Diego Free Press

December 3, 2018 by Judi Curry

Editordude: San Diego Free Press has announced it will suspend publication after Dec. 14.

I started writing for the San Diego Free Press with almost their first edition. One of the the nice things about writing for it was that I was limited in my writings for the OB Rag, because at that time all of the articles and restaurant reviews were about “goings on” in the neighborhood. I could write for the SDFP and cover more restaurants, more ideas, and more of San Diego County.

As I became more and more familiar with the editors and contributors, my respect for the online paper grew. The knowledge of the authors was tremendous.

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The Ups and the Downs: My Reporter’s Life, Part Three

October 23, 2018 by Source

Part One
Part Two

By Bob Dorn

By the late 1970s, I was brought back into the newsroom to do general assignment reporting, a kind of sideways move. I could handle breaking stuff, and innocent features (like my seven-day case of hiccups) but the editors might have figured I offered too much trouble on the beats — police, higher education and investigations.

Once again on the day shift, I made it to journalism’s summa cum laude, or maybe just the magna version.

On September 25, 1978, a fully-loaded PSA liner crashed into a private Cessna in

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Has Rupert Murdoch Finally Crossed the Line?

December 22, 2017 by Source

By Bill Adams / Urbdezine

Fox News has recently engaged in a coordinated attempt to intimidate and derail the Special Counsel investigation of President Donald Trump. Fox commentator Judge Jeanine Pirro has gone as far as accusing Special Counsel Robert Mueller of attempting a coup d’état and suggesting he and his investigatory team should be taken away in handcuffs.

Rupert Murdoch was born an Australian, the son of a newspaper magnate. He is the owner of the News Corp., which has massive media holdings, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and the largest cable news company, Fox News.

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The OB Rag is moving to a new web host!

November 25, 2017 by Patty Jones
Thumbnail image for The OB Rag is moving to a new web host!

There may be a period of time when our site appears to be down. Rest assured it will be temporary but it could last anywhere from a few hours to a full day. Word needs to spread across the globe about where we are located. When you arrive at the new host there will be a welcome sign.

If you feel like it’s been too long for us to be out of commission try doing a hard refresh of your browser window by holding down the Control key and pushing the F5 key. If that doesn’t work, you can do a DNS flush. Since everyone is using a different operating system go to Google and search “flush dns cache” followed by your operating system. For example: flush dns cache windows 10.

We’ll see you soon!

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Today Is Net Neutrality Day – Here’s a Video Worth Watching

July 12, 2017 by Staff

So, today – Wednesday, July 12th – is Net Neutrality Day. Now what? The short little video clip below is a reminder of what is at stake. If you haven’t yet sent your message to the FCC and your legislators, click here.

We at the OB Rag love watching all kinds of video. Those short visual stories entertain, inform, and agitate in a way completely different from the written word.

Since our platform is about expressing ideas and ideals instead of cash flow, clicks, or the commercialization of media, we have the freedom to include a wide range of topics and formats that might not work elsewhere. We don’t need or want text links articles, paid for content, promotional materials, or story lines designed to please donors.

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Why Good Journalism is Liberal

June 14, 2017 by Source

Journalism

. . . and conservative journalism isn’t news journalism

By Bill Adams / San Diego Free Press

Mainstream news media has long been accused of having a “liberal bias.” Some studies have supported this belief. “Liberal bias” may be inherent in news journalism for reasons that aren’t flattering to conservatives.

Defining Liberal and Conservative. While political views are neither immutable nor binary, certain characteristics have remained relatively consistent. Broadly speaking, liberal policies support labor, equality and a strong social safety net, strong public institutions, progressive taxation, diplomacy and the avoidance of military conflict, and protection of the environment.

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Present at the Creation: Walter Cronkite and the ‘Environment Story’

April 21, 2017 by Source

By Ron Bonn/ SanDiego350

You could say I was present at the creation.

Looking back in our lives, we rarely know exactly when something started. But regular television news coverage of man-made climate change, with all it implies, started on New Year’s Day, 1970.

The staff of “The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite”: producers, writers, technicians; a couple dozen of us in all, were sitting around the newsroom waiting for something to happen—because nothing happens on New Year’s Day—when the man himself stormed in. “Goddamn it,” he said to us, “we’ve got to do something about this environment story.”

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Local Journalists Targeted in Internet ‘Predator’ Scam

April 7, 2017 by Doug Porter

Blackmail or Revenge are Plausible Motives

By Doug Porter

Over the past week, a dozen San Diego reporters and editors have been listed on PredatorsWatch.com, a website infamous for labeling innocent people as pedophiles or child abusers.

Among those targeted were editors and reporters with the San Diego Union-Tribune, NBC7, the San Diego Reader, and the Southwestern College Sun.

San Diego Free Press editor Barbara Zaragoza (who has contributed articles to the Reader as a freelancer) was also targeted.

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Original OB Rag Gets a Plug in San Diego U-T Travel Article on Ocean Beach

March 30, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

The San Diego U-T just gave the forerunner of the online OB Rag, the OB People’s Rag, a plug in a travel log-type piece on Ocean Beach in the Business section, entitled “Ocean Beach: the neighborhood the ’60s never forgot, where parrots fly free“. The piece is currently in the online version of the newspaper only, and is due out in paper on April 10th.

Along with “landmarks” and “things to do” in OB, is a section “Did you know?” where the original Rag – and current one – are mentioned, along with the 1966 World Surfing Championship and the FX drama “Terriers” history of OB.

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Was the OB Rag Yahoo Account Hacked by the Ruskies Back in 2014?

March 23, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

Back in June of 2014, a Yahoo account that I used for personal matters as well as for OB Rag business and communications was hacked. I lost thousands (at least 2300) of email address that I had gathered over the years as my contact list. I wrote about the hack and the loss. Here is part of what I said then:

Yes, it is true, and at first, I sort of laughed it off, as I went ahead and changed my password to the email account that was hacked on Thursday, June 19.

But then I realized all 2300 of my email contacts were gone ! – stolen by the hacker. Hundreds of those were my OB Rag email accounts. (It was my personal yahoo email account that was hacked – not the OB Rag gmail account.)

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Russian Bots and Bernie Lovers

March 22, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

Last Tuesday night on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow did an extensive report on how Russians used information warfare during the 2016 presidential campaign to undermine the Hillary Clinton campaign. And, she said, they are still using those cyber tactics to this day.

One of the main ways the Russians worked to throw sand on the Clinton electoral machine, was to sow discord among Bernie Sanders supporters and divide them from pivoting after the Primary to give Clinton their donations and volunteer hours.

The primary example Maddow used when she was drawing attention to the Russian information warfare effort against the United States was a fake Bernie Sanders supporters Facebook page that appears to be part of the Russian game plan. It’s called Bernie Sanders Lovers, and despite what the home page says about it being from Vermont, it’s actually out of Albania.

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Return of the Freewayblogger!

March 16, 2017 by Source

By Freewayblogger / Daily Kos

How mad do you need to get? How many lies do you have delivered straight to your face by this administration? How long do you just sit there and take it?

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Congressman Duncan Hunter Just Said Some Crazy Sh*t at his Recent Town Hall

March 15, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

San Diego Congressman Duncan Hunter just said some crazy sh*t at his Ramona town hall meeting on March 11th over last weekend. And he said it in front of a raucous crowd of hundreds.

There’s a good transcript and video of what he said, thanks to Indivisible San Diego’s four and half minute video and Dan Weisman’s annotated transcript at Escondido Grapevine’s Duncan Duane Hunter town hall (annotated).

You have to see it to believe it (the video is inside). But read the crazy stuff first.

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Progressive Calendar for San Diego Activists, March 10 – 21, 2017

March 10, 2017 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

Progressive ActivistWow. Here’s another calendar packed full of events for local activists. I’ve made some cosmetic changes this week, including icons to make events more recognizable.

So what will you do? Check out this week’s Progressive Calendar listings below. Following those listings are upcoming events of national importance, along with opportunities for organizational involvement and a few reading suggestions.

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Covering Ocean Beach and Point Loma in the Time of Trump

March 9, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

At the most recent OB Town Council meeting, a friend who is active in Ocean Beach and an OB Rag supporter, took me aside, and said, “You’re killing me with all the national news.” He was complaining that he felt the OB Rag was straying from its focus on local, OB news and material.

I explained to him that we had to do both, be the source of uber news for the village and the Peninsula and provide news and analysis about what’s going on nationally – especially now in the time of Trump.

Ever since we began trying to be the online newspaper for OB and providing a platform for the community, we’ve experienced a tension between covering really local stuff about OB and Point Loma versus both throwing out our news net for wider issues, more city and county related issues – and being a source for progressive views and analysis on national and international news and goings on.

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An Enemy of the People

March 9, 2017 by Ernie McCray

EnemyBy Ernie McCray

All I can say about the early weeks of Donald J. Trump’s “First 100 Days” is that he has shown himself, in that time, to be an “Enemy of the People” in so many ways.

And there are those of us who keep saying “Give him a chance,” a rather non-nonsensical idea considering how he abuses chances every chance he gets.

He’s had and still has an enviable chance, as the most known person on the planet, with microphones and video cameras at his beck and call, to guide us in a spirit of love, so that we can be the kind of people Americans should be: tolerant people; caring people, people the rest of the world should be able to depend on.

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OB Rag Stands in Solidarity with A Day Without a Woman

March 8, 2017 by Staff

By OB Rag Editors

Can you imagine a day without a woman?

We join with our fellow editors at San Diego Free Press, in the strike for women on International Women’s Day 2017, and will remain “dark” for the day.

Many of the staff and contributors of the OB Rag are women. 50% of the volunteer SDFP editorial board and 50% of SDFP volunteer contributors are women.

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News and Notes for Ocean Beach and Point Loma – Early March 2017

March 7, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

Newport Ave Re-Paving Begins Thursday, March 9

The long-anticipated re-paving of Newport Avenue begins Thursday, March 9th. Beginning at 8am, the work crews will re-pave the normally-busy commercial street from Abbott to Sunset Cliffs Blvd. Workers will grind down the old asphalt 3 inches, and then pour in 3 inches of the fresh smelly, gooey, stinking-hot new asphalt (ever worked with it? it’s pretty bad stuff).

Gas Leak Tuesday at Sunset View Elem

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More Photos from “Impeach on the Beach” in O.B.

March 6, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

Here are more photos from the wonderful “Impeach” and “Resist” event on Saturday, March 4th in Ocean Beach. These are in chronological order, more or less.

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“Sunset Cliffs Living” – New Magazine Devoted to Southern Point Loma to Be Published

March 6, 2017 by Judi Curry

Guess what’s coming to Sunset Cliffs? It’s Sunset Cliffs Living– a magazine devoted to Sunset Cliffs!

I just spent a delightful hour with Brenna Vega, a young, Point Loma High School Graduate, (2002) with a vision of bringing the community closer together. (Not only did she go to PLHS, she also went to Loma Portal and Correia.)

After spending time in Los Angeles, New York, and China for the past 7 years, the draw of home brought her back to San Diego where she is fulfilling a dream of a magazine devoted to our community. She deems it a “social magazine for the residents of Sunset Cliffs, and is focusing on the areas of Sunset Cliffs east to Catalina; south to the college; and Sunset Cliffs to the end at Ladera.”

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O.B. March 4 Impeachment – Sat., March 4

March 2, 2017 by Source

The OB March 4 Impeachment is gaining momentum as it will happen this Saturday, March 4th, where participants will spell out “Impeach” just north of the OB Pier.

There will be a Beach Clean-up and March from Dog Beach to the Pier, says the facebook and the main event will be to “Replicate Human Protest Banner from Ocean Beach, San Francisco,” just that here in Ocean Beach, San Diego, participants will spell out “IMPEACH”. The OB Rag and Indivisible San Diego support this action.

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Attorney General Sessions and the Latest of Trump’s Russia Troubles

March 2, 2017 by Doug Porter

By Doug Porter / San Diego Free Press

Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions, former Senator from Alabama, campaign advisor, and current Attorney General is generating the latest waft of smoke from the smoldering garbage fire, also known as the Trump administration’s Russia scandal.

During his nomination hearings, the then-Senator from Alabama failed to disclose two occasions when he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to the Washington Post.

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Some Memory Tiles Removed and Damaged During Repairs on Newport Ave.

March 1, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

During Tuesday’s demolition and repair of the ramps to OB’s mid-block crosswalks, some memory tiles were removed and damaged. These are the special tiles installed along the curb on Newport Avenue for several blocks that people purchased over the years.

This reporter while visiting the project asked the foreman of the work crew working on the ramp widening if he planned to save the tiles that his guys removed. He said no, and I advised him to keep them. So he said he did.

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“Special Prosecutor, Special Prosecutor, Who’s Got the Special Prosecutor?”

February 27, 2017 by Frank Gormlie

There’s some kind of a sick and nefarious game being played out on national politics right now. It’s called, “Special Prosecutor, Special Prosecutor, Who’s Got the Special Prosecutor?”

Even as Congressman Darrel Issa walked back part of his solitary Republican call for a special prosecutor to look into Trump’s ties to Russia, White House press spokesguy Sean Spicer, was denying the need for one and that it would all be a waste of time. When pressed by a reporter to respond to Issa’s call for a special investigator, at a news briefing Monday, Feb. 27, Spicer said:

“ A special prosecutor for what?”

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On Tuesday, House Republicans Will Betray Their Oaths, Their Country, and the American People

February 27, 2017 by Source

They’ve made the calculation that most of their constituents won’t care

House RepublicansBy Dartagnan / Daily Kos

On February 28, 2017, the United States will witness the what may be the single greatest act of collective treachery by its elected government officials since the Confederate States voted to secede from the Union in 1860 and 1861.

And in all likelihood, the U.S. media will completely ignore it.

On Tuesday the Republican-dominated House Judiciary Committee is expected to reject House Democrats’ Resolution for a formal inquiry into the the potential ethical and legal violations committed by the Trump campaign apparatus in its contacts, communications and financial transactions with Russia during the run-up to Trump’s election last November, and throughout the transition since then.

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Save Peninsula Trees Group to Hold Tree Advocacy Class

February 27, 2017 by Source

By Save Peninsula Trees

Save Peninsula Trees is at it again!

Last fall we began assembling information for a citizen’s guidebook on how to protect our community trees. What started a few months ago as some hastily scribbled notes over a pleasant, afternoon coffee at the New Break cafe has now become an honest to goodness handbook. And we’re pretty excited … because …

We are now ready to launch our draft San Diego Tree Advocacy Handbook.

Plus we will be holding a Tree Advocacy class on Saturday, March 25, 2017, 9:30 to 12:00 noon .

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The Real Fake News

February 27, 2017 by Jim Miller

Fact-checking is a feeble response in a world where what we think we see and know is more important than the actual truth.

Fake News 1 and 2By Jim Miller

Donald Trump’s continued attacks on the American news media as “the enemy of the American people” have generated quite a stir in mainstream media circles as one might expect.

And surely there is good reason to be disturbed by this administration’s punitive stance towards the press.

But what virtually none of the analysis of Trump’s attacks on “fake news” or Steve Bannon’s assaults on what he calls “the corporatist global media,” which both he and the president label “the opposition,” note is the irony that while the new regime is attacking the power of the corporate media, they are also busy installing corporatists in nearly every position of power and pushing an agenda that is every right-wing billionaire’s wet dream.

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The Michael Moore Easy-to-Follow 10-Point Plan to Stop Trump

February 23, 2017 by Source

By Michael Moore

First, let’s acknowledge what we all know to be true: Trump is in deep, deep trouble—in the pocket of Russians, surrounded by alt-right idiots, alone in his bathrobe in a mostly empty White House—and caught inside a disgusting “shit-sandwich,” so said his supporter who turned down the NSA job.

Only one month into his so-called presidency—and yet there is good news, as this is what the American landscape looks like:

• Tens of thousands of citizens across the country have stormed congressional district offices and town hall meetings to express their rage at the Trump agenda (a dejected Republican congressman, after a three-hour verbal assault from his angry constituents, said on TV last night, “Let’s face it—they [the Obamacare supporters] have won”).

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