Category: Media

Editordude: Many Americans have been affected by the mainstream media blackout of this and have been unaware of the humanitarian flotilla that was bound for Gaza. In contrast, people in Europe are totally aware of it and are protesting the Israeli military’s interceptions. 

By Alastair McCready and News Agencies / Aljazeera – English / On 3 Oct 2025

The Israeli military has dismantled an entire humanitarian flotilla seeking to break its siege on war-ravaged Gaza, arresting hundreds of activists from dozens of vessels.

Livestream video showed Israeli forces forcing their way onboard the last vessel Friday morning. The Polish-flagged Marinette, which reportedly has a crew of six, was the final boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla – once a 44-strong fleet – to be seized by Israel.

The International Committee to Break the Siege of Gaza also announced in a statement that several detainees arrested by Israeli forces had “entered an open-ended hunger strike from the moment of their detention.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry says it has already deported four Italian citizens who joined the flotilla and is preparing to deport the rest of the activists. “Israel is keen to end this procedure as quickly as possible,” the ministry said in a post on X.

By Tom Nichols / The Atlantic- Reader Supported News / October 1, 2025

Trump put on a disturbing show for America’s generals and admirals.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s convocation of hundreds of generals and admirals today turned out to be, in the main, a nothingburger. Hegseth strutted and paced and lectured and hectored, warning the officers that he was tired of seeing fat people in the halls of the Pentagon and promising to take the men who have medical or religious exemptions from shaving—read: mostly Black men—and kick them out of the military. He assured them that the “woke” Department of Defense was now a robust and manly Department of War, and that they would no longer have to worry about people “smearing” them as “toxic” leaders. (Hegseth went on a tirade about the word toxic itself, noting that if a commitment to high standards made him “toxic,” then “so be it.”)

All in all, an utterly embarrassing address. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The assembled military leaders likely already knew that Hegseth is unqualified for his job, and they could mostly tune out the sloganeering that Hegseth, a former TV host, was probably aiming more at Fox News and the White House than at the military itself. What they could not ignore, however, was the spectacle that President Donald Trump put on when he spoke after Hegseth.

The president talked at length, and his comments should have confirmed to even the most sympathetic observer that he is, as the kids say, not okay.

By Andrew Keatts / Axios San Diego / August 20, 2025

Ocean Beach is about to have its own sitcom.

The big picture: Daniel M. Dyer, a writer and videographer, has nearly wrapped the pilot episode of “End of the 8,” a show about a group of bandmembers and their social circle in OB.

[Please go to the original here for all the links]

The fictional band includes members of real-life OB bands Half Hour Late and Band of Gringos, and the show stars local musicians Kat Hall and Crispy J.
Between the lines: The genesis of the show was a three-minute skit created after Dyer and his friends noticed they kept saying “that would be a funny skit idea” about life in OB.

They decided to build the premise into a full pilot, with a dry tone that Dyer compared to “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” turned toward targets like OB’s weekly post-farmers market drum circle.

By JW August

Nexstar, the largest local television station owner in the United States, of Nexstar Media, just added more media outlets to their holdings, including two more television stations in San Diego.

As part of its acquisition of Rival Tegna for $6.2 billion, Nexstar will own the two Tegna stations in the San Diego market — longtime local CBS affiliate KFMB and the CW, which Tegna purchased in February of 2018.  They are joining two other stations Nexstar already controls in San Diego — KUSI and Fox 5, making them the single most powerful media company in the region. They will also own the KFMB radio station.

With the Tegna acquisition, Nexstar will now have 265 full-power television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia. The combined company will have stations in 9 of the top 10 markets, and in 41 of the top 50 markets. That accounts for  80% of U.S. television-viewing households.

WANTED: Writers and reporters to work on assignments. Assignments to be assigned by editor. Some journalism experience preferred. Payments range from $35 to $50 per article of 500 to 1,000 words. Camera needed. Contact Editordude at obragblog@gmail.com

WANTED: Restaurant reviewer. Want to try your hand or tastebuds on reviewing restaurants and eateries in Ocean Beach and Point Loma? Some experience preferred. Earn $50 per article. Your choice of target but be open to suggestions by staff. Contact Editordude at obragblog@gmail.com; enter “restaurant reviewer” in subject line.

WANTED: Guerilla artists and banner hangers.

The Rag staff is proud to announce that our recent annual fundraiser has broken all of our records — and produced the largest one-time donation in our history.

Overall, the fundraiser that we began 2 weeks ago has exceeded our goal of $3,000 — over 3 times. At this moment, we have received $9,350 in contributions — we are closing the campaign but there may be some checks to our PO Box still to arrive.

By Kate Callen 

In 2018, the last election year when San Diego City Council District 2 had an open seat, the winner, Jen Campbell, was best known for being David Axelrod’s cousin. Before her first term was up, Campbell faced a recall effort, and she was replaced as Council President amid charges her staff illegally influenced the redistricting process.

In 2022, Campbell ran for re-election as a tarnished incumbent. Then a funny thing happened. A dark money group linked to Mayor Todd Gloria blanketed District 2 with hit pieces smearing Lori Saldana, Campbell’s formidable Democratic challenger. Saldana finished third behind obscure Republican Linda Lukacs, and Campbell kept her seat.

The 2026 open seat election will be consequential for a district hard hit by City Hall’s subservience to developers. From a 10-unit complex on a small Clairemont cul-de-sac to a 56-unit mid-rise at a major Point Loma intersection, giant housing projects are hammering D2 neighborhoods.

The Rag is in the beginning of our annual summer fundraising campaign. And we have to express that keeping the Rag alive does take donations from our readers and supporters, for afterall, a free press is not “free.”

We do have expenses — our annual server bill is $900 alone; plus subscriptions, utilities — and we actually pay many of our writers and reporters for reporting on community meetings and on issues that no one else covers.

Here are 17 Reasons to Support the OB Rag:

1. Our Progressive Politics: we stand for the Constitution, liberty and democracy and for a woman’s right to choose. We are diametrically opposed to Trump’s banana republic and against his authoritarianism — which include plans for the end the Rule of Law. We’re for racial and gender equality.
2. We Oppose the Direction that San Diego Has Been Going: the current city leadership has been taking us down the wrong road in its imposition of un-democratically-forced rules that threaten our neighborhoods, like the Bonus ADU program and Complete Communities.
3. We have been at the forefront of forcing reforms to the ADU policies along with neighborhood groups and networks like the San Diego Community Coalition and Neighbors for a Better San Diego.
4. We stand for more affordable housing, renters’ rights and an end to the corporate ownership of our housing stock. We also find it unacceptable that large campaign donors can reap the award of public land and development projects.
5. We also focus on maintaining parks and the public common — such as Mission Bay Park. We broke the story of how the Mayor wants to break off sections of Mission Bay and make them “surplus lands” in order to lease them to commercial and private interests in order to bring a cash-strapped city with a few bucks.

It’s that time of year again — the OB Rag’s annual summer fundraising campaign during the first weeks of August.

We only do this once a year, so help us reach our goal of $3,000 over the next two weeks. We do have bills — just our annual server bill is $900. We do pay some of our reporters and writers a small amount, usually $35 to $50 an article, plus we have subscription bills and utilities to pay.

Over this last 2 years, the Rag has become the online platform for dissatisfied residents of many neighborhoods besides Ocean Beach and Point Loma – disgruntled and frustrated fellow citizens upset with the leadership of the city, the mayor’s Bonus ADU program, the so-called Complete Communities plan  – that people from University City, Encanto, Middletown, Hillcrest, Talmadge, Pacific Beach, Linda Vista, Clairemont — the list keeps growing – are increasingly using the Rag to sound off.

For some reason, locals are having trouble gaining traction about their travails from the mainstream or other online media and press. So, increasingly, they look to the Rag for support.

As the Rag is a platform of and for citizen journalists, we are often there for them.

So, help us keep it going.

How to Support Us

Send us a one-time donation via our PayPal button on the homepage; or

Become a regular monthly contributor; via PayPal on the homepage; or

Send us a check made out to “OB Rag” to:

OB Rag
PO Box 7012
Ocean Beach, CA 92167

Here are more reasons to contribute to the OB Rag:

Editordude: The Rag broke this story days ago July 9th to be exact —  and ever since we’ve tried to find a mainstream reporter to take the story up; none of the reporters we contacted took it up or even responded. Now, finally, today, July 29, Jeff McDonald at the UT has written about this — but of course does not give the Rag any credit, which is par for the course. Mainstream reporters hardly ever accredit us. But at least McDonald quotes Donna Frye, who wrote several articles about this “surplus land” issue in Mission Bay here at the Rag. 

By Jeff McDonald / San Diego Union-Tribune / July 29, 2025

Mayor Todd Gloria is asking the City Council to declare three parcels in city-owned Mission Bay Park surplus land — the first step toward redeveloping over 28 acres of commercial property in the popular open space.

The idea, according to the city’s Economic Development Department, is to remake a conference center, two marinas and a restaurant into new community assets — in particular a hotel, as called for in the city’s long-term master plan.

“The city leases portions of Mission Bay Park to various entities,” Director Christina Bibler wrote in a report to the council. “The city intends to issue requests for proposals to offer three of these properties for separate long-term ground leases, with the goal of facilitating redevelopment.”

The affected parcels include the 23-acre Marina Village banquet and conference center on Quivira Way, the 4.5-acre Dana Landing Marina on Ingraham Street and just under an acre nearby that hosts the Sportsmen’s Seafood restaurant and various water-related businesses.

In her report to the council, Bibler notes that the Surplus Lands Act is generally used as a tool to develop affordable housing.

But the Mayor’s Office said the city is not seeking to build homes on the properties. Instead, the city wants a new hotel at the site of the banquet center.

By City News Service / July 22, 2025

The owner of the Los Angeles Times plans to take the newspaper public in the next year, allowing it “to be democratized and allow the public to have ownership of this paper,” he said.

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong told Jon Stewart on Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” that he was “working through” the move with “an organization that’s putting that together right now.”

Soon-Shiong did not say whether the deal would involve an initial public offer to sell shares of the company or another investment arrangement.