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The Bakersfield Californian John Arthur columnFeb 26, 2013 (The Bakersfield Californian - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- READER: On Saturday my family and I, along with approximately 2,000 other people, gathered for the Bakersfield Day of Resistance, an opportunity to send a message to Sacramento and Washington, D.C. that the Second Amendment of the Constitution is of critical importance to us, and that we will not accept any further infringement of our rights from any source. This is especially true in California, where our Second Amendment right has been trampled by our progressive state government for years. This local event was one of over 100 such events held throughout the nation. Speakers at the event included State Senator Jean Fuller, Assemblywoman Shannon Grove and Bakersfield City Council member Jacquie Sullivan, in addition to many other excellent speakers. After the event, I saw video coverage on at least three of our local television stations, but, interestingly, not a single mention of the event in the Sunday Bakersfield Californian. How could that be Three television stations thought the event was important enough to send reporters equipped with cameras, and devote significant airtime to it, but the Californian apparently did not send a reporter equipped with a simple notebook Is this an example of the Californian's severely limited ability to field a reporter, or perhaps an intentional decision to ignore a newsworthy event because it did not align with the political views of your publisher and editorial staff I think the people of Bakersfield and Kern County deserve an answer to this question. David Press Bakersfield ARTHUR: I'm sorry we missed the story, which clearly was newsworthy. For some reason none of our assignment editors nor photo desk editors were aware of the rally. The story just wasn't in our weekend plans, unfortunately. Coincidentally, news of the black history parade wasn't communicated to our desk either. However our photographer happened to drive by it while returning from another assignment and took the pictures you saw in the Sunday paper. We urge everyone involved with both of these events to make sure The Californian is notified next time. Our newsroom phone number is 661 395-7384. Some writers have suggested we deliberately skipped the Day of Resistance rally for political reasons. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although our weekend staffing is small -- very small -- we are always looking for news and, had we known about it, would have sent a reporter and photographer to what obviously was a very big and successful event. On Monday we heard your complaints. Although it is late, I commissioned an article to catch up on the rally and we wrapped in some details from similar Day of Resistance events from around the country. (Unfortunately we were unable to obtain a still photo from the Kern event that would reproduce in the paper.) The article is on page 6 in Tuesday's edition and online at http://tinyurl.com/b9s6xgl This feedback forum is designed to give readers a way to voice criticisms and compliments or ask questions about news coverage. Your questions -- which may be edited for space -- are answered each Sunday by Executive Editor John Arthur. On the web: Follow John Arthur on Twitter @BakoEditor ___ (c)2013 The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, Calif.) Visit The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, Calif.) at www.bakersfield.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |