Sac media bites

Bites has always thought the folks over at the hyper-local online “newspaper” the Sacramento Press would be dangerous once they figured out what they were doing.

That was until Sac Press editor David Watts Barton posted a long, and kind of poignant, farewell last week, letting readers know the site’s owners had laid him off.

Barton’s pink slip seems mostly about saving money, what else? But reading Barton’s goodbye, it also seems the Press wants to dial back the journalism part of its citizen journalism formula.

That makes some sense. Reporting is hard. It’s expensive and sometimes alienates advertisers.

And the Sac Press has never really been about skepticism and confrontation—preferring the role of cheerleader over critic.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The good news needs a home too, Bites supposes.

But where earlier citizen journalists took up the motto, “Be the media” and tried to create an alternative to the mainstream, the Sac Press has always seemed more content to ape the editorial positions of the local daily, or to amplify whatever message comes its way from the Chamber of Commerce, or the chief of police, or the Cheesecake Factory.

Barton, a former Sacramento Bee entertainment writer, bears some responsibility for all that, even if it wasn’t his idea.

But he also obviously cares a lot about the craft and about the community. And he was an actual journalist, with years of experience and a lot to teach the reporters and interns there. The Sac Press is a lot less dangerous without him.

Probably the most dangerous man in citizen journalism, at least around here, is David Greenwald, who heads up the Davis Vanguard and sister site, Yolo Judicial Watch.

Greenwald has been a fierce critic of the Yolo District Attorney Jeff Reisig in particular, dogging what he believes is a pattern of “overcharging” cases and exaggerating crime stats to win grant money.

His coverage of one case—that of a man facing a third strike for stealing $4 worth of cheese—got the attention of the New York Times.

And Bites is certain that Greenwald helped build awareness of the case of the Galvan brothers—where the DA three times tried and failed to convict a West Sacramento man with resisting arrest, after police beat him into a coma. Public condemnation ultimately convinced Reisig to abandon his shameful attempt at a fourth trial.

But as with most citizen journalism, there’s no money in it. Greenwald volunteers his time and relies a lot on interns. He just announced a fundraiser coming in early November—the Yolo Judicial Watch is a registered 501(c)(3)—and there are plenty of opportunities to donate. Go to www.yolojudicialwatch.org for more information.

At the pro end of the local-media spectrum, Bites just heard that Sacramento political journalist Shane Goldmacher has landed a gig as congressional correspondent at the political mag National Journal in Washington, D.C.

Goldmacher was a summer intern here at the SN&R before skipping through gigs at the Capitol Weekly, Sacramento Bee and Los Angeles Times capital bureau. During that time he wrote, among other stories, about Ralph Drollinger and his controversial Bible study in the basement of the state Capitol, and about an 81-year-old man who went on daily walks with his pet pigeon, Buckey.

In case you left any of that stuff off your résumé Shane, you’re welcome.