Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

This post was forwarded to me by a reader from a journalism job site. From what I’ve heard previously, this is not an additional hire but a replacement for a departing reporter. I also hear there are some other year-end departures, in sales, for example.

“Description:

“The Union in Grass Valley, Calif., is looking for a talented reporter with public records and multimedia skills. Two years experience preferred.

“We’re looking for a reporter who works hard, produces vigorously, and can handle breaking news, complex subjects and investigative material along with intense government coverage, occasional features, routine community news and briefs.

“We have a strong online presence and are looking for a reporter with photo, video and social networking skills to enrich our Web page.

“Our reporter needs to be able to spin a yarn in print and on video, have excellent writing skills, strong people skills, deep grasp of AP style and be a self-starter. The successful candidate will be able to develop a beat, work contacts, bring home the story, not take “no” for an answer and be willing to accept serious, thoughtful editing.

“Positive attitude, team spirit, technological aptitude, professional presentation, good organization, follow-through and customer service are essential; humor and humility a plus.”

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Thirty years ago, on Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was gunned down outside his apartment in New York City. I remember it distinctly: I was in my senior year of college, working as a freelancer (known as a “stringer”) for Time magazine.

I was hired the week of the Mount St. Helen’s volcano eruption earlier in the summer, because the L.A. bureau chief — a long-timer named William Rademakers — needed some more reporters, and he liked my credentials and “clips.” Journalism was different then: Our bureau was in Beverly Hills, where I had a small office, phone and an IBM Selectric (or “golfball”) typewriter.

There was no internet then for real-time reporting. At Time, reporters wrote their stories on typewriters, and the copy was sent to New York via Telex, where it was combined with other bureau reports into a single story. The New York staff jumped into full gear when Lennon was shot, filing detailed reports.

Much of the reporting — the horrible shooting itself (four times in the back with hollow-point bullets) and the details about gunman Mark Chapman’s life — was original and “scooped” the dailies. But the rush was unnecessary: The weekly magazine had been “put to bed” over the weekend with a cover story on, well, “Robots.”

It was not until two weeks later that the reporting resulted in a retrospective cover story on Lennon titled “When the music died.” It is here.

Some of our L.A. reporting was incorporated in the cover. Newsmagazines are a collaborative effort. The inner workings of any newsroom — veterans call it the “sausage factory” — can be messy at times, and Time was no exception. Editors and reporters argue about the placement of paragraphs, they try to fill the “holes” in reporting and the like.

Nowadays news is reported in “nanoseconds,” with self publishing tools. Print newsweeklies, like Time and Newsweek, are considered anachronisms.

Still, journalism is “history in a hurry” and it helps to read a narrative on the bigger picture. Nowadays, more than ever, we need context to help connect the dots.

Tomorrow’s New York Times includes this personal story by Yoko Ono about her husband, titled “The Tea Maker.” It is here.

In case you forgot what happened 30 years ago, here are some other Time magazine covers from later that year to jog your memory:

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I’ve said my peace about my alma mater Cal’s football team, now in a slide toward mediocrity. My Sunday’s have been free for years, thanks to the 49′ers.

I’ve got something to celebrate, however, and it’s much bigger. I just put the finishing touches on a family road-trip to L.A. this weekend for the sweetest bowl game of all: My nephew leading San Francisco City College (11-0) in the state championship game against Mount San Antonio College (12-0) as the starting quarterback. Kickoff for the CCCAA championship game is at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The game caps a long road to recovery for my nephew, Steele. I am confident it will lead to a full scholarship at a Division 1-A school next year in a leading role — the goal all along. The deadline for him to sign a deal is Dec. 15.

At NU, Steele missed out on his senior year because of an injury, a real blow. Details here. But he persisted and won a spot on the team at the University of Hawaii — but not as a quarterback. This was his goal. “Fine, fine,” I said, happy enough at his rebound, and so he came back.

At San Francisco City College — a well-known “feeder” school for Division 1 football — Steele has worked his way into the starting role of quarterback and is getting good grades. We helped introduce him to the city and our favorite restaurants. It’s been a real learning experience. His brother, Broughan, also is a QB on the team.

This weekend my wife, son and I are going to enjoy the game down south with the rest of the family (including a pitstop in Pasadena for a “teddy bear tea” for my son).

I’m extremely proud of my nephew. And as I like to joke with his father (we’re both Sinatra fans), “The best is yet to come.”

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Editor’s note: On their blogs, the cheerleaders for the hard right — Todd Juvinall and Barry Pruett —put on a brave face and downplayed Tina Vernon’s victory over Dai Meagher for county treasurer. CABPRO endorsed Meagher, as I first reported.

But the CABPRO newsletter, which I picked up at B&C Hardware yesterday along with a gallon of paint, has a more “sour grapes” approach.

“Democrats push Vernon into Treasurer/Tax Collector office
By CABPRO staff

“Tina Vernon, the life-long Democrat who conveniently registered as Republican in 2008 (shortly after E. Christina Dabis began grooming her to run for the office) is the likely winner of the Treasurer/Tax Collector contest. Meagher was hammered in District 1, losing all but two precincts there, but he won or tied in 45 percent in the County’s 78 precincts. . . . Meagher won 59 percent of the votes in the precincts that Meg Whitman won for Governor while Vernon won 79 percent of all the votes in the precincts that Jerry Brown prevailed in for Governor.

“Vernon’s success with Democrat voters was greatly helped by her support from activists Joey Jordon, Steve Enos and Pat Wynne. Vernon supporters comprised a virtual who’s who list of Nevada County’s extreme left, sprinkled with a few RINOs.”

For the record, all of the county’s supervisors — apparently RINOs — endorsed Vernon.

Exit Question: Is CABPRO becoming increasingly irrelevant? Did Meagher err in seeking its endorsement? After all, most of us are centrists.

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Writing in the New Republic this week, Peter Schrag, the former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee and a longtime writer on California political affairs, argues that California is the future of U.S. politics — not the “left out” coast.

“The great sweep of 2010, in short, more likely marked the end of something, not the beginning. The nation’s young voters, like California’s, are far more comfortable in that new globalized world, accustomed to the ethnic diversity that they grew up with and are going to school with, more environmentally conscious, and untroubled by gay marriage. And of course, a sizeable portion of those young voters are immigrants or the children of immigrants—Latinos and Asian particularly. They are the nation’s future. And so, as ever, is California.”

Though the turnout of young voters was abnormally low in the mid-term elections, “those numbers will obviously change in 2012.” He cites a general election, demographics, as well as the composition of the tea party, “which is older and whiter than the national average, and which had virtually no impact in the Golden State.”

The article is here.

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