Tag: George Boardman

“Lorraine’s Lowdown” gets Boardman’s briefs in a bunch at The Union

“Bored” Georgeman (https://www.gishgallop.com/author/bored/) Note to readers: This is not the real George Boardman’s photo; it is from a parody website.

The Union columnist George Boardman never graduated past the podunk San Mateo Times, so it’s hard for him to appreciate the talents of beloved and award-winning columnists at big-league newspapers such as The San Francisco Chronicle.

Although Amphlett’s San Mateo Times has all but vanished, Northern California’s largest newspaper, The Chronicle, earlier this month was named the state’s best large newspaper for the fourth year in a row by the California News Publishers Association. Woo-hoo!

The volume of Boardman’s corrections alone would disqualify him from being called a talent. He might as well just sign his name “CORRECTION:”

Let’s face it: George is no Herb Caen, Art Hoppe, Jon Carroll, Carl Nolte, Bruce Jenkins, Matier & Ross and so on.  I know it also has irked George to no end that Herb was a friend, longtime former colleague and neighbor of “Jeffy” on Nob Hill.

Transport yourself from the late Pulitzer-winning columnist’s home on Nob Hill to George Boardman’s haunt in “Lake of the Pines” (one of western Nevada County’s two “gated” communities) and bear witness to The Union columnist sitting in his BarcaLounger and fuming about the content in Lorraine Jewett’s new column, “Lorraine’s Lowdown.” (Where’s the R.L. Crabb cartoon?)

On his “blog,” George is gnashing his teeth because Lorraine had the audacity to run this in her column: “. . . the classy magazine published by Jeff and Shannon Pelline.” And it even got past the editors!

Boardman goes on to lecture us like a schoolmarm: “The word (‘classy’) was used by Lorraine Jewett in her column, ‘Lorraine’s Lowdown,’ where never is found a discouraging word. Lorraine speaks for herself, not The Union.”

“Never is found a discouraging word”? Meow George! As if George’s column is “investigative journalism.”

For the record — and George is too out of touch to know this — but The Union publisher has also complimented our magazine, as well as the annual art gallery guide that we publish for the Nevada County Arts Council. And so has the Grass Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Yup, George also got it wrong with his churlish remark: “You have to wonder what (Chamber Executive Director Robin Galvan-Davis) thought when Jeffy’s membership application showed up in the mail.”

If Georgie had bothered to get out of his arm chair and do some reporting (a recurring complaint about his work around town), our not-so-curious George would have learned that “Jeffy’s membership application didn’t show up in the mail,” as mischaracterized in his “reporting.”

To the contrary, Robin and Chamber President Joy Porter reached out to us to join. Joy came to our home, made a pitch, we had a good (and frank) discussion —and we decided to join. We also belong to the Nevada City and Truckee chambers.

Robin invited us to distribute our magazine at the Grass Valley Chamber ‘s Visitor Center, and the digital version of our magazine was promoted in the latest Chamber newsletter, along with a link to digital.sierraculture.com. George can pick up his own version there — for free.

“Bored” Georgeman’s column has become stale and boring, and I keep waiting for The Union to drop it. To his credit, George does top all The Union’s regular columnists in one category, however: corrections.

Union columnist Boardman gets it wrong (again) — this time he’s confused about the “Sunrise Movement”

The published corrections are endless with The Union’s weekly columnist George Boardman, as we all know. And here’s another one that he owes us:

This week George writes, “The Sunshine Movement, the same great folks who helped propel Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez into the crosshairs of conservatives everywhere, has announced it is backing Audrey Denney’s encore effort to unseat Rep. Doug LaMalfa.”

Huh? I think George means the Sunrise Movement, not the “Sunshine Movement.”

Listen up “Georgie Porgie”  (rewriting a person’s name with “ie” is George’s way of deprecating others, as if they were a child):

As Rolling Stone explains — “Two days after Doug LaMalfa, a climate-denying Republican, was re-elected to his fourth term in Congress, the Camp fire — the deadliest fire in a century and the most destructive in California’s history — broke out in his district. It raged for two and a half weeks, displacing 52,000 people and killing 67. On Saturday, Audrey Denney — an environmentalist and professor who lost to LaMalfa in 2018 — became the first 2020 candidate endorsed by the Sunrise Movement when she announced her intention to challenge him again.”

So there you have it: Rolling Stone gets it right (“Sunrise Movement,”) and The Union’s weekly columnist gets it wrong (“Sunshine Movement”).

Memo to George: Are you out of touch, confused, too lazy to fact check your column, or all of the above? Perhaps you are confusing the “Sunrise Movement” with John Denver’s “Sunshine on my shoulders”? ROFLOL.

And here’s the irony: Local right-wing blogger George Rebane labels his contemporary “the other George” (Boardman) a “progressive.” Ha! If Boardman is a progressive’s “friend,” who needs enemies? He can’t even get the Sunrise progressive movement right!

A video from the Chico State student newspaper explains it. Listen up George; you might learn something:

The Union columnist Boardman can’t even spell Supervisor Heide (sic) Hall’s name

“Now, when is he going to run Heide Hall’s statement?” The Union columnist George Boardman writes on his blog.

George, our County Supervisor’s name is Heidi Hall, not Heide Hall.

Congratulations! You just got a Medill “F’! I guess that’s par for the course for a San Mateo Times alum.

Clickbait?

“Welcome to the all-new TheUnion.com! We’ve redesigned our website from the ground up to deliver an exceptional experience to you, our readers. If you’re a fan of using your smartphone or tablet to read your local news, we think you’ll find that our new site delivers you a browsing experience that is better than ever before.”

“WHAT HASN’T CHANGED? We’re still delivering you the most local news content every day!”

OK. Thanks. Good luck!

Poll: Union “mobile first” redesign gets tepid response (AKA who wants to read Boardman’s column on an iPhone XR?!)

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iPhone XR (Photo: Apple)

The Union newspaper’s “mobile first” redesign is getting a tepid response, according to the newspaper’s own online poll. So far, 70 percent of those who voted said “I liked the old one better.” Just 16 percent said, “Yes, it’s so easy to use on my phone.”

The results are here:

This should NOT come as a surprise, because of the newspaper’s demographics. It reflects an aging, and a flat to declining population around here (AKA a retirement town). School enrollment has been declining. And guess what? Those who are 62 and older are the LEAST LIKELY GROUP to read newspapers on their phones. More of them prefer to read their newspapers in print.

As Pew reports: “About seven-in-ten adults ages 18 to 29 (71%) often get news on a mobile device, compared with 37% of those ages 65 or older. Moreover, those 65 and older are still more likely to often get news on a desktop than on a mobile device (47% compared with 37%, respectively). This is the only age group more likely to get news on a desktop or laptop computer than on a mobile device.”

“Square peg, meet round hole.” Bottom line: The Union needs to find some more fresh content to draw new readers, not just repurpose its existing content on a mobile platform. Content is king — not the platform.

George Boardman’s column and “mobile first” — an incongruous business formula for The Union

So let me get this straight: The Union is going “mobile first” to meet digital demand, relaunching its website, we learned in a column this week.

Yet its content is George Boardman’s weekly column, a “keepsake” of the print era.

Memo to The Union: Content is king more than distribution. More here.

The Union columnist George Boardman runs ANOTHER correction

“CORRECTION: The estimated value of the shopping carts rounded up by Auburn Police was $3,200, not the $3,500 reported in last week’s Observation,” Boardman writes this week.

No kidding! I wrote about this Boardman blunder last week. I jokingly call it “Boardman math.”

The Union columnist George Boardman owes his readers another correction

“THINGS MUST be slow in Auburn: The police announced they have rounded up $3,500 worth of abandoned shopping carts,” The Union’s weekly columnist George Boardman writes in his column this week.

$3,500? According to the Auburn Journal, it’s $3,200, not $3,500. “Auburn Police are reporting about $3,200 worth of shopping carts were rounded up and returned to stores this week,” the newspaper reported.

To be sure, I checked with the Auburn Police Department, which directed me to their Facebook page. And sure enough, the Auburn Journal got it right — and Boardman got it wrong (again). See the last sentence below on the Auburn P.D.’s Facebook page.

The Union columnist George Boardman’s blog posts about me are getting a little creepy

George Boardman
Credit: The Union

Earlier this week, I got an email that the Chevron station in Nevada City was the victim of a credit-card skimming incident. I emailed the information to Don Rogers and Brian Hamilton at The Union, and others might have too. It resulted in a news article — reasonable enough, and a good job.

But here’s how George Boardman, The Union’s weekly columnist, handled this news it in a blog post — a creepy angle, to be sure.

—”… the Chevron gas station and mini-mart in Nevada City, a business that’s within shouting distance of where he lives.” No, it is not within “shouting distance” of our home. Not even electric megaphone distance.

— “Well, we know the family likes to spend gas money down the hill at the Arco station in Auburn, so my guess is he buys most of his gas at the Arco station in Grass Valley.” No. We do not frequent either of those stations much. We mostly “gas up” at the Gold Flat Union station or one of several (never Arco) in Grass Valley. BTW, Auburn is not “down the hill”; it is “on the hill.”

—”It’s estimated that about 30 customers have been victimized to the tune of about $30,000. Was Jeffie one of them?” No; you could have checked with me.

— “Then there’s Pioneer Park, within walking distance for somebody in reasonable shape.” This is juxtaposed against an unflattering photo of me, taken without my permission some time ago by someone who has never identified themselves, that once appeared on Todd Juvinall’s blog. Are creeps following me around with a camera?

— “All of this crime may explain why he installed a security system in his home.” Too much information, George.

Small towns are a hoot!

Another Boardman error; this time he blames spell-check!

You can’t make this stuff up! Last week, I noted that George Boardman (AKA “Bored” Georgeman) somehow confused a hip fast-casual salad chain (Sweetgreen) with Chinese takeout in Queens (Sweet Garden) in his weekly column in The Union. The details are here.

Sure enough, like clockwork, he posted another CORRECTION. But here’s the best part; he blamed it on a spelling error, writing in The Union:

That’s some spelling error, confusing the word “green” and “garden.” Or just plain confused.

But it’s sure not the first! To get an idea, go to TheUnion.com and type “George Boardman” and “correction” into the search engine. Go to “all results.” It’s a real treasure trove of errors!