The Union newspaper’s “growth strategy” seems to be clinging to a declining, aging, deeply conservative demographic, and nowhere is it more apparent than with its paid weekly columnist George Boardman.
Boardman’s latest target is YubaNet, which has been delivering daily news to the Sierra since 1999 — for free. Its fire coverage is impeccable and its co-founder and editor, Pascale Fusshoeller, is widely respected.
Yet Boardman claims that YubaNet is “smoke and mirrors” when it comes to being a “genuine news source.”
The real issue is that Boardman can’t stand that YubaNet won’t agree with his own views, so he belittles them.
And it has polarized the community. Here’s a comment on Boardman’s blog from Todd Juvinall: “Funny how even I wore (sic) to ask the Yubanet babe be allowed to stay in America. So have we seen any thanks? Nope. And I am told there are other reasons the Yubanet folks are not going to do anything to hurt Senum.”
No one else has commented. No one.
Boardman has a conflict of interest, because he is paid to write for The Union, a competitor.
But worse, you have to wonder what in the world the new publisher Don Rogers thinks is so valuable about paying Boardman to be its weekly columist. Boardman is a “mini me” of The Union’s former publisher Jeff Ackerman, a highly polarizing force who is “yesterday’s lettuce” in our community.
I wonder if Don will have the fortitude to replace Boardman with a columnist who reflects the future of our community — not the past. The community is watching, that’s for sure.