11/02/08

Many of you read my weekly articles in the Turlock Journal. I was informed by the Journal editor that they would no longer publish my articles over some perceived grievance over things I said to the general manager. I’d like your support in one of the following ways:
1. If you have an ad in the paper, discontinue it.
2. If you subscribe to the Journal, cancel your subscription.
3. Call the Journal and protest.

I would appreciate your support.

Ed Brault

Updated 11/09/08

"The Story"
by Ed Brault

About three years ago, the editor of the Turlock Journal read some of my letters to the editor, and was sufficiently impressed to invite me to write a weekly column for the paper.
I accepted partly due to ego, but partly because I was sincerely willing to help the struggling Journal survive.

I also owed the Journal for publishing ever letter I ever wrote to them since the 1960s, probably before the current editor was born. I was not paid for my articles, and when offered a free subscription, I declined telling them that the Journal needed the money more than I did. Both of the former editors made it very clear that they appreciated my articles and let me know that my column was successful. The third editor, Kristina Hacker, agreed to continue publishing my articles, but I never got so much as a thank you from her. One day when I asked her how she felt about my articles, I got a bland, "Well, people read them." When she decided to discontinue my columns in a rather hostile manner, it felt like a slap in the face and an insult. Her reasons to get rid of me seem to override the good of the newspaper.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a factual background account of why I have issues with the editor of the Journal, and will never again write for the Journal as long as she is the editor.