LarryRemer
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Who's Mr. Clean? Larry Remer? Voice of San Diego?
Don: Credit should go where it's due. The original stories about C. Arnholt’s chicanery appeared in the San Diego Street Journal where a young UCSD grad student named Lowell Bergman cut his reportorial eye teeth. The Journal nailed Smith early; and Bergman went on to become a phenomenal reporter for Frontline (he interviewed Osama Bin Laden pre-9/11) and 60 Minutes (he produced the story killed by the network proving the cigarette companies knew for years about tobacco’s health hazards; Al Pacino played Berman in the movie The Insider). By mid-1973, when you arrived, the Feds were all over Smith. And the first news outfit to break the news that Smith was about to be indicted was the Door, in a story Doug Porter and I wrote. Now, let’s go to the day Smith’s bank was seized. That was YOUR STORY on B-1 white-washing Smith's downfall, neglecting to mention the bank’s failure, the myriad of investigations, Smith circling the drain etc. . . . Maybe I’ve missed your telling before, but it’s the first time I’ve heard “from the horse’s mouth” that Gen. Krulak spiked the salient points. Most folks are inclined to give you the benefit of the doubt, Don. Begrudgingly, I might also were you not so gleeful to skewer me for a memo that you’ve reported on several times without calling me for comment (as good journalistic practice would dictate). This may seem far afield from Buzz Woolley’s Voice of San Diego; except that it really isn’t. My point is that we’re all human and none of us perfect. You were a young reporter at Copley when Gen. Krulak forced your story to press white-washing the Smith demise. You could have removed your by-line. That was a reporter’s right. But you didn’t. The Copley Press was a very closed corporation in 1973; and Gen Krulak, the former Commandant of the Marines in the Pacific, was not somebody to be trifled with. Buck him and you’d be covering the Rose Blossom Festival in Alpine. But, I sense that you’re remorseful. I’m also glad that “somehow” the carbon got into the hands of the AP so more of the facts got out. I plead guilty to being human too. Jerry Dominelli was a major investor in Newsline, my newspaper. When I found out he was a crook, I was aghast. I also wasted no time in publishing a lengthy, detailed and very embarrassing front page story that spared no fact and apologized to my readers. I learned from the experience and it made me a better person. My main criticism of Scott Lewis, CEO of Woolley’s Voice of San Diego, is that he won’t admit his mistake. Woolley is their founder, a major contributor and Chairman of their Board. He is also a major backer of the No on Z campaign. The appropriate thing to do, in the interest of transparency, would be to run a disclaimer like he’s done in at least 2 other instances where the conflict was nowhere near as egregious. The more he obfuscates, the more he proves my point. I think that a wizened, battle scarred veteran like yourself would agree. LARRY— November 3, 2012 11:14 p.m.
Who's Mr. Clean? Larry Remer? Voice of San Diego?
I am all for history, Don. Let's go back to the days when Don Bauder was writing for the Copley owned San Diego Union and the Feds were closing in on the richest, most powerful guy in San Diego, C. Arnholt Smith. Now, Smith was very, shall we say, "connected". He was Richard Nixon's finance chair In fact, in 68 he watched the election returns with Nixon in his suite at the Waldorf in NY. San Diego was a fiefdom for Smith and Bauder's boss, Jim Copley, whose Copley Press monopoly (in pre-internet days) rode roughshod over San Diego politics. Copley's liaison to Nixon was Herb Klein, who served as editor fo the San Diego Union and in a variety of jobs for Copley between stints working for Nixon. Anyhow, Copley and Smith scratched each other's back; and that included the journalistic "cover" that Copley gave to Smith. Which brings us to the day when Smith's empire (an elaborate Ponzi scheme) came crashing down and the feds forced the closure of his bank, US National. It was, at that time, the largest bank failure in US history. It was a BIG STORY. Page 1 in the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal. But, in San Diego, the story ran on B-1. The headline; US National Sold To Crocker. No mention in the hed or the lede about the bank's failure. I'll let Don explain for himself his role in covering Smith and covering Copley's other good buddies when he (Bauder) was at the SD Union.— November 2, 2012 10:18 p.m.