Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

KPBS releases behind-the-scenes transcripts

Gloria Penner unleashed

KPBS, the public broadcasting operation owned and operated by San Diego State University, financed in large part by state taxpayers, has released more of the documents requested by City Attorney Mike Aguirre under the state's Public Records Act. Among them is a list of the station's top 20 underwriters in 2006. At the top is National University, followed by utilities giant Sempra Energy; Mission Federal Credit Union; Qualcomm; Union Bank of California; Lloyd Pest Control; Lexus; Cox Communications; Zoological Society of San Diego; UCSD; Mercedes-Benz; Coles Carpets; American Money Management; the Bob Baker Auto Group; the Union-Tribune; Perry Scientific; Front Porch; Irving Hughes Group; KCET-Fast Five; and Innovative Employee Solutions.

The KPBS files unearthed by Aguirre also pull back the curtain a bit on how station staffers and local pundits view the political landscape. On August 29, Gloria Penner, host of Editors Roundtable, e-mailed staff with "more ideas for our noon meeting," including "So what's with sex scandals and Republican legislators? David Vitter, Mark Foley, Bob Allen, and now Larry Craig. Plus all the other scandals -- Cunningham, Jack Abramoff and so forth." Another Penner-suggested topic: "$20,000 Quick Shipper bonuses to convince new and prior Army recruits to ship out for training within 30 days. Some recruiters believe the extended tours of duty and the age limit raised to 42 are helping to fill the ranks, but some local Army recruiting commands see their numbers short of the early goal. Some recruits could tally bonuses up to $40,000 with enlistments of 4 years or more. So -- are we becoming an army of mercenaries?"

Sponsored
Sponsored

The documents suggest that not everyone on the panel shares Penner's liberal outlook. In an August 29 e-mail, Tim McClain, who works for San Diego Metropolitan, a pro-business downtown monthly partly owned by wealthy lawyer John Davies (a close friend of ex-GOP governor Pete Wilson and chairman of that controversial "citizens" committee expected to recommend ways to strengthen the hand of Republican mayor Jerry Sanders), wrote, "For fun we can ask if anyone will run against the city attorney, who now is facing having his litigation expenses laundry spelled out in a union-funded report." In a June 14 e-mail, U-T editorial writer Chris Reed also was critical of Aguirre. "Aguirre is right that the mayor has totally mishandled this. But he goes beyond that to flatly say the mayor is corrupt, which I think is a crazy and destructive thing to do unless you have hard proof."

The talk was not all politics. Discussing with her producer the possibility of substituting Union-Tribune columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. for panel regular and U-T editorialist Bob Kittle, Penner wrote in a July 2 e-mail: "Ruben Navarrette said that he believes Bob is gone all week to his beach in house Cayuca (sp?). So I hope it's OK with you that I asked Ruben, if Bob is really not going to be here, to be on the show. I think he'd love to talk about the presidential candidates, although I think he would be willing to talk about just about anything."

For his part, Kittle wrote on April 25, "Good time for a discussion on the war funding bill. I'm writing an editorial on the subject for tomorrow. This is always a red meat issue for left-leaning KPBS listeners. Bis Freitag." On February 14, producer Hank Crook e-mailed Kittle about last-minute details of an upcoming program, concluding, "Hopefully this will be the final solution for the show." Replied Kittle: "Das geht fur mir. This works for me. My only worry is about your calling this show 'the final solution.' Now that I'm studying German, I get nervous hearing such terminology. Bis morgan. (Until tomorrow.)"

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

SD Symphony singer tells what it’s like behind the scenes

Conductor Payare even looks like Mahler

KPBS, the public broadcasting operation owned and operated by San Diego State University, financed in large part by state taxpayers, has released more of the documents requested by City Attorney Mike Aguirre under the state's Public Records Act. Among them is a list of the station's top 20 underwriters in 2006. At the top is National University, followed by utilities giant Sempra Energy; Mission Federal Credit Union; Qualcomm; Union Bank of California; Lloyd Pest Control; Lexus; Cox Communications; Zoological Society of San Diego; UCSD; Mercedes-Benz; Coles Carpets; American Money Management; the Bob Baker Auto Group; the Union-Tribune; Perry Scientific; Front Porch; Irving Hughes Group; KCET-Fast Five; and Innovative Employee Solutions.

The KPBS files unearthed by Aguirre also pull back the curtain a bit on how station staffers and local pundits view the political landscape. On August 29, Gloria Penner, host of Editors Roundtable, e-mailed staff with "more ideas for our noon meeting," including "So what's with sex scandals and Republican legislators? David Vitter, Mark Foley, Bob Allen, and now Larry Craig. Plus all the other scandals -- Cunningham, Jack Abramoff and so forth." Another Penner-suggested topic: "$20,000 Quick Shipper bonuses to convince new and prior Army recruits to ship out for training within 30 days. Some recruiters believe the extended tours of duty and the age limit raised to 42 are helping to fill the ranks, but some local Army recruiting commands see their numbers short of the early goal. Some recruits could tally bonuses up to $40,000 with enlistments of 4 years or more. So -- are we becoming an army of mercenaries?"

Sponsored
Sponsored

The documents suggest that not everyone on the panel shares Penner's liberal outlook. In an August 29 e-mail, Tim McClain, who works for San Diego Metropolitan, a pro-business downtown monthly partly owned by wealthy lawyer John Davies (a close friend of ex-GOP governor Pete Wilson and chairman of that controversial "citizens" committee expected to recommend ways to strengthen the hand of Republican mayor Jerry Sanders), wrote, "For fun we can ask if anyone will run against the city attorney, who now is facing having his litigation expenses laundry spelled out in a union-funded report." In a June 14 e-mail, U-T editorial writer Chris Reed also was critical of Aguirre. "Aguirre is right that the mayor has totally mishandled this. But he goes beyond that to flatly say the mayor is corrupt, which I think is a crazy and destructive thing to do unless you have hard proof."

The talk was not all politics. Discussing with her producer the possibility of substituting Union-Tribune columnist Ruben Navarrette Jr. for panel regular and U-T editorialist Bob Kittle, Penner wrote in a July 2 e-mail: "Ruben Navarrette said that he believes Bob is gone all week to his beach in house Cayuca (sp?). So I hope it's OK with you that I asked Ruben, if Bob is really not going to be here, to be on the show. I think he'd love to talk about the presidential candidates, although I think he would be willing to talk about just about anything."

For his part, Kittle wrote on April 25, "Good time for a discussion on the war funding bill. I'm writing an editorial on the subject for tomorrow. This is always a red meat issue for left-leaning KPBS listeners. Bis Freitag." On February 14, producer Hank Crook e-mailed Kittle about last-minute details of an upcoming program, concluding, "Hopefully this will be the final solution for the show." Replied Kittle: "Das geht fur mir. This works for me. My only worry is about your calling this show 'the final solution.' Now that I'm studying German, I get nervous hearing such terminology. Bis morgan. (Until tomorrow.)"

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Will Trump’s Baja resort be built after all?

Long-stalled development sparks art exhibit, gets new life
Next Article

Barrio Logan’s very good Dogg

Chicano comfort food proves plenty spicy
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader