Auditor Confirms It: Convention Center Attendance Figures Misleading

A sampling of VOSD convention center coverage, 2012: VOSD Fact Check on DeMaio saying convention center expansion funding is private. Verdict: "Huckster Propaganda." http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/fact/article_5c33c… Fact Check TV: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/fact/article_f7fce… "Hoteliers Get Their Wish In Convention Center Deal": http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/government/thehall… "Big Hotels Continue to Throw Their Weight Around." (on secret hotel vote for convention center expansion): http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/government/article… "City Attorney Wants to Reveal Secrets, But Won't" (secret hotel vote): http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/government/thehall… "Secrecy Erodes in Hotel Vote": http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/government/thehall… "Tax Hike Details Remain Secret": http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/government/thehall… Scott Lewis column: "Fletcher: DeMaio Supports a 'Billion-Dollar' Tax Hike! (So Do I)": http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/scott-lewis/articl… "DeMaio's Convention Center Flubs: Fact Check": http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/fact/article_5f9a7… Opinion: Convention Centers Are Not 'Economic Engines': http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/peoplespost/vkogan… Scott Lewis column on convention center projections: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/scott-lewis/articl…
— September 2, 2012 10:36 p.m.

Auditor Confirms It: Convention Center Attendance Figures Misleading

Thanks for the thoughts, Fred, on my miserable, hubristic, amusing and overall failed opinions. I don't get paid to have a dialogue with you. And I'm not going to deal with that kind of attitude for free. See ya. -Randy
— August 27, 2012 12:47 p.m.

Auditor Confirms It: Convention Center Attendance Figures Misleading

Fact Check: Claim: "Journalists are scared. Their jobs are disappearing, and they know that their best hope is to leave journalism and join a big company or the government as a mouthpiece." Verdict: Misleading. This is hardly the case for all or perhaps even most journalists in San Diego. Many of us remain dedicated to our jobs, despite the pay, and don't wish to ever go to the Dark Side and work in public relations. *** Claim: "See in the view of San Diego's low paid news workers, actually reporting on corruption destroys your leverage for future job negotiations, while keeping mum and extorting money has a great future. Besides, they'll lose their current crummy position if they buck the powers that be..." Verdict: Unsupported. You have not provided any evidence of this. It's certainly not the case with any journalists I know, who would drool at the opportunity to expose corruption (and in many cases have done just that). I can't speak for the U-T. Most journalists there, however, aren't low-paid, so I assume you aren't referring to them. *** Claim: "... spoon feeding it to VOSD, PBS, or the UT." Verdict: False. Have you paid attention to how many times VOSD has had to fight with the city to get information that should be public? Again and again and again. *** As for the idea that VOSD is somehow in thrall to the convention center expansion: You really need to read VOSD or at least examine its archives and view the very skeptical coverage from the last several years. You'll find multiple mentions of Heywood Sanders and his views, multiple stories examining the new taxes to fund the convention, multiple stories questioning numbers, and multiple links to skeptical coverage outside VOSD. *** I speak only for myself. I'm a freelance contributor to VOSD. At the same time, I remain an independent journalist who often challenges the way it does things. A kiss-up I am not. Whatever it does, VOSD deserves accurate coverage. It's absolutely wrong to accuse VOSD of partisan hackery in its coverage of the convention center expansion issue. -Randy Dotinga
— August 27, 2012 12:36 a.m.