The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Logan Jenkins delivered another great column yesterday, especially if one follows SD North County politics. A humorous and biting look at some of the political and other ongoings this past year in our northern areas of the county. I don’t always agree with Logan’s politics, but he’s funny…and a great writer.
I’ll get to it in a minute, but reading Jenkins’ wit does bring up a continuing question. Why is it that only the North County is blessed by SD’s newspaper of record with the kind of attention deserving of its own columnist? The politicians in the other areas might not like the prospects, as they could be outed a bit more, but I say bring it on (especially now that I’m out of office…ha!) After all, North County is not the only area of SD home to shenanigans. Plus, Logan doesn’t just hand out bricks…he often gives out bouquets when deserved (an example of both). If they’re doing a good job, the politicos in the non-northern cities should welcome the attention.
The U-T may explain the lack of focus in the other communities as a result of demographics, readership, affluence, yada, yada. It seems to me that the newspaper would test to see if some attention in the Logan Jenkins’ mode would help with readership in other areas of the county. The U-T literally owns the market in those areas, no?
Perhaps that’s the crux. The north has at least one other significant daily news source in the North County Times, whereas that is sadly not the case anywhere else, as far as I can tell…certainly not the case in East County. Does the U-T feel it has to compete in North County, and therefore ups the ante in only that area, while having no legit competition anywhere else?
I’ll put the question to the editors and some other folks at the paper. Let’s see if I get told I’m off base.
In the meantime, not to belittle Logan Jenkins’ work with my digression, here are some excerpts from his year-end wrap-up of yesterday:
Poway’s school district banned balloons in buses to spare students suffering from globophobia, the psychological fear of balloons. No word about birthday parties.
Coastal cities installed tsunami warning signs on beaches. In other words, if you’re on the beach reading the sign and a tsunami hits, you’re dead. And you’ve been warned.
Read all of Logan’s "North County’s sleazy, silly scrapbook" here.