Re “A Different Ridley-Thomas at Oil Field Update Meeting”
Re “The Fabric Was Stretched at Oil Field Meeting”
[Editor’s Note: Three months ago this afternoon, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, peeved to the point of outrage at a Jan. 28 story in this newspaper, began a marathon pout that continues unabated. Without delving into unpleasant details in the 90-day interim, Mr. Ridley-Thomas, ducking contact by telephone and email, deputized one Karly Katona to telephone the newspaper late yesterday afternoon. She was to give her impressions of his Monday night “community meeting” on the oil field regulations dispute. Ms. Katona was understandably taken aback when the editor said he did not want to speak with her, only with the supervisor. Shortly after, Ms. Katona emailed the newspaper. This morning, the editor replied to her. Below is the record of their correspondence.]
On Apr 27, 2011, at 5:47 PM, Katona, Karly wrote:
Ari,
Just to follow-up on our conversation, I have informed the Supervisor that you would like to speak with him directly.
I did want to let you know that I was a bit surprised by your article entitled, “Ridley-Thomas: Disappointment” where you describe the Supervisor as follows…
His public performances have followed the trajectory of a lopsided medicine ball rolling over a steep cliff.
Too bad that he has melted into a grim disappointment resembling the mass of political faces in this town rather than continuing to stand out as an authentic man of the people.
This appears somewhat ironic, given that it was posted alongside two articles that describe the work that the Supervisor is leading related to the new MLK hospital and Crenshaw Transit Line, two of the largest public works projects in the Second District's history…
Karly Katona
Deputy to Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas
Second District, County of Los Angeles
(213) 974-2222
My Response:
From: Ari Noonan
Date: April 28, 2011 6:27:16 AM PDT
To: “Katona, Karly”
Subject: Ms. Kartona:
I appreciate your followup.
Here is why you should not have been surprised. I am as concerned with the internals as well as the externals of people I cover on a regular basis, the state of their character. Class or its lack always rings through as it has this time in large, brassy letters.
At the newspaper and hopefully in my personal life, integrity is my most important product. The first law of my journalism is that my opinions and my news coverage are unrelated — as unrelated as, oh, many politicians and their integrity.
My opinions are divorced, irrevocably, from the news coverage of this newspaper.
In a coming opinion piece, perhaps today, I will write about the supervisor's vanishing, and evidently illusory, sense of integrity.
In the past three months, he has demonstrated, repeatedly, he is not the honest person I believed him to be the past three years, all, as far as I know, over one incident. There were warning signposts the last three years, but I chose to ignore them.
It is a sharp disappointment that he has become a petulant prisoner of his pettiness, reacting childishly to an accurate critique of him after a disingenuous/phony community meeting at Kenny Hahn State Park in January that he tried, and almost succeeded, in slipping past the people. The piece at issue was a news story — the critical opinions came from a lawyer, Ken Kutcher. The supervisor telephoned me the day the story appeared. Dishonestly, he masked his anger at the story with a jolly, Hey, How Is It Going? Ha, Ha approach.
I am not very smart, a slow thinker. Took me awhile to process that, wow, he was furious. Only he lacked the courage to say it directly to my ear. Instead, he has skulked around for 90 days. That is a lot of investment in something so small. Courage and honesty are cornerstones of a man's character.
You undoubtedly know that once you cut a corner, the second time it is easier, and by the third time, you hardly notice you have cheated. This, I believe, is what has happened here.
By spreading himself too thin with a too ambitious agenda when he came to office 2 1/2 years ago, he has fallen down in some areas. One crucial failing was in his promised but failed close monitoring of the
oil-drilling regulations dispute regarding the Baldwin Hills oil field. Instead, he effectively lied. He did not shilly shally a little to the left or a little to the right. He was so smoothly dishonest, and that was his fatal error, which goes to a character defect. Once again, no problem because I have character defects. I don't do important responsibilities that I have, a character defect of mine. The difference, I believe, is that I acknowledge them and the supervisor, who evidently must be right on all occasions, does not. Failing was no crime, if only he had acknowledged it. He compounded one speck of disingenuity with subsequent layers of dishonesty, which continue, sadly, down to this morning.
He grossly neglected following up on the drilling regulations and reporting back to the people. So what? It happens. But he was not honest enough to admit it, and that not only is disappointing but disgusting.
On the volume scale of the people who cover the supervisor, I am a flea on an elephant's back. My supposed sphere of influence is not going to get him elected or unelected.
But his thin-skinnedness needs to be known by his constituents. I shall so inform them, starting today or tomorrow, as often as necessary.
Again, I appreciate your call yesterday and your note. I do not mean to place you in an awkward position. The matter lies — a fascinating verb — entirely with what I believe is a gaping opening in the supervisor's character.
Thank you.
ari noonan
