10/18/11 -- The following press release was received by VIB at 2:09 PM
 

Vallejo City Councilperson & Mayoral Candidate  Joanne Schivley Charges Political Ad 'Censored,'will Hold News Conference at

City's Only Daily Newspaper Wednesday

VALLEJO – First it was bankruptcy, and now this city's only daily newspaper is refusing to run a political advertisement for sitting City Council member and mayoral candidate Joanne Schivley and she said today she's fighting back.

Schivley will hold a news conference to outline what she is calling "censorship" at 10:30 a.m. WEDNESDAY in front of the Vallejo Times Herald newspaper, 440 Curtola Parkway in Vallejo.

Schivley – a retired bank executive who would seem a perfect fit for this financially-troubled city – said the Vallejo Times Herald never verified the facts in a smear campaign against her (all of the claims in that ad were proven wrong), but now the paper is refusing to run her campaign ad even though it only cites official City Council votes.

"The refusal to run a paid political advertisement outlining public record of votes on major issues by City Council is censorship of First Amendment political freedom and has chilling effect on political process. This is an act of bias, obstructionism, voter manipulation, and an attempt to prohibit free press.

"This is a double standard with a “policy” applied selectively for the purpose of censorship and political manipulation. Yes, I’m running for office but this isn’t about me. Win or lose, it’s about protecting one of our basic freedoms and informing the public," charged Schivley, a three-time councilperson, in a statement.

Schivley has contacted the First Amendment Project, the First Amendment Coalition, California Aware and the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union and is now considering her legal options concerning the violation of her First Amendment rights of access to the media.

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Craig   |October.21.2011 October 19th, I wrote an email to TH subscription telling them that I would not be renewing my subscription because of their blatant bias against Joanne Schiveley. You would think that they would reply and either apologize or, in some fashion, try to retain a loyal subscriber of 16 years. No comment at all. They don't seem to care one iota. I wounder if their corporate masters are so indifferent to this failing newspaper. They've got money on the line. My recollection is that TH always smiled when Kurt Henke spoke, gave good coverage to the police and firefighters endorsments and financial support for city council office, had difficulty comprehending the bankrupcy, and, now, anyone but Schiveley. Each election, there was Joanne Schively saying. "the numbers don't work; we can't affort the public safety contracts". First, just her vote, next election, 2 votes, and, then, 3 votes opposing the "bought city council". Now, TH encourages 'reports' that "Joanne does not cooperate or play well with others". When the numbers do not add up, are headed for disaster but all the others refuse to see, the Joanne has been the voice crying in the wilderness. Corporate New Media needs to take the current editors & publishers to task for incompetence and contributing to the bankrupcy of Vallejo.

Looking for a leader   |October.20.2011 Schively did the right thing by holding a press conference over this issue. Where else was she going to air her grievance? In a letter to the editor in the Times Herald? Obviously, other news stations found the story newsworthy; they came out. But at this point, she needs to act like a leader and evaluate her legal options and proceed as she sees fits, if at all, with those options. BUT, the other side of this issue is that she is running to be MAYOR of this city and she has volunteers. GET OUT there supporters and pull the information off of the city website to back up the votes that support the claims Schively is making in her political add related to money. The contracts are public records and are in the staff reports when submitted to council, and the votes are recorded. I'm not surprised with the TH; the paper is the worst I've ever read in my over 50 years of reading newspapers (and I read 4 papers a day), but Ms. Schively, show some leadership.... show that you can step up to the challenge and get done what you need to get done to move forward with your agenda. That is what many are looking for in a leader.

Anonymous   |October.20.2011 Politics schmolitics, I couldn't agree more. I mean, come on Joanne. The world of politics is filled with dirty tricks. Those of us with half a brain already know this. What in the world are you going to do to be proactive. We've heard enough about bias and dirty tricks. Where is your pragmatic list of ACTION items to move us forward? Why are you not using the bully pulpit to push for pragmatic change that will yield results. Please.

Yellow Poster   |October.20.2011 For the reader. Look at the postings for the Video on Osby. Anonymous you made many claims which are all untrue. Osby brought these people into his office and had a professional video made of everyone praying etc.Don't tell us he was the uniformed victim

Kursham   |October.20.2011 Sam is his own worse enemy. It would be cruel to inverview him. He seems to have a rich fantasy life and is a tormented soul. Marc has done a better job as a one man band taking interviews and posting a balanced set of videos. People say good and bad things on camera but it is undeniable when they talk, who they are. Osby seems to have slipped away from VIB ... Why didn't he interview with VIB? What is he afraid of? Vallejo "City of god?" Really? Maybe it is time to draw the real conclusion... It is about exclusion. Dominion is practiced in Vallejo. All the same Pastors on the stage re-appear all over in City Official Positions commissions etc. They all say "I have a friend in Osby" time for change.

New Policy REALLY!!!   |October.20.2011 Jack Bumgart had Joanne's ad on Monday October 3rd. His ad department clerk and manager,Patrice Zettner had the ad Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in which time they were variously asking for reformating to fit the page and then changing the date it would run from October 8th to October 11th. This NEW POLICY just announced in today's TH was the same policy that the TH had had for 20 years Ms Zettner said even though she could not iimmediately locate it when asked for it by Joanne. In an interview on ABC television yesterday, Matt Miller, vice president of Advertising and Marketing for NorCal Newpaper group said the new policy was put in place 2 years ago. In this morning's paper Miller is quoted as saying the policy started this year. When you keep changing your story as Judge Judy frequently says "I don't believe you"

Salty Dog   |October.19.2011 This also just in: The TH response to Ms Shivley's complaint citing a "new policy" is utter nonsense. Clearly there is a close connection between the TH, Davis and Hannigan, who as recently as yesterday had a front page political ad under the auspices of a "news" story. Without a complete reversal of its damage control tactic and without an apology for its political machinations Vallejo's sole newspaper needs to be committed to the dustbin of history where it currently belongs. This so called media outlet isn't worthy of any cage lining. An insult to any caged animal.

Anonymous   |October.19.2011 The video made by Marc has pieced together information from several different sources and implied that Davis is affiliated with Ed Silvoso,Cindy Jacobs and their ilk. In reality, he is not and had never met Silvoso until he came to city hall.He has never met Cindy Jacobs. Silvoso was invited to Vallejo by Danny Jefferson and was brought to City Hall by Jefferson. Jefferson and other pastors prayed on the steps for the City on the same day as the national day of prayer. The mayor's comments are about prayer not about Silvoso or his teachings. The waterfront meeting in the video was hosted by Jefferson at a different time. The mayor did not attend that event. Jefferson and the other pastors hosted a prayer breakfast and used the Mayor's name to draw attendees to raise money for our schools. They have done this with other mayor's. Davis did not plan nor invite anyone to speak at these events. There is not one shred of real evidence in this video about the mayor and his connection to Silvoso, Jacobs, and uganda. Come on, the ugandans were put in to push people over the edge. Marc tries to legitimize his psuedo reporting by using a letter from Jonathan Gordon. This is a source? This video was not meant to inform or educate but was meant to smear. This is similar to the tactics used in the 2007 campaign with Pitts just more sophisticated. Instead of the kitty we now have video and Marc skulking like "the shadow knows". A real journalist would have gone to the source and asked the questions. A real journalist would have done some investigation and relied on facts rather than innuendo. But oh yeah, Marc is not a real journalist. As they said in days of old---- this is yellow journalism at its worst.

Times Horrid   |October.19.2011 This just in: Local Paper not fit to line a hamster cage with rabid loose stool having hamsters.

Anonymous   |October.19.2011 The Times Herald has had ample proof of Osby Davis' ties to dominionist cult leaders Silvoso and Jacobs. It's on video, it's on the VFO website, it's on Silvoso's website. No, they won't dare look into his background, and when he claims his bigoted remarks to the Times were "taken out of context", the TH takes him at his word without even checking it out. So you decide if they have an axe to grind. The reality is that Osby Davis has lots of friends in low places who will help make sure he's elected so he can help them out in the future. If you want to bash Joanne for trying to shed a little light on the disparity, go for it. In my eyes, what she has done is nowhere near as offensive as Osby Davis' sheer gall.

Craig   |October.19.2011 I wrote an email to the TH today telling them 'all my adult life, I've supported the local paper because I believe in it. After 16 years of subscribing to TH, I will not renew my subscription. Their bias has gone too far.

Well Then   |October.19.2011 @politics, well then vote for the bigot who will continue moving this city into bankruptcy and working out closed door deals for his friends. The fact that a City Council member has to prove the facts in her "paid" ad is an insult to her character. This paper printed an ad from the PSU's that was full of half truths and lies and they didn't have to back up their ads with facts or proof. They ran an article from Henke which as filled with lies about the CM, and that was written by one of their reporters. When asked for a retraction, they acknowledged the facts weren't proven but refused to retract it. They print ads for the classified everyday and many of the ads are from fraudulent sources. So if they hold their selves out to have such a high standard, when did it start? With Schivley's ad? And it was the paper that called Schivley about the egging of her home. She didn't call them. So vote for Davis if you want, but don't cry about the results of your actions.

Politics schmolitics   |October.19.2011 I hate the paper as much as the rest of you. Things need to change, but this is not the way. Ms. Schivley wants to cry about everything. I was a Schivley supporter. But I have heard her speak and read the articles and blogs. The whole world is out to get her wah,wah,wah. Someone egged my house. I didn't see her hating the paper then when the "pity me" story was in there. I saw the picture of her on the front of the TH. After reading the information under the picture, I thought it shed a negative light on Davis, not Schivley. It looks like she was tired of hearing Osby spout his nonsense. Most of us are. Yet Schivley supporters were up in arms to attack the photographer and the paper. This little press conference stunt is only going to hurt her campaign. Yes she will get in the paper and on the news, but at what expense? If all she had to do was provide information to back up her claims in the ad, then why couldn't she have done that. The claims were all based on council votes, right? Isn't that public record and should be in the minutes of the council meeting. It just takes a little time to make copies of the info. Really? Any change will be a good change to get Vallejo off this destructive path. Unfortunately I don't think good change will come from either of these candidates.

Moving On   |October.19.2011 This thread isn't about spammy. He wasn't ask to interview nor will he be asked and that's that. So let's please move on because whenever his name comes up, the flies show up. You know what I'm sayin?

know vallejo   |October.19.2011 you must have gotten your "incorrect information" from sammy himself. haven't you learned by now that sammy never has the truth about anything? he was banned because he has no boundaries or integrity and is incapable of acting appropriately in civilized society.

Anonymous   |October.19.2011 "Spammy" was banned from blogging here because he aggressively opposed removing binding arbitration from the city charter. Marc was pressured to ban him for that and then Marc made up the false cover of doing so because Kurshan was being profane. Kurshan was no more profane than anyone else who blogs here. Its was purely political and no matter what you hear to the contrary this is the reason. I am exercising my freedom of speech. Will I be censored or banned too?

Anonymous   |October.19.2011 Will someone please tell me if this is true? I heard that the press conference was being moved to City Hall, then I heard it was cancelled. I want to attend to support Joanne but now I don't know where to show up at.

You are mistaken   |October.19.2011 You are wrong.

Anonymous   |October.19.2011 My understanding is that Kurshan was offered and did not respond to or turned down an offer to be interviewed for VIB.

Mousy   |October.19.2011 Thank you for the tomato plant comments. It's a nice bit of brevity in a rather nasty discussion. We should all learn not to take ourselves too seriously

Anonymous   |October.19.2011 If I was Marc I wouldn't take $100 in ad money from Spammy and I wouldn't take $1,000 in ad money. It has nothing to do with censorship. First, VIB doesn't have any advertising at all. It keeps the "Independent" in Vallejo Independent Bulletin! Second, Spammy has shown a complete lack of respect for Marc and VIB, sometimes keeping the dialogue monitors hopping as they monitored and removed hundreds of his filthy, nasty posts as he threw digital temper tantrums. (Hence the name Spammy). He was banned from VIB. Just like the better newspaper blogs block certain users who continually ignore their rules of behavior. Censorship has nothing to do with Spammy. The political interviews Marc has done. Marc offered interviews to Osby Davis, Erin Hannigan and Jonathan Logan, even though he may disagree with them politically, and/or philosophically, he wanted to give us the opportunity to see them. Was Spammy offered an interview? I would guess not, probably because he is banned from here. There are repercussions to poor and downright nasty behavior. This is one them. He should have learned how to control his temper and get along in our civilized society. But then again, his arrest record wouldn't have been so active for so long if he had.

showmethemoney   |October.19.2011 A Bridgeport HOA resident thanks you Joanne. Re Sam- Let us settle this censorship debate. If Sam wants to pay for a political add, my bet is Marc would take the money.What say ye Marc... how much would you charge?

Anonymous   |October.18.2011 I wonder when I should pull my tomato plants for the year. It's so hard to make that call.

Jay   |October.18.2011 Joanne should also be escalating the issue within the MediaNews Group corporation itself. I can't imagine the higher-ups in the organization will be pleased to find that a piddling little newspaper in their chain is pulling a stunt like this. They're losing money and are in no condition to be turning away advertisers, not to mention all the negative publicity this will generate. http://www.medianewsgroup.com/about/Pages/ManagementTeam.aspx

Salty Dog   |October.18.2011 There is no doubt in my mind that the TH has a right to deny publication of Ms Shivley's political ad. It is a private company with that freedom to act as it deems fit. But, in doing so, and on the flimsy excuse of "fact checking", the paper raises nastier questions about its bias and its health as an independent publication. It slaps of special interests, dirty politics and a seedy side to political ambition. Someone is giving direction to squelch Ms Shivley's freedom to get her message out. And that is wrong. The sooner this publication experiences its demise, the better. Zero community credibility, IMO.

Yipeeee   |October.18.2011 "it is time to boycot the th without a birdcage to line it is all but worthless if they left town it would make room for a real newspaper cancel your subscription and donate to VIB !!!" Does that mean you hypocrites wont be anonymously blogging there anymore?

Attn:   |October.18.2011 Clean up on aisle 5! Bring the industrial cleaner, looks like orange goo.

wharf rat   |October.18.2011 is the VIB news crew covering the wed press confrence this is major news the refusal to post a paid add for a local canidate is simply due to the percieved loss of sales from all the other canidates mentioned in Joanne's add when in fact cable has been the best money spent by canidates for some time due to decline in reader-ship of the th... it is time to boycot the th without a birdcage to line it is all but worthless if they left town it would make room for a real newspaper cancel your subscription and donate to VIB !!!

Anonymous   |October.18.2011 Well, my tomatoes are at the end of the season, so they're rather soft. But the colors are fantastic! Orange, green, yellow and every shade of red you can imagine.

Mousy   |October.18.2011 "Free speech" seems to only be someone's speech who happens agrees with you these days. The TH does not post the entire length of an interview online. The TH downplays the Mayor's comments in the New York Times as out of context quotes by a blogger. That was a bold face lie. Add in the restriction of her campaign adds and Schivley is right to sue. So far I've heard no argument other than "she deserved it". Since when does anyone have the right to decide when someone else can speak? On that note, does Osby have a campaign site that isn't Facebook? Google has betrayed me if there is. An his FB info says nothing about his platform, only his quotes from the NYT articles and his rebuttals/apologies. No info I could find about his platform or what he stands for.

Salty Dog   |October.18.2011 Cite your evidence, anotheranon. Otherwise, you are pissing in the wind.

anotheronymous   |October.18.2011 Anonymous, you can take the tomato and shove it. Hypocrites. VIB is the most free speech controlling mechanism since Stalin. You people have the nerve to whine about this. Go ahead while everyone else laughs.

Salty Dog   |October.18.2011 OK Mousy, I'll bit...of course. I share Shivley's vies regarding the TH....it is a lousy publication that becomes less relevant to the community over time. It is lousy because it blatantly presents a biased perspective (ie Hannigan's front page piece under the auspices of "news" while preventing paid election ads. Any credible newspaper would be centered enough and secure enough and fair enough to avoid charges of bias. While the TH may have the right to choose what it publishes, when it pulls stunts like this, the whole idea of free speech in this land of the free rings a little hollow. IMO.

Anonymous   |October.18.2011 Do we need to discuss tomatoes again? Mine are still on the vine. They look scraggly, but still producing.

Anonymous   |October.18.2011 True Mousy. Spammy has a way of making everything about him. Focus people, focus! I thank Joanne for taking this stance. I don't care what she says about the newspaper. It's not about their thin skin and getting their feelings hurt. It's about serving this community and allowing different opinions to be shared with all. Their excuse for not printing her ad wasn't "we're a private business and can print what we want." It was a lame excuse that they needed to check the facts and didn't have time. When they don't fact check their own news stories or editorials every day, let alone their advertisements. L-O-S-E-R-S.

Anonymous   |October.18.2011 The TH has not been objective paper for years. Why try and pretend now. They favor Osby over Joanne and that's the end of it. I applaud Joanne for standing up to them. This woman never backs away from a fight. That's why her votes are always proven to be the right ones when viewed over time and it's why the chart/graph that her campaign has been circulating has been such an embarrassment to the city council majority. If I had Hannigan's, Osby's, Sunga's and Wilson's voting record I wouldn't want the truth to get out either. You can run but you can't hide.

Mousy   |October.18.2011 Here I thought their might be a political discussion about free speech. But no, it's just trolls arguing about Kurshan or bashing a political opponent. VIB commenters, you disappoint tonight.

wharf rat   |October.18.2011 there's only one MAM for the job !!!!

Saly Dog   |October.18.2011 Vallejo politics is a hoot and very entertaining.... lots of blow hearts and deflamatory talk. lol

know vallejo   |October.18.2011 no one would come for sam's press conference no matter where it was held. BTW, it's blowhard, not blowheart.

That has to be Kurshan   |October.18.2011 I have a great idea, why doesn't Sam Kurshan have a press conference in front of Marc Garman's house about not being allowed on VIB when all the other candidates got equal time. Just Sayin! I'm exercising my freedom of speech.

That has to be Kurshan   |October.18.2011 That has to be Kurshan, no way anyone ekse could feel that way. Now who's in denial?

Smiley Girl   |October.18.2011 Love it how scared some are of our strong Joanne. Makes me laugh

ANONYMOUS;   |October.18.2011 Schiveley is a blow heart and the truth is catching up to her. She takes credit for Touro (absolutely false, all credit should be given to Mayor Exline, who Schively fought with on a weekly basis); She takes credit for supporting Lennar in coming here ( and then fought them for over 10 years); She takes credit for fighting for sustainable wages for the Public Safety employees (but doesn't claim any responsibility for caving in to their demands for the past 10 years); She takes credit for eliminating BA (but doesn't admit to being intimidated by it for 10 years, even thought past City Council's never were: She blames the Chamber for not using good sense in opposing the Sales Tax Initative(as she does) but only criticized them when they didn't support her; She takes credit for allowing the IBEW to handle their own compensation package, but blames the Public Safety for not handling their. (Isn't that HER responsibility for the past 10 years?? She claims she is been in the minority for all 3 of her terms (if that is the truth, how in the hell did she accomplish so many things she is taking credit for...She is a blowheart and will tak our City even lower than it is..........Wake up IBVallejo and really look at the viciouness she has always created. You don't see Gomes, Brown, Hannigan or even Davis, Wilson and Sunga act that way. She is a virus, trying to spread. Now that is my free speech and also not deflamatoy, just the Facts.........

Anonymous   |October.18.2011 Thank you Joanne - you have a lot of folks behind you that think the same. Thank you for "going public" with it! VIB exists because of how Horrid the Horrid is. If it was a good paper with accurate articles, VIB wouldn't be necessary. VIB does it better, for free!

know vallejo   |October.18.2011 another of sam's behaviors, avoidance.

It's Kurshan's fault   |October.18.2011 Blah, blah, blah.

know vallejo   |October.18.2011 "Let's blame Sam Kurshan, after all we blame him for everything else." paranoid with delusions of grandeur. no one blamed sam for anything. a poster accused another poster of being sam. you do sound like sam when you project behaviors common to sam onto others. who is this "we" you are refering to? i don't blame sam for anything but his own behaviors. he doesn't have the power or control to be blamed for anything else.

It's Kurshan's fault   |October.18.2011 You're out of ammo better go reload before you get plowed. Moron said: "Hey Spammy, has Jessica called you yet? Remember, your multiple arrest record and litigious background will make great cannon fodder. BOOM!" The interviews are only for candidates that want the TH's endorsement. Kurshan refused it because he doesn't want or need any endorsements.

anon   |October.18.2011 Why hasn't the ad run in this publication?

Salty Dog   |October.18.2011 While the newspaper has a right to determine what it prints and does all the time, when it refuses to run paid advertising during an active election, it is setting itself up for the criticism it is getting- biased, chilling and.....well...one of the worst publications going. Awh....so the newspaper people were insulted. Grow up and accept your community responsibility if you want to lose the well deserved critique. And Sam....shut your pie hole.

Spam   |October.18.2011 Hey Tubster, has Jessica called you yet? Remember, your multiple arrest record and litigious background will make great cannon fodder. BOOM!

Anonymous   |October.18.2011 Go away Sam. You missed the prom.

Mousy   |October.18.2011 I hope she gets all lot of good free press. Forward this to all the media outlets you can people. Let's get Joanne on the 10 O'clock news.

know vallejo   |October.18.2011 you go jo! you certainly have my support.

Tiger Boy   |October.18.2011 Any candidate has a right to express his or her own opinion, as long as not defamation to harm someone.You go girl! Our 1st Amendment makes it very clear!!!

Payback is a beotch   |October.18.2011 She said the TH was "the worlds worst paper" now she wants to run an ad in it. They owe her nothing. She insulted them and it is her just dessert. You people need to stop whining long enough to get a breath of air to your brains. Bias is always OK here but heaven forbid it comes back at ya. For example, I don't see Sam Kurshan's interview here. I bet VIB has no plans to interview him. Stating my opinion here is unpopular. Will it be "censored?"

Grey Goose   |October.18.2011 Bravo Joanne! The Times Horrid has been biased for far too long.

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