One month after Peter Lance penned his five-part editorial series (pdf) for the Santa Barbara News-Press to expose alleged misconduct by the Santa Barbara Police Department’s award winning DUI officer Kasi Beutel, the arrogant yet diligent investigative reporter returned Saturday, Sunday and today with more accusations, including the alleged backdating of officer Beutel’s marriage license.
The bizarre and lengthy series, which has forced officer Beutel to “lawyer up”, has been praised by some who have had similar experiences as Peter Lance, the five-time Emmy-winning investigative who was arrested for DUI on New Year’s Day by… officer Beutel. The court case against Mr. Lance is still pending in the Santa Barbara court system, which is a bone of contention for critics of the series.
“In a word, I am horrified,” a local writer told the Santa Barbara View. “The News-Press allowing an accused DUI defendant to write a five(8)-part attack on his arresting officer goes way beyond irresponsible journalism. As a career journalist, I am disgusted to the bone by this.”
Five years after the infamous meltdown of the paper, the series has put the Santa Barbara News-Press back on the forefront of community debate, for better or worse.
While fueling a much-needed discussion about investigative journalism, the series has also served as a reminder to the level disgust many locals still feel towards the Santa Barbara News-Press. One former subscriber lamented that in under ten years, “one of the best Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers on the Pacific Coast (has turned) into the ultimate weapon of retaliation and revenge.”
In a related note, a rally will be held in De la Guerra Plaza this Thursday to mark the the five-year anniversary of the paper’s meltdown.
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Glad the Indy turned this series down. That’s the only paper I read.
Then you live in self-induced ignorance. Why don’t you just read your own blogs if all you are interested in is reaffirming your skew on life?
What’s more is your post is a lie. You obviously read the story or you wouldn’t be commenting. And if you comment without reading the story, you’ve proven you speak about things you have no clue about.
Then you’re an ignorant fool. Oh, and you’re a liar as well. You comment on something you didn’t read? Liar.
Good for the News-Press for continuing to push on this. I am amazed at the venom towards the messenger, the paper, that continues to be expressed. The Beutel/SBPD is an important issue that needs an independent investigation.
Sure, the N-P is biased but equally sure so is the Indy; the latter increasingly has become primarily an entertainment weekly. There are fine stories occasionally but SB deserves more and better news coverage. Or maybe it doesn’t, maybe we just don’t care….
Agree with 10:42 there was a problem here. Her arrest numbers were clearly juiced while here conviction rate was well below average – props the the NP for running this! I’ve enjoyed every word.
Yes, the Beutel/SBPD is an important issue that needs an independent investigation. So why didn’t the News-Press assign — or hire — an independent reporter to cover it? Certainly, Wendy McCaw has the financial resources.
I am happy to see the victim of these alleged corruption charges write the story first hand. And if you read the SBNP, you would see other reporteres are writing objectively about the issue. By your standards, the SBPD should not fear a state investigation, but they obviously do.
This whole attack is just a bunch of garbage. The people who read this rag in Montecito just to see themselves at some fundraiser could care less as well.
Local…that means crazy in Spanish, right?
Lance really, really wants to beat this DUI, doesn’t he?
You just really, really want to beat up the SBNP, don’t you?
Indy Fan: If the Independent is the only paper you read, then you should just start reading comic books. There’s no difference between the two.
So where is the coverage of Lance’s trial today?? NOWHERE at 6:30 PM.
Check out the picture of Lance in the Indy :
http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jul/27/what-gag-order/#c60043
This must be one of those 20 year old pictures like the annual Wendy photo
Yeah, kinda like that fruit cake Starshine who use to write for the SBNP and college photo’s of her next to her stories. Oh, by the way….she’s well into her 40′s but you wouldn’t know that by the photo/drawings she used.
There are legs to this story. There is more then enough evidence to support an independent investigation on a state level. There are obvious ex-Santa Barbara News Press employee’s who attempt to discredit the Newspress because of sour grapes. There are obvious letter’s to the editor in favor of Kasi Butel that are made up of MADD members who have are not interested in the corruption issue of this story, but more interested in preserving the numbers of DUI arrests KB has made to justify their Madness at the expense of the innocent. I tend to believe much of what Peter Lance has reported. No one goes to these lengths to lie about what has been reported. And no one goes to the lengths that KB has to avoid testifying truthfully without the sudden memory loss she has displayed. No one goes to court that was a victim of KB’s DUI crusade in front of a court packed with SB knowing they will be subject to payback for their testimony if they had not been wrongly convicted. The SBPD is obviously serving and protecting their own in this instance.
Obviously a lot of ex-SBNP union types who are not interested in the truth, just interested in discrediting anyone or any story associated with the SBNP. You guys really need to move on with your lives. You’re pathetic.
So let me get this straight. There are so called reader’s here who claim they don’t read the SBNP, but yet, here they are commenting on articles in the SBNP. Uh huh. You don’t read the SBNP….yeah, sure you don’t.