Santa Barbara News Press Newspaper

A judge has ruled that the Santa Barbara News-Press committed flagrant violations of federal labor laws when it fired eight journalists for engaging in union activities, and he ordered that the newspaper rehire the former employees. Evidence presented during a 17-day hearing last summer shows "the News-Press' widespread, general disregard for the fundamental rights of the employees," Administrative Law Judge William G. Kocol wrote in a 75-page decision issued last week.

Six newsroom employees of the Santa Barbara News-Press were fired this week after they and several former employees hung a large banner over a freeway urging subscribers to boycott the newspaper. The banner, displayed Friday from a bridge over the 101 Freeway, asked motorists to cancel their subscriptions. The protesters also held signs saying "Protect Free Speech."

After seven months of intense drama -- firings, walkouts, boycotts, legal challenges and a union drive -- the simplest measure of the impact here from billionaire Wendy McCaw's showdown with her newspaper staff is told by Johnny Morosin. Someone Morosin knows died recently, and he didn't find out until a few days later. Like countless others, Morosin no longer reads McCaw's News-Press, so he missed the death notice.

The National Labor Relations Board has added more charges against the Santa Barbara News-Press, alleging that publisher Wendy McCaw fired another round of employees in retaliation for union actions. Six reporters were fired last month after hanging a banner that read "Cancel your newspaper today" from an overpass on the 101 Freeway.

In the latest in a series of charges and countercharges at the Santa Barbara News-Press, the newspaper alleged in a front-page article Sunday that the computer hard drive used by former editor Jerry Roberts had once contained images of child and adult pornography. The article came after months of turmoil at the paper. In July, Roberts and a number of other key personnel resigned over what they described as meddling in editorial content by News-Press owner Wendy McCaw.

The former executive editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press on Monday formally demanded a retraction of a front-page story that linked him to a workplace computer that contained pornography. The Sunday article stated that Jerry Roberts worked on a computer that was later found to hold more than 15,000 images of child and adult pornography. Roberts denied any connection to the pornography and said the computer had been used by at least two other editors before he joined the newspaper in May 2002.

santa barbara -- After a year of name calling, serial litigation and dozens of newsroom defections, American journalism's nastiest in-house squabble debuted in a courtroom here Tuesday. Attorneys for eight fired journalists accused Santa Barbara News-Press owner Wendy McCaw of trying to quash a union organizing drive, while the publisher's lead lawyer argued that the employees overstepped their authority and tried to seize control of the newspaper.

A federal agency has certified a contested union election at the Santa Barbara News-Press, where dozens of newsroom employees have either quit or been fired in the last year. The National Labor Relations Board on Thursday unanimously rejected arguments by management that unfair organizing tactics were used during a September election in which newsroom employees voted 33 to 6 in favor of joining the Graphics Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Santa Barbara News-Press Publisher Wendy McCaw testified Tuesday that she didn't demand multiple firings in her newsroom but was troubled by what she viewed as biased reporting in several stories that appeared in her newspaper. She said it was those concerns -- and not union activity in the newsroom -- that led to the firing of eight reporters this year.

Five top editors and a veteran columnist have resigned from the Santa Barbara News-Press, saying Thursday that the newspaper's billionaire owner had been meddling improperly in the editorial content of the 151-year-old publication. Editor Jerry Roberts was escorted from the newspaper's headquarters before noon as several staff members cried and others hurled obscenities at the new publisher, Travis K.