Crusading Small-Time Journalist’s Objective: To Be Subjective

He roamed the world as a foreign correspondent, unwittingly ate human flesh served by a headhunter (“pretty tasty”), reported on war and politics, hobnobbed with the rich and famous waiting for divorces in Reno.

Now he reports on zoning boards, planning commissions, city councils and the Board of Supervisors.

But Bob Bennyhoff, 66, bearded, portly, does more than just report. In a style reminiscent of the crusading journalists of bygone days, Bennyhoff also takes part in the events he writes about, pushing hard for some programs, haranguing loudly against others.

Opinionated? You bet. Careful to keep his opinions out of his stories? You’ve got be kidding.

Bennyhoff’s forum is called Common Talk, a free monthly newspaper that covers Orange Park Acres and nearby communities and that, by no coincidence whatsoever, is partly owned by his wife, Anita.

Bennyhoff worked for more than 40 years for United Press International and its predecessors, roaming from Nevada to Australia and across the United States to cover war, politics and everything in between--and some things that aren’t.

Traditional newspaper and wire service ethics forbid reporters to write about topics in which they have a personal interest. Opinions are left to the editorial pages. A Bennyhoff would curdle an editor’s blood.

There he is in this month’s issue, in a piece labeled “commentary,” talking about a “shotgun wedding” of the Irvine Co. and the county to get land for a new jail.

Then it’s off to discuss the Orange city manager and his relationship with the City Council.

“Our only comment is that it is a hell of a way to run a railroad.” And on the route for a new freeway, Bennyhoff says that “now is the time for guts, not nervous Nellies.”

“I feel I have more freedom now,” Bennyhoff says. “I’m not bound so much by the strict news requirements of a wire service, which has to be all things to all people. I try to be accurate. And I think I am. But every once in a while I want to tell it the way it is.

“It’s fun. You can say things that need to be said. With your own newspaper, you can do it.”

When Bennyhoff moved from Glendale to Orange Park Acres eight years ago, he planned simply to read some of the thousands of books that had stacked up on him over the years, tipple at some of the 800 bottles of wine he has stashed away and keep “busy being a gentleman farmer.”

Eight years ago he married Anita, who with another woman had owned “Common Talk” for several years. Although he concentrated at first on tending the 20 orange trees and looking after a menagerie that now includes a horse, a pygmy goat and two geese, he eventually found himself drawn back into newspapering, but this time with a chance to offer opinions.

Now Bennyhoff has become a familiar sight--sitting in the spectator section, not with the press--at meetings of public agencies. When Board of Supervisors Chairman Roger R. Stanton sees Bennyhoff wearing a certain awning-striped jacket, he shakes his head and smiles. For Stanton knows that the jacket means Bennyhoff wants to speak to the supervisors.

Early in December, Bennyhoff told the supervisors that they should explain exactly how they decided to double the number of inmates at the Theo Lacy branch jail in Orange. It “would be helpful in calming down some of the suspicions,” Bennyhoff said.

“God bless you for trying to get some sense into this thing,” Stanton told Bennyhoff.

Bennyhoff estimates he attends 60 meetings a month in his search for news. He scours public records to see who owns what. He worries that development will overrun his area and drive away the owls that hoot at night and the birds that twitter during the day.

After so many years in so many places meeting so many people, Bennyhoff isn’t swayed by titles or a person’s bankroll.

“I’ve never been impressed just because someone is a senator, or a mayor or Howard Hughes,” he says. “I don’t see why you should be impressed or intimidated by these people. I’m not particularly nervous about talking to anyone. . . . I find I can say what I think (in the paper) and I can take positions that make sense to me without worrying what the consequences will be.”

Herbert J. Vida is on vacation.