Did Charity Begin at Home With This...
Did Charity Begin at Home With This Kettle of Fine Fish?
A famous San Diego restaurant goes out of business.
The owner donates a large quantity of fresh shrimp, lobster and swordfish to a homeless shelter run by a popular Catholic priest.
But most of the fancy seafood never gets to the hungry homeless. It gets gobbled up by shelter employees at a party.
That’s what Channel 10 said happened with the seafood donated by Lubach’s restaurant to the St. Vincent De Paul-Joan Kroc Center run by Father Joe Carroll.
But Carroll says the story was wrong. He says 95% of the seafood went to the homeless.
This week, Carroll talked with Channel 10 News Director Paul Sands and reporter Mark Matthews to request a correction. Request denied.
“I personally think very highly of Father Carroll,” Sands said. “But, in this case, we have a dispute about the facts. We think we have the facts and reported them accurately.”
By his own admission, Carroll receives oodles of upbeat media coverage. One story does not a reputation make (or unmake).
So why did he take the unusual step of seeking a correction? Answer: Fund raising.
With the oncoming recession, donations to St. Vincent’s are down 20% this winter, Carroll says. The Channel 10 story hit like a bomb.
“I started getting calls immediately at home,” Carroll said. “Some people said they’d never support us again. I’ve gotten checks now that say, ‘Not for staff parties.’ ”
Neither Matthews nor Carroll attended the staff party.
But Matthews obtained a menu that promised shrimp, lobster and swordfish. And Sands said he has unnamed sources who confirmed that most of Lubach’s largess was consumed by staff.
Carroll said the menu overstated the case, that mostly the staff got canned gumbo. He said his staff “swears up and down” that nearly all the seafood went to the homeless:
“I think we’re at a stalemate on this one.”
Branching Out
Holiday cheer and other things.
* Grand theft, Douglas fir.
A Solana Beach man has been arrested for setting up a pirate Christmas tree lot with trees swiped from other lots. Caught running down the street with a hot tree.
* Best bash of the season: Super Psychic Holiday Party, at a downtown budget hotel.
Highlighted by a Christmas transmission from Antar, an energy essence from outer dimensions, channeling through mystic-magician-clairvoyant Levi Longfellow.
Plus carols sung around the piano bar.
* University Towne Centre is offering a $500 reward for return of the rustled reindeer from its outdoor display.
* The San Diego Police Department has ended its probe of three sergeants for supposedly filching a few bucks from the coffee fund. No proof, no punishment.
But the P.D. is looking to tighten the handling of such funds.
* Improbable headline on a story from Saudi Arabia in Camp Pendleton newspaper: “Desert Base Camp Has the Comforts of Home.”
* San Diego bumper sticker: “Help Our Government Destroy America. Join an Environmentalist Club.”
If Asphalt Could Talk
Missed scoop.
Every newspaper in San Diego has reporters snooping around to find out what the Metro Homicide Task Force is doing to solve a string of prostitute and transient murders.
Too bad the press hounds weren’t at A Street and Kettner Boulevard recently.
They could have found out everything: names of witnesses, lines of inquiry, the darkest suspicions of investigators, enough stuff to spin out front-page stories for days.
Seems a top investigator put his thick notebook on the top of his car before getting in. Then he drove off, and the notebook fell to the street.
Within minutes, the notebook was found by an architect, who returned it promptly, without peeking (he says).
The investigator, who had not yet realized the notebook was gone, vows to be more careful.
