Tribune’s Most Valiant Days Preceded Its Execution

Farewell.

The San Diego Tribune will soon cease to exist as an independent newspaper, and no one knows how many Tribune remnants will be preserved in the combined Union-Tribune.

It’s one of life’s oddities that newspapers often do their best work in their dying years: almost as if reporters and editors know their next story might be their last.

And so it can be said of the Tribune in recent years.

As its financial health declined, its journalistic contributions to San Diego increased.

The Tribune exposed crooks in the public and private sectors, it called for reform, it sued the City Council for doing business in secret, it revealed the horrors of drug-addicted babies in America’s Finest City.

It covered the trials, the games, the events, the celebrations and the tragedies that make a city.

It brought us the good and bad news about our neighborhoods, it angered baseball managers and shady financiers, it even dared criticize the sacrosanct San Diego Zoo for its treatment of animals.

It gave San Diego the wit of cartoonist J.D. Crowe, the sports savvy of Nick Canepa, the investigative digging of Dave Hasemyer and Anne Krueger, a string of thoughtful editorials on local issues, and much more.

In an era of phone interviews and desktop reporting, Trib reporters preferred to prowl the streets.

When San Diego troops went to the Persian Gulf War, Tribune military reporter Jim Michaels went with them.

When Dick Silberman’s double-dealing reached abroad, Tribune reporters Rick Shaughnessy and Mark Sullivan chased off to Europe.

Did the Trib make mistakes? Did it suffer bouts of petrifaction in its news operation? Yes and yes.

But it also practiced journalism as aggressively and with as little fear or favor as any newspaper I know.

Predictably, the most excretory comment about the Tribune’s demise came from Roger Hedgecock, who wished for similar problems to afflict the Union.

Consider that for what it is: A low blow from a dishonest politician.

In the newspaper business, that’s a badge of honor. The Tribune can wear it proudly.

Seldom-Seen Views From San Marcos

Take one, they’re free.

* I like the way San Marcos describes itself in the new North County Lodging & Facilities Guide:

” . . . bordered on the west by the uncrowded beaches of the Pacific and on the east by the magnificent Laguna Mountains.”

I’d have sworn those were the subdivisions of Vista to the west and the industrial parks of Escondido to the east.

* This item is for women only.

Yes, that 1989 BMW with the license plate SCOOT DN is owned by a gynecologist-obstetrician.

Dr. Denis Gene Tarakjian of San Diego.

* The Dreaded L Word.

Jim Bates, the liberal Democrat, has been gone from Congress for nearly a year, but his name is still a swear word among business people.

San Diego Chamber of Commerce officials Lee Grissom and Mel Katz have issued an “emergency” plea for donations to Councilman Wes Pratt.

Noting that his opponent, George Stevens, was a longtime aide to Bates and “will not be a friend of the business community.”

* Saturday’s San Diego State-University of Pacific game at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium includes a Salute to the Local Military.

SDSU is giving 10,000 free tickets to active-duty military and their dependents.

* Pee-wee jokes, Dahmer jokes, now Henry Hubbard jokes. So awful they can’t be repeated.

Lawyers and Losers

There tend to be losers and winners in bankruptcy cases: investors are the losers, attorneys are the winners.

Which can breed some bad feelings.

Maybe that explains the action of one elderly investor (among 70 or so) who was awaiting a court proceeding in the $200-million Pioneer Mortgage bankruptcy.

He saw the attorneys chatting amiably in a corner. So he complained loudly that “no one’s introducing us, and we’re the ones paying for the whole thing.”

Only then did the court-appointed examiner and the examiner’s attorney acknowledge the investors’ presence and take time to introduce themselves.