More reverb on the lieutenant governor’s speech to Coast Democrats in Half Moon Bay two weeks ago: The Newsom camp insists the reporting of it unfairly cast him as critical of Gov. Jerry Brown and his own party. Newsom’s supporters were especially miffed at the Chronicle’s Matier & Ross for their riff based on an account of the Sept. 30 speech in the weekly Half Moon Bay Review. (The Review’s piece is here; M&R’s column here.)
On Wednesday, the Coast Democrats’ PR person, Wendy Andary, laid into Matier & Ross and the Review on Newsom’s behalf in a piece for HuffPost San Francisco. Her lede:
Readers, please be advised: for the wildly sensational and fictional version of this event, please refer back to the colorful ramblings of Matier and Ross.
The bottom line is this: the articles proclaiming "Gavin Newsom Draws Boos by Attacking Democrats" are flat out wrong and misleading.
And now Review editor Clay Lambert has pushed back with a point-by-point defense of his paper’s story. Here’s a sample, with story clip first, followed by Lambert’s comments:
Newsom drew some catcalls from the audience in the packed hall when he criticized President Barack Obama for his handling of the U.S. economy. At another point, he derided the jobs plan put forward by California Gov. Jerry Brown's as "laughable."
He did just that, using just that word in relation to Brown policies. Here's a direct quote: "The jobs plan the governor had was laughable. There, I said it." He went on to say it wasn't the fault of any one man, it was the responsibility of all of us to demand more.
Meanwhile, Newsom spokesman Francisco Castillo, who sent this letter to the Review this week, tells me he’s hoping to have a video of the speech up on the lieutenant governor’s website soon so that folks can see the speech for themselves.
