'Grim saga for Santa Barbara'

This week's Santa Barbara Independent jumps all over News-Mess owner Wendy McCaw and her people's team of lawyers (which now includes Marty Singer) for the weekend smear of ex-editor Jerry Roberts. "Typically, Roberts exudes a self-deprecating cockiness that allows him to make light of such problems as losing his job, having his spleen removed, and his ongoing battle with cancer. He could even milk a few yuks about being sued by McCaw for $25 million. But as of last Sunday, Roberts officially lost his sense of humor," writes Nick Welsh. "This has been a grim saga for Santa Barbara and an even grimmer one for journalism." Barney Brantingham, the ex-News Press columnist who quit in disgust last year, adds his take that "Sunday’s Santa Barbara News-Press hit-piece attacking former editor Jerry Roberts was written in outhouse slime, not proud printer’s ink, a sick masterpiece of slick innuendo...My 46-plus years at the News-Press ended when I resigned the afternoon of last July 6 because I could not stand what it had become. I am saddened and ashamed that it has sunken far lower now."