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Mistakes in reporting weren't the only ones made in the story on Glendale's ethnically and politically charged anti-smoking plan
Jump to full article: Pasadena Weekly, 2008-08-20
Author: Kevin Uhrich
Intro: Much negative political hay has been made of a story that the Weekly published recently about a proposed smoking ban in Glendale in which one of the characters was misidentified by one of our reporters.
That person, Mayor John Drayman, is opposed to smoking, just like the person the paper actually quoted, Councilman Dave Weaver, the only one of five council members to return calls for comment on the proposed ordinance, which if enacted will be one of the toughest prohibitions of its kind in Southern California.
Although it took him more than a month after the publication of the June 26 story to complain, Drayman called the paper to do just that late on the morning of July 30 -- a Wednesday, a few hours before that week's edition went to press. Drayman told Publisher Jon Guynn that he had not seen the story until it was pointed out to him the previous night by City Hall gadfly Barry Allen, and that he took particular exception to a part in which he -- not Weaver -- was quoted saying "there will be a lot of opposition from one segment of the population that loves to smoke."
But now it appears that from the end of June until today we've been the only ones to own up to myriad mistakes made in figuring out exactly who said what and why in the ongoing debate over smoking in Glendale . . .
Maybe, and we're sorry if anyone took it that way. But here's something that others knew and we didn't until recently: The Armenian National Committee, which is complaining the loudest about us and Weaver's insensitive comments, just conducted a survey of 740 people around the city which found that even though most people do not smoke (61 percent), 51 percent also do not support prohibiting smoking on sidewalks, 50 percent do not want smoking banned on outdoor patios, 50 percent do not support a smoking ban in apartment units, 63 percent believe such bans infringe on their "individual freedoms," and -- get this -- 70 percent would take the issue out of the council's hands and put it on the ballot for a vote. . . .
Isn't it time some of these other players -- Weaver, the ANC and the other local papers -- did the same?
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