Reader: I think that your newspaper
has ran more positive and
more stories supporting the
Democratic side. As a newspaper
you should be showing all information
for both sides. I am Republican
and do not like the information
you have been printing. If this continues,
I hope that more people in
my situation feel the same way and
discontinue your newspaper.
— Peter Martinez

Jenner: One week ago, on the eve
of the Democratic National Convention,
we ran a front page profile of
Barack Obama, with two pages
inside. We also gave front-page display
to the convention’s daily events.
Now that the eve of the Republican
National Convention has
arrived, we will give equivalent
treatment to the Republicans.
Today’s paper features several articles
and photos on the GOP, including
a two-page profile of Sen. John
McCain on Page A8. And, as we did
for the Democrats, the RNC will be
front-page news every day.
■ ■ ■
Reader: Since you changed your
paper I am missing the Eye Street
feature on movie stars that used to
be on the same page with the crossword
puzzle. I just wanted to tell the
editor that I miss that and wish they
would find a place to put it back.
— Doris Lewis

Jenner: We haven’t eliminated
People in the News. This feature on
celebrities still runs Monday
through Saturday. However, on a
couple of days we’ve reduced its
size significantly. We know that’s a
popular feature and we’ll try to
make sure we make it prominent
enough that its followers can find it.
■ ■ ■
Reader: My complaint is the size
that you’ve gone to in the paper. It
has made everything smaller. Each
line in the Classified section is kind
of squished. It’s like each column is
like squished together. Also, it
smears. I get smears all the time in
the Classified, so bad you can hardly
read it. I wish you’d go back to the
regular size paper. That’s my complaint.
— Cliff Cooper

Jenner: We didn’t reduce the size
of type in Classified, nor the space
between lines. We did take out
some of the space between the
individual ads. Our pressroom has
made great progress in reducing
complaints of smeared type and
continues to focus on that.
■ ■ ■
Reader: In regard to the crime
report, oh, boy, I don’t like it. I know
you’re trying to save space.
I check my area, which is 93301,
and I also check my son’s area,
which is 93305. He’s in beat 14. I
know the streets in my area, but I
don’t know the names of all the
streets in his beat. It’s very big.
Beats 13 and 15 are nearby and so I
like to look at those also. With the
way you have it laid out I have no
idea if any of the places that have
been targeted are in my son’s vicinity.
If you could maybe make the
original maps smaller, perhaps a little
bit, and still run one set each day
perhaps. The new system just doesn’t
work out for me. I don’t know if
any others feel the same way.
— Barbara Bates

Jenner: We’ll take a look and see
if we can present this in a more
useful way, but our previous presentation
of the city’s crime data
was inefficient and unworkable for
us. The new presentation does
allow readers to see the addresses
of all reported property crimes in
one package.
■ ■ ■
Reader: Every Sunday afternoon
I read the paper then, with great
relish, work the crossword puzzle
that has the Cryptoquip at the bottom,
which I also love. Now I can
no longer work the puzzle as it is
too small. Everything else about
your new format is fine with me. I
like being able to hold the paper
and read it with the new size.
PULEEZE change the crossword
puzzle back to its original size!
— Pat Eyraud

Jenner: You’ll be pleased to see
we’re making the
Sunday Classified
crossword
puzzle
bigger, as
well as the daily Classified Corner
feature.
■ ■ ■
Reader: I actually do like the
smaller-sized newspaper. There
were some things I did not like at
first, but I have seen improvements.
There is one thing, though, that I
really miss. You used to run an article
called “Best Bets” next to the TV
listings. I realize you have now
included more TV listings that take
up a lot of room, but I really miss
this article and hope you can find
room for it.
— Judy Dotson

Jenner: The “Best Bets” feature
fell by the wayside in the new format.
We’ll take a look, but I’m not
sure where we could put it.
■ ■ ■
Reader: I am real disappointed
in this new paper, I don’t like it at
all. I don’t like the length of it and I
don’t like the width of it. I wish
you’d go back to the way it was.
You’re not saving any paper by
lengthening it like this. It’s even
hard to read.
I know I’m not the only one who’s
disappointed in it. I wish you’d
change it back to the old way. This
is really just stupid.
I just want you to know how I feel
about it.
— Lorene Abshier

Jenner: I’m sorry you don’t like it.
I appreciate your opinion, but we
have no plans to return to the old
width — and the length hasn’t
changed.
Although I’ve run most of the
complaints in Sound Off, we’ve
also received a lot of comments
from readers who prefer the new
width. We’re now focused on
improving the new format and
making it as useful as possible.
To that end, I have a couple of
items to share with readers:
Now that we’ve increased the
type size in our TV grids, the company
that builds this page for us is
adding the Speed Channel, the
Travel Channel and the International
History Channel. These
additional listings should show up
late this week.
We’ll launch another survey of
reader comics preferences in next
Sunday’s Eye Street section. And
yes, Sherman’s Lagoon will have a
spot on the ballot.
■ ■ ■
Reader: Why don’t you have a
theater critic/reviewer at the
paper? Other cities larger and
smaller than Bakersfield offer this
service.
Perhaps if you were to offer this
to your readers, the theater venues
in town would have better attendance
and not be struggling so
much to keep afloat in order to
showcase the wonderful talent
here in Bakersfield.
Many thanks,
— Lori Hobmann

Jenner: I asked Jennifer Self,
who directs our arts and entertainment
coverage, to respond to your
note. Here’s what she has to say:
I couldn’t agree more with your
assessment of the wonderful talent
here on Bakersfield stages. But I do
disagree with your belief that we’re
ignoring local theater. I glanced
through the last few weeks of our
Eye on Entertainment section,
which publishes every Thursday,
and found:
A full-page piece on Bakersfield
Community Theatre, which featured
its season-opener, “Plaza
Suite.” The piece, which included
several photos of past productions,
also mentioned an exhaustive new
compilation by Steven Bradshaw
that lists every play mounted at the
theater in its 82-year history.
Four profiles of standout stage
performers Jeremiah Heitman,
Abby Bowles, Amy Hall and Tim
Fromm.
A rave of “Madea” at the Empty
Space by Californian arts columnist
Camille Gavin, who encouraged
readers to catch the last performances.
Features with photos on the
Youth Theatre production of
“Charlotte’s Web” at Bakersfield
Community Theatre; the Spotlight
Theatre’s popular “History of Rock &
Roll: Born in the U.S.A.”; the Mountain
Shakespeare Festival in Frazier
Park; “Evita” for Cal State Bakersfield’s
Theatrefest; and profiles of
the playwrights who contributed
work to Bakersfield Community
Theatre’s annual One-Act Festival.
Smaller items on “Monterey
Jack” at the Gaslight Melodrama
and auditions for Bakersfield College’s
annual Shakespeare Festival.
A complete listing of theater
performances in our weekly entertainment
calendar.
The arts are the heartbeat of any
city’s cultural life, and we at The
Californian consider it our mission
to promote them. In fact, we’re currently
devoting our Thursday covers
and two pages inside to a project
called Eye Gallery, which features
the work of local visual artists. We
started the project last year as a way
to introduce our community to
these tremendous talents.
Of the four contributing Eye
Street columnists, one is devoted
solely to the arts, with an emphasis
on the performing arts — despite
our needs for coverage in other
topics of interest to our readers.
And though our space is limited,
we have given Camille Gavin’s Arts
Alive column greater prominence
in the last year, with more photos
and usually positioning on one of
our coveted color pages.
It’s true that we rarely run reviews.
With limited staffing, we have to
make tough choices and we feel it’s
more helpful to our readers to know
about a production before it opens.
Reviews, of course, are a doubleedged
sword: Any honest reviewer
must include observations about a
play’s weaknesses as well as its triumphs.
Whether that would help
turn out audiences is debatable.
Still, we welcome the public to
write reviews of any local performance.
Go to Bakersfield.com
/yourwords and fire away. We’ll
consider any review for publication
in the paper.
■ ■ ■
Reader: I have been a subscriber
of this paper for at least 30 years
and have noticed that your sports
section is so in love with the L.A.
Dodgers that even when they lose
they make the front page of the
Sports section and sometimes even
the front page of the first section.
Meanwhile, even though the
Angels are the best team in baseball
today they just barely make it
into the third to fourth page of the
Sports section.
I am a big fan of the Angels and
was wondering why this is so. Is it
to get me to go through the complete
Sports section to get the
results or is it just prejudice?
Thank you for listening.
— Clinton Johnson

Jenner: Prejudice seems like a
harsh word. But we do believe that
fan interest is higher for the
Dodgers, and more readers closely
follow the Dodgers than the Angels.
It’s true that the Angels are one of
the top teams in baseball — one of
three teams playing .600 ball or better.
With the next-best team in their
division some 15 games behind, it
would be almost impossible for
them not to win their division.
The Dodgers, on the other hand,
are in the thick of a fight for their
division — or at least they were till
they entered an eight-game losing
streak.
Rest assured that as the season
progresses and the race for the
pennant intensifies, we’ll give the
Angels their due.
■ ■ ■
Reader: Dear Dianne Hardisty,
Surely you have noticed some of
the idiotic comments the N.Y.
Times and other very liberal papers
continue to make and their constantly
being supportive of extreme
liberalism. You and The Californian
are in a position where you could
“educate” your readers.
Even though Bakersfield is fairly
conservative, there are still many
terribly uninformed residents. I
read some of the “letters to the editor”
and some of these poor people
just don’t have a clue as to what is
going on in this nation, no understanding
of the market and/or economics.
Why is “common sense” so
uncommon?
Many letters show a total rejection
of the Godly values this nation
was founded on, totally ignoring
what has happened to this nation
the past 60 years since abandoning
Godly principles.
I am assuming YOU as an educated
person are aware of such things.
You and the paper could be an
instrument of learning and do this
nation a tremendous favor in the
process. Look behind the problems
this state is in and the underlying
cause.
Dianne, I would really appreciate
your thoughts and comments
regarding my comments! Make an
exception and answer me, please!!
— Lynn Anderson

Dianne Hardisty responds:
What can I say? Those you describe
as clueless have responded similarly
to some of your letters.
In fact, I recently had someone
who shares your name submit a
letter disavowing what you had
written and wanting her friends
and neighbors to know it was not
the “Lynn Anderson” they knew
who had penned the words.
People have different perspectives.
That does not make them
clueless or idiots. We will always
attempt to inform and educate in
our editorial and column writing,
as well as our publication of news
stories.