OPINION: The mayor of El Cerrito thinks your only source of information should be the city
By Betty Buginas
I don’t know if most El Cerrito residents know the term, but we live in a news desert. We don’t have paid journalists who provide daily reporting on El Cerrito, and this is becoming the norm not the exception.
As Rebuild Local News puts it, “Local news is collapsing – threatening the civic well-being of American towns and cities.” Unfortunately, it is not being overly dramatic.
El Cerrito Mayor Gabe Quinto, who is seeking reelection to the City Council, recently said people should only get their news from the city, not blogs or Nextdoor. Nextdoor, he said, should only be used for reuniting lost dogs and giving away no-longer-needed strollers. He angrily attacked fellow council member William Ktsanes because Quinto believes Ktsanes “owns one of the blogs.” Other remarks were presumably aimed at another candidate, Kimberly White, who Quinto believes should not have opinions different from his because he appointed her to the Financial Advisory Board.
He uses terms like mudslinging, misinformation, lies, and half-truths but does not back this up with evidence.
When I hear Quinto rant against blogs, I assume he’s including El Cerrito Wire. The website is hosted by Blogger. Shortly after answering one question for me, confirming he was running for reelection, he broke off communication. I had sent him a link to the Wire website. He then posted and pinned to the top of his Facebook page, “Get your information from reputable sources and NOT from Nextdoor dot com and blogs! Misinformation, lies and hate are at an all time high right now. El Cerritan’s deserves better! Gabe Quinto Mayor - City of El Cerrito (Nonpartisan) President - Cal
Cities (statewide & Nonpartisan)” Viewers are blocked from commenting on the post.
El Cerrito Wire has an article about the money that continued to flow into and out of Quinto’s 2022 council campaign committee four years after the 2022 election. I wrote opinion pieces (clearly labeled and signed) on Measure C. Most recently I called on Quinto and the three other council members who supported Measure C - Carolyn Wysinger, Rebecca Saltzman, and Lisa Motoyama - to show they heard voters by no longer pursuing a library at Plaza BART and by being more fiscally responsible.
Quinto’s comment that the city should be people’s only source of information came during an endorsement interview with the El Cerrito Democratic Club and the Democratic Party of Contra Costa County (both Measure C endorsers). I wish I felt confident that because Democratic is in their titles, these comments would immediately disqualify him from endorsement. But that capital D means the groups are about the party, not the principle.
Thomas Jefferson famously said, “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
No one in Jefferson’s time owned a blog. What they did have was highly partisan newspapers. It would be about a century before the idea of professional and objective journalism begin to evolve, so I feel confident he would not be shocked by anything on Nextdoor or a blog.
Betty Buginas is editor of El Cerrito Wire, which she started in 1999. She has bachelors and masters degrees in mass communication with a minor and concentration in political science. She has 10 years experience at daily newspapers as a reporter and editor, in addition to her years as a community journalist.
Note, the reference to councilman Ktsanes was revised within minutes of this post going up after he sent a message clarifying his involvement with the El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government.
Election coverage from El Cerrito Wire including link to the Democratic groups’ interviews
El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government