Newspapers - Sacramento Bee and BDCP

By Burt Wilson
Public Water News Service


“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than
the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
--Thomas Jefferson

I don’t think Thomas Jefferson was thinking of the Sacramento Bee when he wrote
this, but if he were alive today it would be a perfect fit.

The Sacramento Bee leads a long list of metropolitan and small town newspapers
that never saw a pair of tunnels they didn’t like. While major newspapers like the San
Diego Union and the Santa Barbara Press and the Chico Enterprise go to great lengths
to expose the illogic of the proposed Delta tunnels, the fallacy of the “co-equal goals”
and the convoluted funding process that bypasses California voters, the stories the Bee
prints about the Delta read more like a Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) media
hand-out.

In a number of editorials and articles, Bee editorialists and reporters have refused to
address the real issues facing the $16-billion sinking of two 35-miles long, 40-ft. wide
tunnels 150 ft. below the surface of the Delta. When the tradition of newspapering calls
for a crusade against the skullduggery going on in the Delta, the Bee refuses to print
anything controversial. Hello?

It’s a given that the water agencies in California have a vast network of closely-
allied propaganda outlets such as the Association of California Water Agencies
(AQUA) and the Water Education Foundation (WEF). They exist to bolster the party
line. These outlets churn out reams of propaganda about what they want the people
of California to believe about the Delta, always backing significant water projects.
They like to mask themselves with the appearance of independence and legitimacy,
nevertheless they go to great lengths to unflinchingly lie about the issues and cover-up
or ignore anything that is questionable.

Aquafornia, is a news outlet funded by the Water Education Foundation which
recently has taken to banning water blogs and articles that are critical of the BDCP.
Does this remind you of similar conditions in a foreign country a long time ago? Isn’t
there a story there?

But back to the Bee. Reporters seldom go to relevant meetings on the BDCP. They
sit at their desks and conjure up Delta stories based on information they receive from
the water agencies. They refuse to write about northern California water being sent
south to frack oil wells. Had they been in attendance at a Delta Stewardship Council
(DSC) meeting they would have heard this writer lay out the scenario where this could
happen and hear DSC chairman Phil Isenberg comment, “It’s possible.”

Maybe the Bee is afraid of offending the California Chamber of Commerce and
the politically hefty California Business Roundtable –the powers behind commerce in
California. They want more water sent to the southland to fuel new development in the
high desert areas east of Los Angeles. Is there a threat from them to deny advertising to
the Bee if they don’t go along with the BDCP program? Withholding of advertising is a
powerful tool of the Captains of Industry to influence public opinion and the Bee, after
all, has had a turbulent financial history. Would the oil companies withhold ads if the
Bee printed anti-fracking articles like the San Diego Union?

The bottom line here is that the water agency media outlets do not want the true
purposes of the twin tunnels to get out to the public. There would be an outcry from
all over California if they did. So they use benign phrases like “a more reliable water
supply for California”—which, because Northern California already has a reliable
water supply really means southern California. They tell us “the Delta is aging and
needs to be fixed” and “we must protect the people from earthquakes and climate
change.”

These are all cover stories aimed at convincing people that it’s in their own best
interests to support the twin tunnels. To sound even more sincere, the water agencies
have thrown in “habitat restoration” when all the Delta fish and wildlife habitats need is
for less water to be diverted south so there’s more water left in the Delta!

The water agency’s propaganda machine is taking the people of California to the
cleaners, doing their best to strip our consciousnesses of all logic, hoping we’ll ignore
reality and buy into the BDCP’s “pig in a poke” twin tunnels. So far, the Sacramento
Bee—and much of the state’s newspapers—have been in support of this foolishness.