News-Press on Trial

It was a long afternoon for Santa Barbara News-Press Associate Editor Scott Steepleton (left), shown here with attorneys Dugan Kelly (center) and A. Barry Cappello (right), in the first day of the trial. In response to questions posed by prosecutors with the National Labor Relations Board-who charged the News-Press with illegally firing pro-union reporters for a host of legally protected union activities-Steepleton frequently answered that he did not remember. Steepleton said he made the decision to fire two pro-union workers for alleged bias in their reporting and another six for hanging a banner (exhorting motorists to cancel their subscriptions) from the Anapamu Street footbridge this February. Attorneys for the NLRB and the Teamsters Union contend the banner was legally protected. For more on this story, read the Angry Poodle column and check out independent.com/SBmediablog.