North County Times - Unbiased as Long as It's Their Viewpoint

Ever read the San Diego North County Times newspaper letters to the editor? Ever see anything there that's really thought provoking or really stirs the pot against anything the paper seems to be for? No, I didn't think so.

For example, one of the "pet" projects fostered by the NCT for years has been the expansion of Tri-City Medical Center. There is no question an expansion of TCMC is long overdue, perhaps if only to shore up the earthquake solidity of the building, and serve the burgeoning illegal population that overruns the ER daily, but that's not the question. TCMC wants to build the Taj Mahal with taxpayers money, and the taxpayers keep saying no. Yet every time the question arises, NCT jumps on the TCMC bandwagon and appears to quash any letters of severe criticism to the project, while publishing letters praising the services provided by TCMC.

This isn't about the services provided by Tri-City which, for the most part, are very good. In fact, if it were not for the glut of non-paying illegal patients using the ER as their private doctors' office, and clogging the system, the ER care in the evenings would be downright excellent! It isn't about the dedicated doctors, nurses, ER registration staff or environmental services personnel who work to keep the place running. It's about the top heavy administration getting huge salaries, voting themselves even more while crying about the needs of the hospital, and trying to outdo the Joneses in building a showplace, which is supported by the NCT, to the exclusion of comments to the contrary.

I've sent letters to the North County Times outlining problems at TCMC and they go unpublished. Clean, clear, concise letters with facts on how the hospital wastes money, on how patients walk out without paying their bills, as the staff at night is sometimes so overrun they can't get them in the system before a doctor releases them. And, in some cases, patients have been released only to be injured or killed, and the hospital places blame elsewhere for these issues, when they should be placed right square on the shoulders of the hospital administration.

You've seen all the TV advertising and, on yes, the paid advertising in the North County Times of course. Guess why? Rather than face the people of North County in a Proposition on the ballot, like is usually done, Tri-City is sneaking a $589 million dollar bond measure mail ballot into your mailbox surreptitiously in the hope you'll:

• a. vote for it because you're tired of hearing about it
• b. toss the vote away and only those in favor will vote for it
• c. vote for it based on all the hype you'll hear over the media
• d. Give Art Gonzalez another big raise and he'll go away along with the bond measure
• e. Dump the bond measure, TCMC sells to a private not-for profit health care consortium and grows as the hospitals in Orange County have with no tax dollars involved.

I've posted this here as North County Times has no interest in publishing anything that might impact what must be a very harmonious relationship with TCMC. How nice for a newspaper to be so "balanced" on the news.