Is the SN&R story on Target's alleged discrimination on target?

It all started with a “Letter to the Editor” to the Sacramento News & Review and then the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan! Suddenly I found myself receiving a reply from the writer of the piece defending himself, which led to another email and another, etc.

Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com> Sat, Jul 20, 2013 at 8:54 PM

To: sactoletters@newsreview.com

SN&R Letter to the Editor

Re “Off the mark: Three former Target employees...” by Dave Kempa(SN&R News, July 18):

As with most major news stories that the Sacramento News & Review writes, this story about the alleged discrimination at the Target warehouse in Woodland, California falls short of hitting the bull's eye(dar en el blanco) on several accounts. While it presents the surface story very well, it falls short of the mark on the underlying details at a level that makes one question the ability of the writer and the editor(s) assigned to his piece.

If one really wants to get the full story, it would behoove one to go to the story on Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/target-diversity-document_n_3618200.html) to get the full story.

Mr. Kempa and the editors of SN&R really should print a full apology to their readers, both in the next print edition and online, for their journalistic malpractice!

Jeffery Cassity

Sacramento)

Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com> Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 10:53 AM

To: jcassity05@gmail.com

Hey Jeff,

As is often the case with your letters, you mean well but miss the mark.

The story you've linked refers to a corporate-wide document on dealing with workplace diversity issues--the sort of document that EVERY large corporation has on file. This isn't to be confused with
the document acquired by the Woodland plaintiffs (which, according to Target, was only distributed at that particular warehouse).

Here's another article (written by the same HuffPo contributor) on the document I reference in my piece: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/target-multicultural-tips_n_3566873.html

The document in the link you sent me wasn't salient to the lawsuit, so I didn't include it in my story.

Cheers,

Dave

P.S. - your use of the term "journalistic malpractice" is both telling an(d) amusing.

Dave Kempa

Staff Writer

Sacramento News & Review

Work: 916.498.1234 x1359

Cell: 920.246.0210

Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com> Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 6:53 PM

To: Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com>

Not telling half the story isn't relevant, not putting the document in question into context as well as looking at Target's diversity awareness program isn't relevant. I have been in town just two months but I have learned that as much as I may like your publication and would love to write free lance articles for it, I probably would be out of place since I like telling the whole story when I write articles not the 1/2 or less that most writers for your publication are allowed to get away with.

Best regards,

Jeff C

[Quoted text hidden]

Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com> Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 8:02 PM

To: Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com>

It's called news judgment, Jeff. Target's corporate-level policy isn't in question here. The treatment and termination of the plaintiffs at the Woodland distribution center is the story, and the document distributed at that location is a part of that story. If you want to blog about Target's corporate training manuals, knock yourself out. I've got better things to do with my time.

Cheers,

Dave

[Quoted text hidden]

Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com> Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 8:21 PM

To: Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com>

You are right. It is a waste of time to see if the evidence shows if even the documents in question are discriminatory or taken out of context by an attorney with possibly willing clients. Newspapers and their writers should never let the whole truth get in the way of a good story, right?

[Quoted text hidden]

Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com> Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 9:09 PM

To: Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com>

Oh dear, I'm not sure how many times I need to explain this, Jeff. They're different documents--one corporate, the other, so far as we can tell, local. Perhaps understanding what's salient to a story just isn't your strong suit. Sadly, I'd hoped a fellow Wisconsinite would be able to follow. There is a solution to this, Jeff: Write. Write to your heart's content. Show the world all there is to know about Target's corporate policies! Don't leave anything out! Dissect the corporate handbook, page by page, until we get to the very bottom of things, until we answer all mysteries related to and not related to Target Corporation. I want the ontological, Jeff, the teleological. If a tree falls on a target, do we need to tell HR? What aisle is the bleach on? Is this lane open??Looking forward to your work. Feel free to send links.

Cheers,

Dave

[Quoted text hidden]

Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com> Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 10:33 PM

To: Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com>

I welcome the challenge and will have it to you by next week.

[Quoted text hidden]

As I sit down to write this article, I realize the one of the biggest problems with the Target article by Dave Kempa is that he relies on a story from the Huffington Post which summarizes the plaintiff's claim in their lawsuit without actually taking the time to pull a copy of the lawsuit(a publicly available document which would include a copy of the allegedly discriminatory document). Since the litigation is local, he should not have a problem doing this, yet he doesn't seem to have done that nor made a copy of the actual document available for readers of SN&R to see in print or online. He instead relies on a third party report of the summary offered by a party to the litigation who has a vested financial interest in the outcome of the trial. I would suggest some reading material to Dave for review: the NYU Journalism Handbook for Students.

If Dave had taken the time to get a copy of the original document, the readers obviously would have been able to see the context of the quoted comments from it. Sometimes, the context of the words is as important as the actual words themselves as I outlined in an article recently on the Being Latino! Online Magazine.

Also as a professional journalist, I was surprised that Dave so easily dismissed the Target corporate documents in the Huffington Post article I referenced in my original Letter to the Editor as irrelevant to the story. They are hardly that. As any good lawyer could tell him, including the lawyers for the plaintiffs in the case hopefully, these documents show that Target as a corporation is committed to tolerance and diversity in the workplace. These documents have significant legal value in Target's defense of the lawsuit. It is obvious from the tone of Mr. Kempa's article that he has a certain agenda in writing his story. It is clear that he failed in his duty as a journalist to offer a fair and full view of each side of the case. Instead, he had the goal of presenting company=bad, guilty, racist, etc. Perhaps if he had the benefit of reading another piece I did for Being Latino! on a similar Colorado case, he would have been able to do a better job.

Sadly, the only conclusion I can reach based on the failure of his editors to catch these issues is the same one that I raised in my letter: Mr. Kempa and the editors of SN&R really should print a full apology to their readers, both in the next print edition and online, for their journalistic malpractice!

SN&R and The Newsroom: Where Poor Journalism Meets Poor TV!

AUGUS 1, 2013  Sacramento News and Review    Unpublished Letter to the Editor

Re: “Appreciate The Newsroom” by Adam Khan(SN&R Essay, July 25):

Reading Adam Khan's essay, it seems appropriate that the gentleman would be an excellent choice for a summer intern at the SN&R based on his liking of the show, The Newsroom. Much like the characters in the show who speak in bullet points and mouth platitudes and only present half the story, the staff and editorial staff of the SN&R are the show's real life counterparts. Major stories and issues are addressed from a solely liberal and so-called Progressive view by employees of a large corporate and very capitalistic news organization.

As much as the paper's publisher on the same page of the July 25^th about the greatness and challenge of the Alt Press, it is clear that he has no problem taking money which is supposed to be addressing hunger in the Sacramento area in exchange for writing stories which support the aims and goals of the organization's supposedly seeking to end hunger and poverty in the Sacramento and NorCal area.

Also I am sure that the special advertising sections in the same edition were well-paid for by the Sac Republic FC and the 'charitable' organizations such as AARP whose dealings would make a good story, even a edition, by itself.

But of course, as with all things with The Newsroom, both on TV and at the SN&R, style is more important than substance. But as Mr. Khan says, “I don't see any merit in criticizing...”



Jeffery Cassity
Sacramento

Unexpectedly_finding_love_in_Sacramento!

I didn't mean for it to happen so soon after moving to Sacramento. I moved here just over three years after the early and unexpected death of my wife, my sweetheart since childhood. The one I have found here is just so special that I had to open my heart again and let her in while still saving a part of my heart for my late wife.

On my first visit to Sacramento in early April of this year, we didn't start off on a good note. I arrived late in the evening, actually just after midnight so I guess it was very, very early morning. I woke her from her sleep, and she didn't know what to make of the bearded stranger in the cowboy hat. So she growled at me and went back to sleep.

The next morning, or I should say later that same morning after the sun had risen, we were reintroduced to each other. She was curious about the strange man who had entered her life a few hours earlier and decided it was worth the effort to get to know him. We sat next to each other on the couch as we watched TV with her roommates. She spent the next few hours checking me out while one of her roommates filled me in on her life story.

She was the 'special one' of the tenant of the rental property next door. She was exposed to his drug dealing and his drug use. There were days she was not properly fed. During a time when the tenant was in jail for a few days, she was accused of attacking someone and locked up herself for a few days on very questionable assault charges. She actually came close to having her life taken while in jail. As things worked out, she was saved by one of her current roommates and brought to live in the residence where I was staying. There were provisos for her release: (1)she would be on continuous probation and (2)she would be subject to ongoing electronic monitoring by agents of the city of Sacramento

During the time I spent in Sacramento during the first week of April, she and I grew closer. We reached the point where she fell in love with me, and I admit I was saddened that my time here looking for work and getting to know her was quickly passing.

As the days wore on, we often cuddled on the couch. She would lie across my lap as I caressed her sides and whispered sweet sentiments in her ears. I was warned there were potential dangers in being so close to her. She had the potential based on her size and strength to hurt me seriously though she actually is one of the most gentle creatures I have ever met.

Finally, my week in Sacramento ended. I left for the airport in the wee hours of the morning to catch my flight to Chicago. When I left, she was asleep. I did not wake her. It was hard enough leaving her without having to look into her soulful, sad eyes.

The next couple of weeks back home in Kenosha, Wisconsin were hard. I missed her deeply and thought about her often. I kept in contact with her roommate while I waited to hear back from my interviews. I had just about given up hope of finding a job and returning to Sacramento when an unexpected opening occurred at a local company I had not even interviewed at but to whom I had previously sent a copy of my resume. A couple of phone call interviews later, I had a job and a start date about two weeks later(the first full week in May).

It was with a joyful and excited heart that I took the train out from Wisconsin to Sacramento to start my new job and be reunited with my unexpected love. I counted the hours till I would be reunited with my love in Sacramento as the Amtrak train made its way across the Midwest and onto the Great Plains and passed through the Rocky Mountains, delayed slightly going through a blizzard outside of Denver. After fifty(50) hours, I finally arrived in Sacramento.

Arriving in my new home in the middle of a warm afternoon, I entered the house and was greeted by my love and her roommates. It was a wonderful reunion. She was every bit as beautiful and loving as I remembered on those lonely nights upon my return to Wisconsin. Her glistening hair; her warm, broad smile; her soulful, beautiful eyes and the heart-shaped mark above her right eye---she was everything I remembered. We hugged and kissed.

It was at that point that I knew I was 'home' in Sacramento with a truly unexpected love!

http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/85247/Unexpectedly_finding_love_in_Sacramento

Received my second front page award with this article(in as many weeks)!  Awesome!!!!!!

Zimmerman: Too Hispanic to be white; too white to be Hispanic!

The inspiration for the title of my article was a chance posting by the Editor/Publisher of this newspaper(El Conquistador), Victor Huyke, on Facebook. Reading it struck a nerve with me, not only because of the main stream media and many African-American community leaders ignoring of the facts of George Zimmerman's background in order to use the hot button issue of race as a dimension of the Trayvon Martin shooting, but also for more personal reasons which I will get into later.

The alternative and/or non-traditional media is recent days has revisited what the regular media only touched on briefly during the early days following the shooting. It is reported that George Zimmerman's father is a WHITE American and his mother is born in Peru which would indicate both Spanish and Native American ancestry since mestizos(mix of Spanish and American Indian) make up a large portion of the population.

The Everyjoe.com website posted a picture of Zimmerman's mother with its story. Both George and his mother on their Florida voter registration cards self-identify as Hispanic while the father identifies as white.

Activists all along the racial/ethnic spectrum have reason to try and paint George Zimmerman and his background in a way which suits their political agendas. Many right-wing Republicans and their supporters want to make Zimmerman as minority as possible to take the wind out of the sails of those who want to portray George Z. as a rabid racist who used the 'white' race card to escape punishment for killing an African-American youth; Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and their Liberal and so-calleProgressive friends want to make Zimmerman as white as possible so that they can use him to batter the Right-wing on every issue from gun control to an unjust court/prison system.

Many Hispanic groups don't want to deal with the question of any Hispanic background for Zimmerman because it draws them into the black-white argument. They want to ignore or have amnesia in this case because it would put them smack in the middle of the clash between the extremes of the racial and political extremes. Also it would call to mind in Florida, past cases of Hispanic officers in the Miami area who were accused of abuse of African-American suspects.

Now, for the personal part of the story. I am a mostly socially-liberal, fiscally-conservative Anglo(Irish-German ancestry) male who is the widower of a 1^st generation Mexican-American woman. I have many friends, relatives by marriage and godchildren who are Hispanic. Up to the time of my move to Sacramento, California in May of this year, I was actively involved in the affairs of the Hispanic community in my hometown of Kenosha and was a very active and vocal member of LULAC Council 320 in the Kenosha/Racine area; I was also a member of the Republican Party of Kenosha County. While for most people in both organizations to which I belonged, I was easily accepted as someone who could walk easily in both worlds and help each try to understand the other. But for some on each side, I was dangerous because I wasn't a simple stereotype.

For the media, the 'inconvenient truths' of George Zimmerman's background mean, if discussed fully, the need to seriously address racial issues and not merely, no pun intended, present a black and white story. A discussion which would be more than a quick ten, twenty or thirty second sound bite. A discussion which would mean acting like adults and talking to each other, not merely trying to shout
each other down.


Published in the July 25th-August 1st  issue of El Conquistador Newspaper, Milwaukee, WI


Written by Jeffery Cassity.     Jeffery is a mostly socially-liberal, fiscally-conservative Anglo male who was deeply involved in his local Hispanic community as the widower of a 1st generation Mexican-American woman and his active membership in the local Council of the League of Latin American Citizens(LULAC) prior to his move in May 2013 from Kenosha, Wisconsin to Sacramento, California. Since moving to Sacramento, Jeff has been busy working at his new job with a local insurance agent and working hard to ramp up a writing career. He is looking forward to becoming involved with the local Sacramento community and LULAC Councils.  Jeff writes weekly for the Being Latino! website and has been doing so since earlier this year and has started writing recently for the Sacramento Press website.

What's with all the Fences and Gates?

Contrary to what some of you may be thinking based on the title, I am not channeling my inner Jerry Seinfeld as I write this article.

I come from a community back in Wisconsin where next door neighbors, even ones who may not really like each other , don't normally have their entire properties separated by fences and gates. They may maintain a fence along the the backyard to have a controlled area for their children to play or to keep pets, but the front yards are 'open range'. One of the more unusual things that I have had to get used to since moving from Wisconsin to Sacramento is that everyone has fencing and gates surrounding their ENTIRE properties.

Just as the city of Sacramento and the area where I live, North Sac, seem to be divided into separate and cliquish areas, each of the neighborhoods is further divided up by fences and gates made of both wood and metal and stone.

These borders have been hard for me to get used to in the two plus months I have lived here. While I have come to accept the status quo of the division of the city into neighborhoods and the division of my neighborhood into individual perimetered yards, I still catch myself pausing on occasion to wonder how/why this situation developed?

Is it fear of crime especially home invasion? Does it have to do with the fear of the homeless seen on the streets across the city? Is it an attitude left over from the settling of the West? No one I ask can seem to give me an answer as to this major case of parochialism on steroids. As someone, especially someone from the Midwest, raised on stories of the supposed laid-back California 'live and let live' philosophy of life, it makes me wonder what is the cause of this isolationist situation which seems to belong more in the Balkans in sunny California!

If anyone out there hunkered down in their gated and fenced property can enlighten me on how and why this situation exists, please let me know. I am very eager to learn the psychology of my new hometown and its residents.

 

http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/84995/Whats_with_all_the_fences_and_gates

 

Received my first front page award with this article!  Awesome!!!!!!

The Gauntlet is laid down; Time for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

UNPUBLISHED LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE SACRAMENTO NEWS & REVIEW which led to an email exchange with the author of the article commented on. 

(P.S.  Stay tuned to see the article I am working on to submit to Mr. Kempa and the SN&R next week based on my exchange with Mr. Kempa.  It hopefully will be better than Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!)

 

 

Re “Off the mark: Three former Target employees...” by Dave Kempa(SN&R News, July 18):

As with most major news stories that the Sacramento News & Review writes, this story about the alleged discrimination at the Target warehouse in Woodland, California falls short of hitting the bull's eye(dar en el blanco) on several accounts. While it presents the surface story very well, it falls short of the mark on the underlying details at a level that makes one question the ability of the writer and the editor(s) assigned to his piece.

If one really wants to get the full story, it would behoove one to go to the story on Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/target-diversity-document_n_3618200.html) to get the full story.

Mr. Kempa and the editors of SN&R really should print a full apology to their readers, both in the next print edition and online, for their journalistic malpractice!



Jeffery Cassity
Sacramento

Dave Kempa < davek@newsreview.com>	Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 10:53 AM
To: jcassity05@gmail.com
Hey Jeff, As is often the case with your letters, you mean well but miss the mark. The story you've linked refers to a corporate-wide document on dealing with workplace diversity issues--the sort of document that EVERY large corporation has on file. This isn't to be confused with the document acquired by the Woodland plaintiffs (which, according to Target, was only distributed at that particular warehouse). Here's another article (written by the same HuffPo contributor) on the document I reference in my piece: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/target-multicultural-tips_n_3566873.html . The document in the link you sent me wasn't salient to the lawsuit, so I didn't include it in my story. Cheers, Dave P.S. - your use of the term "journalistic malpractice" is both telling an amusing. Dave Kempa Staff Writer Sacramento News & Review Work: 916.498.1234 x1359 Cell: 920.246.0210

---

 

Jeffery Cassity < jcassity05@gmail.com>	Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 6:53 PM
To: Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com>
Not telling half the story isn't relevant, not putting the document in question into context as well as looking at Target's diversity awareness program isn't relevant.  I have been in town just two months but I have learned that as much as I may like your publication and would love to write free lance articles for it, I probably would be out of place since I like telling the whole story when I write articles not the 1/2 or less that most writers for your publication are allowed to get away with.   Best regards,   Jeff C [Quoted text hidden]

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Dave Kempa < davek@newsreview.com>	Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 8:02 PM
To: Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com>
It's called news judgment, Jeff. Target's corporate-level policy isn't in question here. The treatment and termination of the plaintiffs at the Woodland distribution center is the story, and the document distributed at that location is a part of that story. If you want to blog about Target's corporate training manuals, knock yourself out. I've got better things to do with my time. Cheers, Dave [Quoted text hidden] > ** > > ** Dave Kempa [Quoted text hidden]

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Jeffery Cassity < jcassity05@gmail.com>	Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 8:21 PM
To: Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com>
You are right.  It is a waste of time to see if the evidence shows if even the documents in question are discrimatory or taken out of context by an attorney with possibly willing clients.   Newspapers and their writers should never let the whole truth get in the way of a good story, right? [Quoted text hidden]

---

 

Dave Kempa < davek@newsreview.com>	Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 9:09 PM
To: Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com>
Oh dear, I'm not sure how many times I need to explain this, Jeff. They're different documents--one corporate, the other, so far as we can tell, local. Perhaps understanding what's salient to a story just isn't your strong suit. Sadly, I'd hoped a fellow Wisconsinite would be able to follow. There is a solution to this, Jeff: Write. Write to your heart's content. Show the world all there is to know about Target's corporate policies! Don't leave anything out! Dissect the corporate handbook, page by page, until we get to the very bottom of things, until we answer all mysteries related to and not related to Target Corporation. I want the ontological, Jeff, the teleological. If a tree falls on a target, do we need to tell HR? What aisle is the bleach on? Is this lane open?? Looking forward to your work. Feel free to send links. Cheers, Dave ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeffery Cassity <jcassity05@gmail.com> To: Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com> [Quoted text hidden]

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Jeffery Cassity < jcassity05@gmail.com>	Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 10:33 PM
To: Dave Kempa <davek@newsreview.com>
I welcome the challenge and will have it to you by next week.     [Quoted text hidden]

Celebrating the Fourth---Sac-style!

My first Fourth of July celebration since moving from Kenosha, Wisconsin to North Sac was very different from what I was used to experiencing.

In Kenosha, we would walk or drive down to the Lake Michigan shoreline for a 30-minute extravaganza put on by the city after enjoying the two hour long parade the previous Sunday afternoon(for some unfathomable reason, the city felt to have the parade and the fireworks on the same day---the actual holiday---was too much). There would be the occasional unauthorized fireworks displays in neighborhoods, they were few and quickly stopped by local police.

Here I was able to witness several competing fireworks shows in just my little area which went on most of the night and compared favorably with the tape of the official fireworks at Cal Expo that I saw on the television news. I was also able to marvel at the coordination which kept the 'bears in the air(i.e. the Sac PD helicopter patrol) flittering back and forth across the sky trying to locate the sources of the multiple displays. Added to all of this was watching the informal game of 'Fireworks or Gunshots' with the ability to earn bonus points if you could identify the type of gun being used.

I understand that other areas of Sacramento(both city and county) also have their own unique ways of celebrating the Fourth from sedate and properly-mannered cookouts in backyards to neighborhoods where the residents quietly and very unofficially blocked off streets and rented jump houses and water slides(both of which were used by children and adults alike) which were placed in the middle of the streets while the neighborhood Gordon Ramsey would create wonderful meat offerings on rented large cookers---avoiding, for the most part, smoke damage to trees on his property. Neighbors would supply and share various types of adult and general drinks. Backyard pools became communal swim sites for the children in the neighborhood. Fireworks displays were also part of the entertainment.

All in all, I have to say that I enjoyed the Fourth for the first time in a long time and am looking forward to many more years of fun-filled National Birthday celebrations here.


http://www.sacramentopress.com/headline/84766/Celebrating_the_FourthSacstyle