Arbitrator Orders News-Press to Pay Ex-Editor's Legal Fees

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Perhaps Publisher Wendy McCaw and Ampersand Publishing, owner of the Santa Barbara (Calif.) News-Press,should have quit while they were ahead.

Less than a month after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit sided with the publisher in an NLRB dispute concerning eight terminated editorial staffers (see "TUOL" post 1/28/10), arbitrator Deborah Rothman has issued a 68-page decision ordering Ampersand to pay the $750,000 legal bill of former editor Jerry Roberts and another $167,000 in arbitration fees and expenses.

Both parties agreed to binding arbitration after Ampersand brought a $25 million defamation suit against Roberts for comments he allegedly made about the paper purportedly in violation of his contract after his departure in 2006. Roberts quit over what he claimed was editorial interference by McCaw.

The publisher reportedly spent $2.4 million litigating the claim against Roberts.

Appeals Court Sides with Santa-Barbara News-Press in Labor Dispute

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A four-year-old labor dispute between editorial staff and Santa-Barbara (Calif.) News-Press owner/publisher Wendy McCaw  involving alleged biased reporting took an upward turn for the latter following a decision this week by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in James J. McDermott, Regional Director of Div. 31 of the NLRB for and on behalf of the NLRB v. Ampersand Pub., LLC d/b/a The Santa-Barbara News-Press (Case No. 08-56202).

The appellate court voted 2-1 to uphold U.S. District Court for the Central Dist. of Calif. Judge Stephen V. Wilson's rejection of eight fired editorial staffers' attempt to be reinstated. According to a report in The Los Angeles Times,  the turmoil started when five editors resigned in 2006 in protest over alleged biased reporting.

Reporters soon left the paper in droves. The conflict escalated after editorial members joined a division of the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters. Eight journalists were fired, and the union prevailed in an unfair labor practices complaint before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). McCaw appealed the board's decision and Judge Wilson ruled that her and the newspaper's First Amendment rights outweighed the labor issues involved. The 9th Circuit panel agreed.