Starshine's Cancellation Questioned, Hobbs and Huebner Testify in NLRB Hearing

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.independent.com/news/2007/sep/08/starshines-cancellation-questioned/

Hobbs and Huebner Testify in NLRB Hearing

Saturday, September 8, 2007
By Martha Sadler

Former News-Press Life section editor Andrea Huebner took the stand on Friday, September 7 as the National Labor Relations Board hearing continued over the daily paper’s alleged interference with its employees' union organizing.

Attorneys for both the NLRB and the defense quizzed Huebner about the circumstances surrounding the cancellation of Starshine Roshell’s humorous lifestyle column — which now runs in the Santa Barbara Independent. The NLRB contends that the column was cancelled in retaliation for Roshell’s union activism, but the defense maintains that it was axed as part of a new “business plan,” which sought to eliminate the perception among News-Press readers that the paper’s reporting was biased. In order to promulgate a more objective profile for her paper, according to the defense, publisher Wendy McCaw had decided to cancel all columns written by staff members. (In addition to the column, Roshell also wrote features and served as deputy editor of the Life section.)

Under questioning by NLRB attorneys, Huebner recounted that in mid-August, 2006 she received notice of staff reassignments — including the cancellation of Roshell’s column. Huebner approached Editor Scott Steepleton, to warn him that canceling Roshell’s column could “have the appearance” of illegal retaliatory action against Roshell for her union activism. Steepleton then declined to pass the message to his superiors, so the following day Huebner broke the news to Roshell, who immediately rejected as pretext the rationale that the paper was trying to achieve a more objective profile, according to Huebner. Roshell assumed the real reason was anti-union retaliation — which is also the NLRB’s position. Roshell was the only staff columnist cancelled under the new policy, Huebner testified, remaining staff columnists at that point being sports writers John Zant and Mark Patton, and business writer Maria Zate.

The defense elicited from Huebner the fact that eight other columns had previously been cancelled, including Editor Scott Steepleton’s. The defense seized on this fact to prove that Huebner was biased in favor of Roshell to such an extent that her credibility was compromised. The defense then probed Huebner as to why had she not objected to the other cancellations. Huebner replied that because they were freelancers, not employees, there was no appearance of retaliation for union organizing.

FULL story at link.