The missing reporter and bad apple articles - By N.L. Belardes
People have been asking me, calling me, sending me emails… all wondering, just where has Bakersfield Bob gone to? I’ve explored a bit into the missing entertainment writer of the Bakersfield Californian, Danielle Belton, A.K.A. Bakersfield Bob (dubbed by yours truly not because of her likeness to Baghdad Bob, but because of her writing style that is, shall I say… outlandish, devilish, humorous at times, pretentious, and sometimes doused with a good lie or two). I performed a Google and Yahoo search, thinking perhaps she posted an entry to a blog somewhere in cyberspace with her name on it. Nothing. No entries using Belton, Bakersfield Bob, or WOTS.
I then performed a search on myspace.com/daniellebelton. It says her last login was on November 18th, 2005. Her regular blog’s last entry was on November 17th. Her last column? I don’t know. I’m guessing some time around mid to late November… I did some backtracking to her friends pages. Nothing. She either only writes emails and doesn’t leave comments to cover her tracks, or just never really used myspace all that much…
I heard she was a ‘no show’ at the Californian Christmas party. Didn’t surprise me. She was a no show at the Empty Space theatre for her own art show and a no show at many many events around town. Sure, I don’t go to a lot of shows. But I do make it out to some and I don’t get paid.
And I don’t see Belton shoveling money out of pocket to uplift local music and sports culture in a fun CD of original music. My point is, if you really love the local music culture, you will really put something of yourself into it. Forget all the “N.L. has an agenda” bullshit. I love local music, art, theatre and hockey. End of story. Or I wouldn’t do it.
I do pick on the Californian. I admit it. But then I told that to Jennifer Baldwin when she asked me to add my blog to bakersfield.com. I’m not dumb. I knew they would never be able to handle my criticism or my book that makes them look like the lepers of the 1970s, infecting everyone around them to be a part of their creepy media colony. And them kicking me out of their community regarding their missing reporter’s lies to me proves that point. I’m just a bully after all; perhaps because I write opinions that I don’t submit to the local paper’s editorial staff.
But don’t get me wrong. There are some really good folks at the Californian. I’ll say that even if all of them hate my guts.
One bit of writing I enjoy from the Bakersfield Californian is the sports reporting and sports photography. I see Mike Griffith at all the Condors games working hard. He writes straightforward sports facts and Johnny Harte takes top-notch photographs. John Harte has taught a lot at Bakersfield College and stays true to his art form (which I am in awe of his ability). There are good writers at the Californian, and just like any newspaper, there are bad apples too. And sometimes there are just some really bad stories.
Take the recent article about Bakersfield-related Christmas presents. The Californian went so far as to mention Bakersfield-related ‘local’ books, but didn’t go in-depth on the subject and were sure to not mention my novel.
Although I heard they called Russo’s and asked about my book, in their story, “A little local color for the holidays,” staff writer Erin Waldner writes:
If Tony Russo were to give one book about the Bakersfield area this holiday, it would be "Haslam's Valley." Author Gerald Haslam is a widely respected author who grew up in Bakersfield.
"A lot of people know who Gerald is," said Russo, from Russo's Books. The book is $18.95 at Russo's.
"Children of the Dust Bowl" by Jerry Stanley, originally published in 1993, and "Mean Justice" by Edward Humes are perennial favorites at Russo's. "Mean Justice" tells a real-life murder story in Bakersfield and delves into the workings of the Kern County District Attorney's office. It caused quite an uproar when originally published in 1999 and earned Humes a Pulitzer Prize.
Really now, there have been more recent books about Bakersfield than the book by Jerry Stanley. He has been pushing that book for more than ten years! Mean Justice is a local topic, but isn’t even written by a Bakersfieldian. And Haslam? He’s the good old boy from Oildale who thinks he’s cornered the market in Bakersfield as the premiere writer from the area. Haslam's valley is a collection of essays and stories from a writer who typically presents Bakersfield as merely a land of Okies and country music... he even goes so far as to compare himself to Steinbeck on the back of his novel Straight White Male. Heydey compares him to Mark Twain. That's brave too. And the title of Haslam's Valley. That's just too pretentious for me. It's no more his valley than Harvey Halls.
Time will change all of that.
It’s going to be a good day when the Californian eats crow for not talking about Lords: Part One or any other of my books as they hit the shelves. Their sticking with Stanley, Haslam and Humes merely tells me they’re sticking with their network of good old stand-bys in a town of good old boy networks.
One just has to be patient.
Time will change the face of the old media and their focus.
Maybe part of the answer lies with the missing entertainment reporter.
In the meantime, we’ll all stay tuned… and I'll even keep reading Haslam. I will hand it to him. As pretentious as I make him out to be, he knows his California literature as he edits a lot of anthologies, even though he did shut down Katherine Burke's book on Buck Owens, preventing it from being published by University of Nevada Press. He is a writer with incredible power...
I then performed a search on myspace.com/daniellebelton. It says her last login was on November 18th, 2005. Her regular blog’s last entry was on November 17th. Her last column? I don’t know. I’m guessing some time around mid to late November… I did some backtracking to her friends pages. Nothing. She either only writes emails and doesn’t leave comments to cover her tracks, or just never really used myspace all that much…
I heard she was a ‘no show’ at the Californian Christmas party. Didn’t surprise me. She was a no show at the Empty Space theatre for her own art show and a no show at many many events around town. Sure, I don’t go to a lot of shows. But I do make it out to some and I don’t get paid.
And I don’t see Belton shoveling money out of pocket to uplift local music and sports culture in a fun CD of original music. My point is, if you really love the local music culture, you will really put something of yourself into it. Forget all the “N.L. has an agenda” bullshit. I love local music, art, theatre and hockey. End of story. Or I wouldn’t do it.
I do pick on the Californian. I admit it. But then I told that to Jennifer Baldwin when she asked me to add my blog to bakersfield.com. I’m not dumb. I knew they would never be able to handle my criticism or my book that makes them look like the lepers of the 1970s, infecting everyone around them to be a part of their creepy media colony. And them kicking me out of their community regarding their missing reporter’s lies to me proves that point. I’m just a bully after all; perhaps because I write opinions that I don’t submit to the local paper’s editorial staff.
But don’t get me wrong. There are some really good folks at the Californian. I’ll say that even if all of them hate my guts.
One bit of writing I enjoy from the Bakersfield Californian is the sports reporting and sports photography. I see Mike Griffith at all the Condors games working hard. He writes straightforward sports facts and Johnny Harte takes top-notch photographs. John Harte has taught a lot at Bakersfield College and stays true to his art form (which I am in awe of his ability). There are good writers at the Californian, and just like any newspaper, there are bad apples too. And sometimes there are just some really bad stories.
Take the recent article about Bakersfield-related Christmas presents. The Californian went so far as to mention Bakersfield-related ‘local’ books, but didn’t go in-depth on the subject and were sure to not mention my novel.
Although I heard they called Russo’s and asked about my book, in their story, “A little local color for the holidays,” staff writer Erin Waldner writes:
If Tony Russo were to give one book about the Bakersfield area this holiday, it would be "Haslam's Valley." Author Gerald Haslam is a widely respected author who grew up in Bakersfield.
"A lot of people know who Gerald is," said Russo, from Russo's Books. The book is $18.95 at Russo's.
"Children of the Dust Bowl" by Jerry Stanley, originally published in 1993, and "Mean Justice" by Edward Humes are perennial favorites at Russo's. "Mean Justice" tells a real-life murder story in Bakersfield and delves into the workings of the Kern County District Attorney's office. It caused quite an uproar when originally published in 1999 and earned Humes a Pulitzer Prize.
Really now, there have been more recent books about Bakersfield than the book by Jerry Stanley. He has been pushing that book for more than ten years! Mean Justice is a local topic, but isn’t even written by a Bakersfieldian. And Haslam? He’s the good old boy from Oildale who thinks he’s cornered the market in Bakersfield as the premiere writer from the area. Haslam's valley is a collection of essays and stories from a writer who typically presents Bakersfield as merely a land of Okies and country music... he even goes so far as to compare himself to Steinbeck on the back of his novel Straight White Male. Heydey compares him to Mark Twain. That's brave too. And the title of Haslam's Valley. That's just too pretentious for me. It's no more his valley than Harvey Halls.
Time will change all of that.
It’s going to be a good day when the Californian eats crow for not talking about Lords: Part One or any other of my books as they hit the shelves. Their sticking with Stanley, Haslam and Humes merely tells me they’re sticking with their network of good old stand-bys in a town of good old boy networks.
One just has to be patient.
Time will change the face of the old media and their focus.
Maybe part of the answer lies with the missing entertainment reporter.
In the meantime, we’ll all stay tuned… and I'll even keep reading Haslam. I will hand it to him. As pretentious as I make him out to be, he knows his California literature as he edits a lot of anthologies, even though he did shut down Katherine Burke's book on Buck Owens, preventing it from being published by University of Nevada Press. He is a writer with incredible power...
This entry was posted by N.L. Belardes, on
Saturday, December 10, 2005.
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