Last week’s banner headlines on the front page of The Malibu Times declaring “Council candidate responds to vandalism, trespassing convictions” was nothing less than a shameful and cowardly smear. It was designed to obfuscate the facts and manipulate an election. How low can a “newspaper” and publisher go to advance their own, obvious agenda? This is truly yellow journalism and it is an insult to the citizens of this town.
I am comforted knowing that Malibu citizens are not easily deceived by headlines that flagrantly smear a man running for our city council. By printing such an inflammatory headline, Arnold York and his staff have exposed their true agenda, which is to attack any individual that threatens the pro-development status quo on the present city council. It is that simple. It is all about money. Evidently there is no journalistic ethic in place at this “newspaper” to prevent this kind of distortion. Quite simply, The Malibu Times, for once and all, exposed itself as nothing less than a mouthpiece for real estate development in this town.
Let’s call a spade a spade. Van de Hoek is an environmentalist and he undertook a civil disobedience. In order to help antelope roam the range he got arrested for fence cutting. Today this formerly BLM land is a national monument. Enough said. I applaud van de Hoek’s commitment to the environment. To brand him a “vandal and trespasser” in a headline is to impugn his fine reputation as both a professional biologist and balanced environmentalist.
This attack on a good man underscores the stakes that are at hand in the coming election. Presently we have a city council that routinely rubber stamps rampant development. They got us into this present LCP because they withdrew a very well thought out LCP that our own town and citizens produced at the expense of tens of thousands of dollars and four years time. They withdrew it because it limited growth and that didn’t jibe with their agenda. We desperately need political diversity on the city council. We need some opposition to the development forces that now completely control every member of this council. Presently we are on a course that will destroy the fabric of what most of us love about Malibu: the open hills, the fresh air, the wildlife, and the ocean.
If we want to preserve these precious resources, we need committed people that aren’t in it to promote growth for their own selfish business interests. We need checks and balances to fairly govern us.
We desperately need conservationists like Robert Roy Van de Hoek and John Wall on this city council because they will protect our environment and bring some balance back to the administration of this town. Please get out and vote!
Bobby Carmichael