Spend enough years at a newspaper and you get really good at smelling canned PR statements.
You don't even need to be in the business that long to smell something real fishy, like Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash did at a recent hearing in Santa Maria to consider a merger between Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI).
The whole point of the hearing was for California Deputy Attorney General Wendi Horwitz to hear from the community on how the merger could possibly affect health care on the Central Coast, but what she got was PR blitz about how great Dignity Health is. Dignity's highest ranking (and paid) administrators and doctors all took turns repeating some of the same accomplishments and language, which is to be expected.
But when partnering officials from Allan Hancock College, the Good Samaritan Shelter, CALM, and even Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino and Fifth District Santa Barbara County Supervisor Steve Lavagnino got up to speak, they all used some of the same buzzwords as everyone else, saying they have "trust" in Dignity Health and have seen "firsthand" that it provides care for "all."
When Bubnash asked Dignity's marketing and communications director if they sent out talking points to everyone in advance, she wasn't too comfortable with the question, but at least admitted that's what they did. Similar topics have come up at a lot of these hearings, she said, "But we didn't script them or anything," she added.
Of course you didn't script anything, Dignity, but you gave officials easy plug-and-play things to say. The hearing wasn't supposed to be about how great Dignity is, it was to gauge how the community might be affected by the merger with CHI.
When it was time for people on the lower rungs of Dignity Health's ladder, like the nurses, to speak, they pointed to Catholic Health's history of sweeping staff cuts after taking over other hospital networks. One community member unaffiliated with Dignity said, "I don't quite get what CHI is bringing to the table."
Yeah, maybe because the whole damn hearing was dominated by a bunch of cheerleaders.
In a PR-choked climate like that, it's no wonder that so many in Lompoc balked at Police Chief Pat Walsh when he asked city residents to donate time and money, or rent rooms to the homeless who the Lompoc Police Department have evicted from the Santa Ynez Riverbed ("Lompoc Police Chief gives update on homeless triage center," Sept. 20). Wait, a police chief calling for compassion? Oh, the humanity!
Walsh clarified that he was asking the public to help house a few people who weren't addicts or known criminals (see page 8), and he "took it on the chin" for asking locals to help.
Well why shouldn't he ask? It's a huge problem, and the deadline for Lompoc and Santa Barbara County's triage center to close is coming soon (see page 8). All the folks there will have to go somewhere, but not back into the riverbed–Lompoc Police are already arresting those who try to move back. "This isn't what cities do," Walsh said about the massive eviction, triage center, and cleanup effort.
Maybe not, but it's what Lompoc is doing, and must do, now. At least Walsh is being honest about a situation the city ignored for so long.
The Canary is tired of all the parrotheads. Send your thoughts to [email protected].
