James McDermott v. Ampersand Publishing, LLC
Opinion
Opinion
I. Background
As described in more detail below, an NLRB administra- tive law judge (ALJ) presided over a trial and produced a lengthy recommended decision and order in this case, cur- rently pending before the Board itself. The factual narrative provided here is largely drawn from the findings of fact made by the ALJ as part of that decision.
The News-Press is a daily newspaper published in Santa Barbara, California. The News-Press’s owner and co- publisher, Wendy McCaw, purchased the paper in 2000 through her privately-held company, Ampersand Publishing.
Beginning in 2004, McCaw voiced concerns that the paper’s news reporting was sometimes biased. She took vari- ous actions to try to eliminate the bias she perceived, includ- ing issuing warning letters to reporters and conducting staff training sessions. Early in July 2006, following a series of clashes over what the district court described as “issues of content,” several editors and reporters resigned from their positions at the News-Press to protest what they perceived as unethical interference in the news-reporting function of the newspaper by McCaw and her co-publisher, Arthur von Weisenberger.