• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice

The Valley Citizen

Pursuing truth toward justice
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About

Banned by the Bee: Flint's Spiked Column

June 16, 2011 By Eric Caine 14 Comments

August 3, 1997, under a headline that read, “We’re offering differing points of view,” the Modesto Bee announced a new program for the OP/ED page. The idea was the brain child of then publisher Orage Quarles III, who wanted to encourage community participation on the Opinions page. After a contest that featured 249 entries, the Bee chose twelve local writers, each of whose work would appear once a month.

The writers did indeed represent a wide range of viewpoints, ranging from the conservative and even ultra-conservative positions of land-use attorney George Petrulakis and talk-show host Rick Minyard to the more liberal stances of Modesto native Jill Jepson and Turlock resident Don Shaw. The writers were dubbed, “Community Columnists,” and their columns were featured above the fold with an accompanying photo. The early columns featured commentary on national topics, but Quarles decreed commentary should focus on local issues, so the columns soon followed suit.

Many of the columns featured public issues debated in the “uninhibited, robust and wide-open” manner favored by Justice William Brennan in his famous First Amendment commentary. Early on, John Michael Flint’s knowledge, wit and economy of style stood out. He soon gained an audience that cut across political and social boundaries. Former Bee Assistant Opinion Page Editor Gale Hammons, now Editor of the Opinion Page at the Riverside Press Enterprise, had this to say of Flint’s columns:

John Flint offered a clever, original, often irreverent take on public issues and was, in fact, one of the most astute observers of local politics I have ever met.  He was an exceptional writer — but more significantly, he was an extraordinary thinker.  His talent for dissecting local issues — along with his willingness to speak truth to power — made him an extremely influential voice in the Modesto area.  For many years, he was a tremendous asset to The Bee’s Opinion pages, as well as to the communities our pages served.

Flint was an especially keen observer of Modesto city government. He attended City Council meetings regularly and was able to transform the dull issues of the day into a good read. His memory of local issues and politicians was eidetic and long; he could recite the political histories of Haig Arakelian and Carol Whitesides as easily as those of Dick Lang and Carmen Sabatino.

The years 2003-2004 were the high water mark for Community Columnists. Flint broke the story on Stanislaus County Supervisors’ plans for a mega-dump at the Fink Road landfill near Patterson. The column caused a firestorm of comment and criticism, and severe discomfort to many of the county’s movers and shakers, some of whom were not shy about voicing complaints to the Bee about those troublesome columns on the OP/ED page. Despite their protests, the dump story wouldn’t go away. Not long thereafter, Joe Demma, the Bee’s new editorial gun in town, broke the story about County CEO Reagan Wilson’s “friend,” one Lee Torrens, whose vague job description didn’t seem to justify his county salary and benefits. That story was followed by one on Wilson’s lavish life style, subsidized by a county credit card.

It was a rare time. The Bee was speaking truth to power and Valley citizens were taking a second look at long-time political icons like Wilson and his bosses, entrenched county supervisors Ray Simon, Pat Paul and Paul Caruso. Citizen journalism had been given a life, personified by John Michael Flint. Meanwhile, Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino, longtime foe of the Modesto establishment, was charged with eleven felony counts and his political career torpedoed during his first term.

Even in this heady atmosphere, some writers felt the Bee was beginning to bend under the weight of complaints about the Community Columns. There was occasional pressure to avoid certain topics and grumblings about civility. Flint, however, claimed he felt free to write about anything that came to mind, and one could easily see why the Bee would want to give him a free rein; he had a large following and was arguably the keenest observer of local politics the region had ever seen.

Time passed and most of the original Community Columnists wrote less and less often; some stopped writing at all. The original submission schedule had long been abandoned. The Bee recruited more writers, some from the Visiting Editor program, some elsewhere. Flint continued to contribute on a regular basis, and became notorious among the Community Columnists not only for the superb quality of his writing but also for the singular distinction of never having had a spiked column.

There was a noticeable change in editorial policy after OP/ED editor Dick LeGrand retired and assistant editor Gale Hammons left to work for the Riverside Press Enterprise. They were replaced by Judy Sly and Mike Dunbar. Columns started appearing that seemed more suited for the family section than the OP/ED page; some people started calling it the “diets and dust bunnies” page. Sly and Dunbar rejected more columns more often. While some of the writers felt the rejections were politically based, others could detect no discernible pattern; reasons for rejected columns simply seemed random and arbitrary.

Flint, however, maintained his perfect record until March, 2010. That was when he submitted his column about Carmen Sabatino’s campaign for supervisor. The column was rejected.

“It wasn’t favorable to Carmen in any way,” said a mystified Flint, who was very proud that his prediction that a third candidate would enter the supervisor’s race had been validated.

“I didn’t put it in the column,” said Flint, “but I even predicted the third candidate would be Balvino Irizarry, and it was.”

Most of those few people who saw the column were amused by Flint’s puzzlement. There were numerous red flags, not the least of which was Flint’s claim that Carmen Sabatino had been the victim of, “a genuine conspiracy.” Flint wrote, “big names and institutions were involved, and they really ‘got’ Sabatino.”

Insiders had long suspected the charges against Sabatino were trumped up. For one thing, according to the Modesto Bee, Roger Brown, the investigator who had apparently been hired to verify claims of misconduct, CC’d realtor Michael Zagaris with his reports. Zagaris was one of many of Sabatino’s long-time political foes. It appeared to some that Zagaris may have hired Brown to go on a fishing expedition.

Another problem was the role of Pat McGrath. Many of the charges against Sabatino originated with McGrath. Sabatino and McGrath had been partners in a failed restaurant venture, Modesto Joe’s. But when it came time to go to trial, McGrath refused to testify. Later, he declared bankruptcy. Among his creditors, to the tune of $70,000, was one Carmen Sabatino.

There were manifold other problems with the case, including alleged forged documents. But the big tell was the offer to drop charges. The District Attorney offered to walk away from the case if Sabatino paid $4,773. Most observers felt it was a pittance, given the number of felonies involved. Sabatino, defiant to the end, chose to go to trial and got a hung jury. All in all, it looked to many of those who followed the story closely that Sabatino had indeed been, “kneecapped,” as Flint wrote in the spiked column.

But no one who knew of the bitter enmity between Sabatino and the Modesto Bee would have ever dreamed the Bee would print Flint’s story line of a “genuine conspiracy.” Sabatino and the Bee had long engaged in a blood feud that had roots in everything from money to politics to trash talk. And when Flint wrote of “big names and institutions,” a reader couldn’t help but wonder what “institutions” he meant.

Flint’s use of the word “conspiracy” was especially intriguing. Those who knew John Michael Flint knew he generally mocked the notion of conspiracies. He was the polar opposite of the paranoid conspiracy-monger. He was also an exacting wordsmith. When he used a word, he meant exactly what that word denoted.

Over more than twelve years writing for the Bee, John Michael Flint had earned a wide audience. His place on the Bee’s OP/ED page was justified by his long record of accuracy, his lack of a personal agenda, and his vast knowledge of the local political scene. He also represented a point of view many in his community shared. Many of his readers trusted his views more than those they read on the Bee’s Editorial Page. When the Bee spiked Flint’s column, it silenced the most eloquent voice in the community chorus. No matter how much his views conflicted with the Bee’s own interests, John Michael Flint had earned the right to be heard and his readers deserved to know what the region’s best political analyst had to say about one of the major political events in Modesto’s history.

John Michael Flint died July 29, 2010. His like shall not be seen again.

Filed Under: History Tagged With: John Michael Flint

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Corliss says

    July 7, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    hi, superior website, and a decent understand! 1 for my book marks.

    Reply
  2. klick says

    July 11, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    Very good details! I have been looking for things such as this for some time finally. Regards!

    Reply
  3. Benjamin says

    July 18, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    Exactly where is the facebook like button ?

    Reply
  4. Wesc Bongo says

    July 21, 2011 at 12:17 am

    What goes around, comes around.

    Reply
  5. weed seeds says

    August 26, 2011 at 11:18 pm

    I will right away grasp your rss feed as I can not in finding your e-mail subscription hyperlink or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Kindly allow me understand so that I may just subscribe. Thanks.

    Reply
  6. Format harddive says

    August 27, 2011 at 7:00 pm

    Hey there, You have performed a fantastic job. I will certainly digg it and in my opinion recommend to my friends. I’m confident they’ll be benefited from this web site.

    Reply
  7. hotshot bald cop says

    August 30, 2011 at 1:52 am

    Never considered it that way.

    Reply
  8. George Orwell says

    September 2, 2011 at 11:24 am

    Hey there, You’ve performed a fantastic job. I will certainly digg it and in my view suggest to my friends. I am confident they will be benefited from this web site.

    Reply
  9. gambling says

    September 7, 2011 at 12:35 am

    This is very interesting. I’ve joined your feed and shared your web site in my social networks

    Reply
  10. stock market says

    September 8, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    Pretty nice post. I will be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write once more soon!

    Reply
  11. Sac Hermes Kelly says

    September 17, 2011 at 2:02 am

    I see your blog page daily to learn different topics.

    Reply
  12. Блог о путешествиях says

    September 26, 2011 at 7:37 am

    Thx for this great information that you are sharing with us!!!

    Reply
  13. cheap microsoft software says

    September 26, 2011 at 9:48 am

    Thank you for what you have. This is the best post I’ve read

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Banned by the Bee: Flint’s Spiked Column | THE VOICE OF MODESTO says:
    July 16, 2011 at 4:06 am

    […] Banned by the Bee: Flint’s Spiked Column […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

?Monster Fracks? Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
“Monster Fracks” Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
A Times analysis shows that increasingly complex oil and gas wells now require astonishing volumes of water to fracture the bedrock and release fossil fuels, threatening America’s fragile aquifers.
www.nytimes.com
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has 'paralyzed' California cities
Newsom urges SCOTUS to consider encampment ruling that has ‘paralyzed’ California cities
The Democratic governor’s intervention lays down a mark in a legal dispute with potentially profound implications for one of California’s most pressing issues.
www.politico.com
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Clarence Thomas Secretly Participated in Koch Network Donor Events
Thomas has attended at least two Koch donor summits, putting him in the extraordinary position of having helped a political network that has brought multiple cases before the Supreme Court.
www.propublica.org
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How hungry is California? Millions struggle to eat well in an abundant state
How bad is hunger in California? A lot depends on your access to food aid, which expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic but now is being reduced.
calmatters.org
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento DA sues city over homeless encampments
Sacramento County had nearly 9,300 homeless people in 2022, based on data from the annual Point in Time count. That was up 67% from 2019. Roughly three-quarters of the county’s homeless population….
www.mercurynews.com
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
At Last, a Real Possibility to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Change
After decades of minimal action, Congress passed the largest and most comprehensive piece of climate legislation in U.S. history. Will we make the most of this opportunity?
www.audubon.org
How the fentanyl crisis' fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
How the fentanyl crisis’ fourth wave has hit every corner of the US
The epidemic’s staggering scale and infiltration of communities is laid bare in a new study.
www.bbc.com
Can licensed tent villages ease California's homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Can licensed tent villages ease California’s homelessness epidemic? This nonprofit thinks so
Taking people off the street and into tents is a new twist on homeless shelter being explored by the San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy in two tent villages operating in Los Angeles and Culver City.
www.latimes.com
Mississippi has problems, but it's handling homelessness better than L.A.
Mississippi has problems, but it’s handling homelessness better than L.A.
The public tends to blame homelessness on poverty, drug use, crime or even warm weather. But other cities don’t have L.A. levels of street homelessness because they have more available housing.
www.latimes.com
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
Neo-Nazis March Through Florida Park
The demonstrators raised “Heil Hitler” salutes and waved flags with swastikas.
www.thedailybeast.com
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom's CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Families have high hopes for Gavin Newsom’s CARE Courts. Providers want to lower expectations
Gov. Gavin Newsom?s experiment to push Californians with mental illness off the streets and into treatment, CARE Court, starts soon.
calmatters.org
Pope says 'backward' U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope says ‘backward’ U.S. conservatives have replaced faith with ideology
Pope Francis has blasted the “backwardness” of some conservatives in the U.S. Catholic Church. He says they have replaced faith with ideology and that a correct understanding of Catholic doctrine allows for change over time.
apnews.com

Find us on Facebook

pp
The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design