Update: The newspaper pulled the referenced article after republishing it, verbatim, without the writer’s written consent.
An Inglewood-based newspaper, with close ties to Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr., supported Gloria Gray for Inglewood City Council. Their publisher stooped to a new low in their post-election coverage of the District 1 runoff results when they tried to pass off someone else’s work as their own.
Inglewood Today newspaper publisher Willie Brown caught the ire of City employees when he sent out unsolicited campaign emails to their taxpayer-funded inbox on Sunday, March 5. When they opened their email to start work on Monday, March 6, they found the email from willie@inglewoodtoday.com with the blazing headline “ASK GEORGE DOTSON WHAT ABOUT US THE PEOPLE?”
The email suggested the “city has been keeping quiet and not using the media and local newspapers to keep residents informed” despite taxpayers paying upwards of tens of thousands of dollars for ads in his newspaper they never see.
The email asked for their support in voting for Gray. Residents living in Inglewood District 1 received a newspaper in their yard the morning of election day that included an ad paid for by Gray’s campaign committee. Brown has NEVER delivered his newspaper to Inglewood resident’s doorsteps.
Daily Breeze writer Kristy Hutchings published her special election write-up on March 7 and her article appeared word for word in Inglewood Today March 9 without crediting her. They attempted to pass it off as “wire service”.
How is Inglewood Today the “voice” of the City, as an image in Brown’s March 5 email suggests when they can’t conjure up their own write-up on the city’s election?
Here is the link to the Daily Breeze article.
Here is the link to the Inglewood Today article.
