BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
I wonder if students could have uncovered the bribery scandal at the San Mateo County Community College District. Could a student newspaper, with a bunch of hard-charging, doggedly persistent and courageous young reporters, have figured out that longtime chancellor Ron Galatolo was taking bribes from contractors on campus?
The College of San Mateo once had a student newspaper, the San Matean, published by the school’s journalism students, whose advisor for 23 years was Ed Remitz, a seasoned newspaperman.
The students from this paper were always nipping at the heels of the administration, writing stories that at times embarrassed Galatolo.
In 2012, Galatolo killed the journalism program, which ended the student paper.
Galatolo declared that students who wanted to be reporters could learn their trade in public relations classes.
The scandal emerged in 2019 in part because of digging by this newspaper. But I wonder if the bribery would have come to light earlier if the College of San Mateo still had a student newspaper.
When I was in my University days 40 years ago working the student newspaper it was training ground for young journalists. With newspapers fading into history, what’s the incentive?
Ben, the news is still being reported, it’s just online. Reporters are still needed to gather that news.
If Ben bothered to read the news that’s available to him, he’d see local news reporters digging into issues all the time. At election time, this is especially important. I remember a few years ago about how a guy was running for city council and he was trying to hide a past that included several bankruptcies. A local reporter brought that issue to light, and the scumbag candidate withdrew from the race.