Home>Articles>Elder Campaign Accuses Sacramento Bee of ‘Doctoring’ His Responses to Voter Guide

Elder Campaign Accuses Sacramento Bee of ‘Doctoring’ His Responses to Voter Guide

‘They deleted all negative references to @GavinNewsom’

By Katy Grimes, August 16, 2021 10:12 pm

In a surprising Tweet Monday evening, the recall election gubernatorial campaign of Larry Elder accused the Sacramento Bee of doctoring his responses to their voter guide questions.

“At @sacbee_news‘s invitation, @larryelder’s campaign had submitted answers to a voter guide. Sacramento Bee then proceeded to doctor our responses and publish without our permission. We have requested that the unauthorized answers be taken down, the Bee has refused,” Elder Campaign Communications Director Ying Ma Tweeted Monday evening. 

The Tweet immediately elicited Twitter responses ranging from “Bull. F*cking. Sh*t.” to “Will you be posting the real and doctored answers side-by-side for comparison?” to “Thank god most people could care less what out of touch newspapers write. #RecallGavinNewsom.”

We searched for a Twitter response on @sacbee_news‘ and found nothing referencing the Larry Elder camp’s accusations.

The Sacramento Bee voter guide asked questions ranging from COVID-19 to climate change, state funded rent relief and small-business grants, to the housing crisis, wildfire and drought, and the dwindling middle class. But without the original responses from Elder, and only looking at what the Bee printed, validating the accusation is not possible at this point.

With no response on Twitter from the Sacramento Bee, Ying Ma posted this:

1) The @larryelder campaign is officially revoking the @sacbee_news‘s access to our campaign. This means every reporter, editorial writer, photographer–every part of the newspaper.”

2) At @sacbee_news‘s invitation, @larryelder’s campaign had submitted answers to a voter guide. Sacramento Bee then proceeded to doctor our responses and publish without our permission. We have requested that the unauthorized answers be taken down, the Bee has refused.

3) How did @sacbee_news doctor @larryelder responses, you ask? They deleted all negative references to @GavinNewsom. The finest of media bias, incompetence, and self-delusion at work.

The Elder campaign received some good news however from another California newspaper: The Orange County Register announced in an editorial they have decided to endorse Elder in the recall: “Vote ‘yes’ on the recall, Larry Elder for governor.”

Perhaps adding some irony to the voter guide accusations and Elder’s campaign’s Twitter announcement, the OC Register asked rhetorically if their endorsement is justified: “We believe so, and even the Bee noted that, ‘Sacramento establishment politics are failing to deliver the scale and speed of change that’s needed to address California’s existential crises.’ For us, that’s the bottom-line reason to vote “yes.”

The Globe contacted the Elder campaign to discuss this turn of events but had not received a response by 10 pm. We also contacted the Bee summer intern who wrote the voter guide article, but have not heard back. We will follow up with the Elder campaign and the Sacramento Bee as more information is available.

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13 thoughts on “Elder Campaign Accuses Sacramento Bee of ‘Doctoring’ His Responses to Voter Guide

  1. It’s weird and puzzling that a Twitter-user who is apparently in the Recall Newsom camp would tweet like a nasty, sycophantic Newsom troll, don’t you think? And imply —– correct me if I am missing something —– that somehow Larry Elder is not a good candidate for CA governor because he objects to being misquoted and misrepresented in the Sacramento Bee, which “most people” know is an out-of-touch newspaper? It may well be one, and I happen to wholeheartedly believe it is, but does that mean a candidate for governor shouldn’t be pointing out its lies, mistakes, and mischaracterizations when they occur and holding the line against them? Larry Elder is not a babe-in-the-woods, after all; he has lived his entire life in a city that for decades has been burdened with the lies and propaganda of the infamous Los Angeles Times.

    Looking forward to more information on this odd development, including what Newsom-criticism the Bee removed from Larry Elder’s response, if indeed they did, and why.

  2. Still looking forward to hearing more, but let’s get real. Nearly EVERY big city newspaper in the state, and that includes the Sacramento Bee, is an arm of Dem Party politicians and special interests and their power in the state of California, and of course the Sac Bee, as among the worst of CA’s newspapers, would be an apologist for the narcissistic, sadistic, sociopathic, arrogant and destructive Gavin Newsom and his Friends.

    But, speculating, did The Bee remove criticism of Gov Gav on their own, voluntarily, or were they coerced by the Gov’s office to do so? Was the Twitter-user a fake account disguised as a Recall supporter in order to troll and confuse those who want Gavin Gone?

    I hope we will definitively find out the details, but if Larry Elder objects, it is because, significantly, he understands that Job #1 is to Recall Newsom and when his response to the Bee is gutted of remarks critical of Newsom it CANNOT stand. It’s actually a very good sign of how Larry Elder would be as the future Governor of California.

  3. I notice the article states that the writer of the hit job was a summer intern. Obviously, he was trying to follow the Bee’s biased style sheet to impress his bosses.
    Sacramento, and journalism in general will in be a better place when the Bee finally folds.

    1. Yes,

      “We also contacted the Bee summer intern who wrote the voter guide article, but have not heard back.”

      Summer intern? Garbage in, garbage out. To Bee or not to Bee, that is the question.

  4. I just can’t believe how significant social media have become in our everyday life in every field. Like who would have thought that we will be able to get in touch with authorities just by posting a tweet. In my personal opinion, it’s a very good tendency that people have started raising their issues on social media as it is the most accessible platform to every human being that has an Internet connection. Also, it’s the easiest way possible in modern realities as the news gets spread at a very high speed so after just a matter of time many people will be able to learn about your problem.

  5. I watched the Elder interview with The Bee and Marcos Breton. Elder was treated with disrespectful and gaslighting questions. It was disgusting. Elder is right to cut The Bee off from any more interviews. I have personally seen what The Bee does on a local level and they are not real journalists – just hatchet-job lackeys to an ideology. Love that Larry Elder is calling them out for their disgusting games.

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