“Citizen McCaw,” the new documentary about Jerry Roberts and the journalism ethics battle at the Santa Barbara News Press, will be shown for the first time in Northern California at 6:30 on April 17 at Sibley Auditorium, UC Berkeley campus. The screening will be preceded by a reception and followed by a panel discussion, with all proceeds going to Roberts’s legal fund. Tickets are $50 each. Here are the details.
Roberts (pictured), a political writer and later managing editor at the Chronicle for many years, went to work for Santa Barbara News Press owner Wendy McCaw in 2003 and resigned in 2006, saying she was meddling in the newsroom. After he quit, she sued him and he’s counter suing. Many other reporters, editors and photographers have quit the Santa Barbara paper too, and some of them are targets of McCaw lawsuits as well.