Carson officials accuse Daily Breeze of misrepresenting city as crime-ridden

CARSON, Calif. (KABC) -- It's not unusual for the Daily Breeze newspaper to hear from a disgruntled reader threatening to cancel a subscription, but it is unusual when a city makes that threat.

The Carson City Council is considering boycotting the Daily Breeze. Unhappy with coverage, Carson Mayor Jim Dear and some city council members say the newspaper unfairly paints the city as crime-ridden.

"When a crime is outside of our area, there is no reason to refer to that crime as being near Carson when it's near Torrance or in the city of L.A.," said Carson City Councilman Albert Robles. "That hurts our residents and that hurts our businesses."

Michael Anastasi is the Executive Editor and Vice President of Los Angeles News Group, the company that owns the Daily Breeze and eight other daily newspapers in Southern California.

He says Carson's proposed boycott caught him off guard and is most likely the result of recent stories that focused on controversial actions by some Carson city officials.

"We tell good stories and bad stories. We tell whatever the story is and we're not going to be dissuaded from that mission," Anastasi said.

Nevertheless, Dear says the newspaper's reporting is negative and inaccurate.

"I think newspapers are essential to democracy, but they go over the line in unfairness," Dear said.

The proposed boycott has been relatively low-profile. Many Carson residents Eyewitness News spoke with hadn't really heard about it.

Meantime, Dear has delayed the newspaper vote indefinitely. But even if the council does dump its Daily Breeze subscriptions, don't expect the newspaper's stock to plummet. According to the mayor, the city only gets two copies of the paper each day.