When Thursday is the New Friday
By Emerson Drake 
When politicians and public relations consultants have bad news that has to be delivered for public consumption they try to do it on Friday afternoons. It’s referred to as the Friday news dump. It’s used to avoid the media scrutiny that would accompany any release during the rest of the week.
You see newspaper people like to have weekends off just like the rest of us. So the majority of the Saturday and Sunday editions of the paper are pre-written and much of it already printed. They leave a small space for sports but that’s about it. And with their staffing cuts many times reaching someone on the weekend in the newsroom is impossible.
For the most part for courts in the judicial system Friday is a day to sort out legal and side issues with the attorneys so juries get to stay home. So any news will come out on Thursday and what better day to release a bombshell like the Frank Carson revelations of forgotten files than the day before Christmas Eve. The Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira, after delivering the bombshell of newly found files, had her car brought around to the back of the building and snuck out the back door, all of the time refusing to questions. And of course where was District Attorney Birgit Fladager? Conveniently out of town traveling with family, incommunicado. Couldn’t plan that any better.
The District Attorney’s conduct in this case, in our opinion, was reprehensible at best and vindictive, personal and almost criminal at worst.
One of the important questions remaining is will local mainstream media Public Relations Powerhouse, the Modesto Bee, call her out on her heinous behavior and run a series of articles ON A TIMELY BASIS (soon and often) or will they support this petty vindictive politician that is apparently using her office for personal payback. Another example is if they backed a politician for office than you won’t see many follow-up negative stories. But if you ran against one of their ‘favorites,’ and that’s a lengthy list, then God help you because the Bee’s version of ‘scorched earth’ would make General Sherman jealous.
Bee history suggests they will run a positive article after they run a negative one for politicians and organizations they supported to gain ofice. If they run an article showing the dark side of a few Sheriff’s deputies they’ll run a feel good article showing deputies interacting with children (not picking on deputies just using an example you’ll recognize.
So expect the Bee to allow the behavior of Birgit Fladager and her office to fall by the wayside. They want to shape the narrative and decide which stories you’ll remember and which you’ll forget. There goes that institutional memory thing I talk about again.
Eye On Modesto 