The CotoBuzz Journal, Community Journalism

March 2008 ISSUE

We do not make jokes, we simply watch the LA Times, the Orange County Register and CID/HOA board of directors and report the facts!

ChaunceyBuzz and the CZ Subsidies

March 2, 2008

Chauncey Bailey, editor of the Oakland Post was gunned down as he walked to work in August of last year. Law enforcement agents believe he was murdered because of his investigation into a business called Your Black Muslim Bakery.

In 1976 Don Bolles, founding member of the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), was murdered by a car bomb in part because of his investigation into public corruption. Bolles murder led to the formation of the Arizona Project. Bob Greene, the Newsday investigative editor, calls the Arizona Project an insurance policy: No journalist’ work could be stopped by a bullet or a bomb.

Although murdered, Bailey was not stopped. The Chauncey Bailey Project is a clearinghouse for information and home for more than two dozen editors, reporters, students and news organizations, designed to pick up where Bailey left off on the investigation of Your Black Muslim Bakery. IRE member Mary Fricker states “Our goal is to send this message far and wide. You can’t kill a story by killing a journalist”.

At a local level, there have been various attempts at silencing the CotoBuzz Journal, including the use of legal resources by the CZ association’s board of directors. Such acts have led us to the creation of the LOPE – List of Prominent Enemies.

However, no opinion or story has generated more anti-Buzz sentiment as our efforts to put the spotlight on CZ subsidies. As Fricker might say, . You can’t hide the subsidies by silencing the CotoBuzz Journal.

Note: Thomas Peele is an investigative reporter for the Bay Area News Group, working full time on the Chauncey Bailey Project – he can be reached at Tpeele@bayareanewsgroup.com

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