Lea este articulo en español aquí.
About 20 members of the Hollister Guardians and Campaign to Protect San Benito County staged a protest together outside BenitoLink’s office in downtown Hollister July 25 for about 30 minutes.
The protest began with chants including “conflict of interest,” “bogus fact-checking,” “second-rate reporting” and “supports corruption.”
According to its website, Hollister Guardians is a local grassroots organization fiscally sponsored by nonprofit Ecologistics. The organization claims to be a nonprofit, however it is not listed in the IRS’s tax exempt organization search tool.
Campaign to Protect San Benito County is a committee that was created in 2022 and is led by Andy and Mary Hsia-Coron of Aromas, who have also led Protect Our Rural Communities and Protect San Benito. The organization is behind a controversial land use initiative which was recently placed on the Nov. 5 ballot by the county.
After the chants, Hollister Guardians project co-director Bella Rosales gave a speech claiming BenitoLink reporter Robert Eliason has a conflict of interest because he worked with Hollister Mayor Mia Casey in a past campaign.
BenitoLink Executive Director Leslie David, who spoke to several protesters, said it was common for people in the small community to know each other, and noted that she knows the Hsia-Corons. BenitoLink reported that Eliason and Casey publicly supported a project as private citizens two years before Casey ran for office.
Rosales also said Eliason writes articles attacking Hollister Guardians. She was referencing BenitoLink’s Fact Check project in which at least four reporters, including Eliason, conduct research, write, read and edit articles fact checking political statements in fliers distributed to San Benito County voters.
As of July 26, Hollister Guardians has distributed two political fliers and a third as Hollister Guardians Action. To conduct its Fact Check project, BenitoLink reporters obtained agendas, minutes and videos from public meetings to compare with the claims made in the Guardians fliers. Sharing links to source documentation, the reporters showed that many of the claims were false.
Nonetheless, Rosales claimed at the protest that all the information Hollister Guardians included in its fliers can be verified by the minutes and videos of Hollister City Council meetings. BenitoLink has conducted its Fact Check series by reviewing minutes and videos of Hollister City Council meetings.
“Clearly there are other forces at play here,” Rosales said, “and it’s time people find out not just about the corruption in BenitoLink but also what is happening with the Hollister City Council.”
She repeated her speech in Spanish, saying there were several people behind BenitoLink who are trying to damage the Hollister Guardians’ image.
David said protesters did not present any specific points they objected to in the fact check to her.
“It seemed they just objected to us doing a fact check about their fliers in general,” she said. “That’s freedom of speech too.”
A second speaker followed up in Spanish saying they were not lying, that BenitoLink was lying.
Shelly Gister, wearing a Campaign to Protect San Benito shirt, told BenitoLink “Just report the facts.” When asked to identify an issue or article written by BenitoLink that was not factual, she said there were several. When asked again which one came to mind, she said the ones attacking the Hollister Guardians, and then stated the information distributed by the organization were not lies.
David said freedom of speech is important even when it is focused on BenitoLink.
“As a community-based newsroom, that is what we are about, a free interchange of ideas and opinions,” she said.
She added BenitoLink publishes community submissions with a variety of perspectives on local issues provided that authors follow the terms of use. BenitoLink also publishes its financial statements, as required by law and names all donors during fundraising campaigns and major donors.
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