REPORTER, EDITOR DEFEND SMOKING-BAN ARTICLE
By Jason Wells
Glendale News Press
Aug 22 2008
CA
Writer of Pasadena Weekly story insists corrected version reflects
what Dave Weaver told him.
NORTHWEST GLENDALE — The Pasadena Weekly reporter who touched off a
furor three weeks ago, when it came to light that his June 26 article
had incorrectly attributed comments about Armenian smokers to Mayor
John Drayman, appeared live on cable television Thursday to defend
his work.
The reporter, Carl Kozlowski, was unassuming in his defense on "The
Larry Zarian Show" on Thursday while discussing an error in which
he incorrectly attributed to Drayman comments Councilman Dave Weaver
allegedly made about Armenian smokers and the influence they may have
in opposing Glendale’s upcoming smoking ordinance.
The cover article was widely circulated at City Hall about five weeks
after it published and set off what has been an ongoing protest of
Weaver by the Armenian community, especially the Armenian National
Committee Glendale Chapter.
"I certainly didn’t want to cause a rift in the community," Kozlowski
said.
But he did not back down from Weaver’s accusations that the Pasadena
Weekly had distorted his comments and had fabricated some of the
indirect quotations in the article.
Councilman Bob Yousefian, who has remained relatively silent on the
controversy, called into the live question-and-answer portion of the
show Thursday to ask Kozlowski point blank if he would, under oath,
affirm the veracity of his corrected attribution of the comments
to Weaver.
"Absolutely. Absolutely," Kozlowski replied.
Pasadena Weekly editor Kevin Uhrich also appeared with Kozlowski
to defend the magazine’s integrity against Weaver’s accusations of
journalistic philandering.
The pair reiterated Uhrich’s version of events laid out in a Pasadena
Weekly column that published Thursday, in which Kozlowski repeatedly
asked Weaver if he was talking about Armenians in his comments about
the smokers.
Uhrich said Weaver offered only "a growl" in one response, and silence
in the other.
Then, in a subsequent conversation, Uhrich said Weaver confirmed
to Kozlowski that he was talking about the city’s "substantial and
politically influential Armenian community."
Weaver — who declined an invitation to appear on Zarian’s show as
a politically futile effort — refuted Uhrich’s assertions before
the show Thursday and said Kozlowski was bent on leading him to draw
certain conclusions about Glendale’s smoking community.
He also loathed the ongoing effort by some in the community to insist
on drawing out a "divisive issue."
"This is all politics, and it’s aimed at me," Weaver said.
The matter, at least before the City Council dais on Tuesday, had
appeared to fade, with only one staunch critic of Weaver blasting
the article and the councilman’s apparent unwillingness to issue a
full apology.
A week prior, Councilman Ara Najarian said he was satisfied with
Weaver’s explanation that his comments were taken out of context
and that he never tied opposition to the coming smoking ordinance to
Glendale’s "substantial" Armenian smoking population.
Najarian again affirmed his position on Tuesday, arguing that to draw
it out without any new evidence would be to carry on a controversy
based on hearsay.
Even with Kozlowski’s defense and Yousefian’s call-in, it appeared the
"he said, he said" standoff would remain for the time being.
"Somebody’s got to not be telling the truth," Zarian said.
As far as Uhrich and Kozlowski were concerned, it wasn’t them.
"We can’t make up what people say, and that’s the tragedy here,"
Uhrich said.
He went on to say that the purpose for appearing on the show was to
defend the reputation of the Pasadena Weekly and his staff.
"Our integrity is everything to us," he said.