OP/ED: So. Cal. News Group Tries to Excuse Dog-Shooter Kristi Noem While Gaslighting the Public

June 13, 2025

By Brian Hews, Publisher, LCCN

The Southern California News Group [SCNG] published a masterpiece in cowardice in their June 13 paper—an editorial that manages to treat the violent cuffing of California Senator Alex Padilla by federal agents as some kind of unfortunate “both sides” misunderstanding.

Let’s break this down: a sitting U.S. Senator, Alex Padilla, was shoved to the ground, handcuffed, and silenced by Kristi Noem’s personal goon squad—at a press conference, in his own building.

And what does SCNG publishers Ron Hasse and Frank Pine do? They clutch their pearls, mumble something about “tensions” and then wag their finger at Padilla for being “perhaps inappropriate” to yell at a press conference.

“Perhaps inappropriate”? Is that the new journalistic standard for responding to an elected federal official being manhandled like a shoplifter at a Walmart? Because I know newspapers are supposed to stand up for civil liberties, not gaslight their readers into believing that shouting a question at a press conference is grounds for handcuffs.

It’s like Hasse and Pine never saw a Biden press conference.

Let’s be crystal clear: Padilla identified himself. Loudly. And it’s on video. Before he was tackled. Noem later went on Fox News and lied—blatantly—claiming he didn’t say who he was. The video says otherwise. But the SCNG, in all its editorial might, just shrugs and moves on.

And while we’re at it, what kind of newspaper publisher(s) defend the notion that “there is no recording allowed” at a press conference? That’s a North Korea-level excuse. And yet, the SCNG barely raises an eyebrow.

Then Hasse and Pine let Noem skate. Noem calls Los Angeles a socialist hellhole and claims she’s there to “liberate” it like some tinpot despot—language straight out of the Trump crony playbook—and the SCNG doesn’t even have the spine to call it what it is: authoritarian propaganda wrapped in a gaslight burrito.

This wasn’t just a political kerfuffle. It was a deliberate intimidation tactic—a flex of power meant to humiliate a U.S. Senator and send a message to anyone who dares question this lawless administration and its hand-picked enforcers. And the SCNG’s response? “Both sides should rise above their posturing.”

No, what needs to rise is journalism. The kind that holds administration officials accountable when they lie on camera. The kind that doesn’t normalize authoritarianism by watering it down into a polite editorial about “escalating tensions.”

And to SCNG Publishers Ron Hasse and Frank Pine, and Editor Todd Harmonson: If you’re more outraged by a senator raising his voice than by government agents throwing him to the floor, then maybe it’s time to hand in your press badges and apply for work at Fox News. They already have a script written for you.