By GWEN MURANAKA
In his statement submitted to the judge on Wednesday before he was sentenced, former Councilmember Jose Huizar wrote about the devastating impact his crimes have had on his family, the community and constituents he served in Council District 14.
Huizar was sentenced on Friday to 13 years in prison for creating a pay-to-play for real estate developers seeking to build in his district, which includes Little Tokyo. U.S. District Judge John Walter said Huizar was “one of the most corrupt officials of the last several years” for accepting bribes in the form of cash, trips and other goodies.
His fall from grace has always been somewhat personal for us at The Rafu. When we first interviewed Huizar, he spoke fondly of being a delivery boy for Rafu and The Kashu Mainichi. Not only was he going to represent Little Tokyo, he once worked at one of its oldest businesses. He collected a paycheck from Aki Komai and knew press guys like Saul and Eli Carrillo. Mario Reyes and I interviewed his mentor, Family Mart owner Masamichi Kiyomiya, in the back of the store.
In 2013 at a reception at Far Bar, Huizar gamely demonstrated how he would tightly roll the newspapers and place a rubber band around them as he would get ready for the day’s delivery. Many of us can recall meeting his family and waving to them as they rode in the Nisei Week Parade. It’s really tragic for his children that his actions have led to this.
In his statement, Huizar wrote: “As the investigation went on, I realized that there was no one to blame but myself for the predicament that I found myself in. It was a process for me to accept responsibility. When I was involved in the actions concerning this case, I did not fully realize what I was doing. I got lost in it. Shiny things were dangled in front of me and I could not resist temptation.”
In the Japanese American community here in Southern California, Rafu has long been the paper of record. JANM Board Chairman Bill Fujioka once told me that his mom would use the threat of a front-page story in Rafu as a warning to be good and not end up in the newspaper for doing something bad. Reporting the good, bad and ugly has been the role of The Rafu and as we celebrated Huizar’s ascent, we also chronicle his fall.
He wrote as a warning to other public officials: “I lost everything because I was blinded by the glitz of easy money. I hope my predicament sends a message to others in public office. It is not worth it. Do it the right way within the rules, and everything will be all right; and for those that got involved in pubic service for the right reason, remind yourself why you got into it in the first place.”
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The events of this past week in the journalism landscape make you wonder who will be left to report on these kinds of stories in the future. X, formerly Twitter, is a sad shell of its former self since Elon Musk took over last year, but after The L.A. Times let go of 20% of its newsroom many of those laid-off journalists posted about what is being lost in the cutbacks.
Sadly, so many who have been let go are journalists of color, covering underrepresented communities.
Jeong Park this week wrote of the loss of a “dream job.”
Just Sunday, Park covered the anniversary of the Monterey Park mass shooting with the hopeful headline: “Nothing can kill our spirit.”
“I have no regrets — But hopes The L.A. Times can keep the beat covering Asian American communities which remain vital to SoCal,” Park stated.
Photojournalist Kent Nishimura posted: “Visuals is being decimated yet again. Just absolutely heart-breaking.”
Another of the laid-off journalists was photographer Francine Orr. Francine took photos of The Rafu in 2016 when Samantha Masunaga reported on the financial troubles facing the publication. She is a Pulitzer Prize finalist and I recall just being so moved by the empathy that she brought to her work. I’m terrible at being photographed but she somehow made me feel comfortable and presented the newsroom as it was in all its clutter and graceful chaos.
What’s happening at The L.A. Times is an L.A. story but it is also an Asian American story. Owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong has vowed to keep the paper going and selected as his interim editor Terry Tang, editorial page editor, who grew up in Gardena.
In an interview with NBC News, Tang said journalists of color shouldn’t lose hope amid the upheavals in the industry.
She said, “Don’t lose heart because when I started in this industry, it didn’t seem easy either. … If you want to be a journalist, then you’ll find ways to do that. Journalism is an act, and it is a profession, but it’s also a mindset.”
A mindset that unfortunately more and more these days seems to involve waiting for the next ax to fall.
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Gwen Muranaka, senior editor of The Rafu Shimpo, can be contacted at gwen@rafu.com. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of The Rafu Shimpo.