A media firm that espouses transparency acts contrary to their mandate.

Last May, as the Covid-19 pandemic was settling in for an extended stay, the city of Pacific Grove first began reckoning with a police officer who, at least by deed, seemingly espoused anti-government sentiments. It was then that a citizen reported the officer, Michael Gonzalez, parked his personal vehicle in the city lot, and that vehicle was emblazoned with a variety of decals, including one stating Molon Labe (a pro-Second Amendment rallying cry borrowed from the Spartans meaning “come and take them” – them being firearms) and another symbolizing The Three Percenters, or III%, a militia group whose beliefs are one of three core components in the anti-government militia movement, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

On the first go around, Gonzalez was placed on paid administrative leave and the city paid for an independent investigation, which found Gonzales culpable only of being a dumbass (he meant no harm and didn’t know what all the stickers meant, he said), and he was returned to duty.

Then came November, when activists discovered Gonzalez’s Parler account, on which he stated “Fuck Black Lives Matter” and expressed sympathy for Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teen who shot and killed two men at a BLM protest in Wisconsin.

Gonzalez, after a second paid leave and investigation, was shown the door.

In between the first instance and the second, the city enlisted the help of a public relations specialist, Vacaville-based Cole Pro Media, headed by former television journalist Laura Cole and with three other former journalists – all bearing the title “transparency engagement advisor” – on her team. The company’s website states Cole specializes in transparency engagement, social media management and crisis communications, specifically for law enforcement agencies and cities.

In January, I wrote about Cole’s $36,000 contract for Cole to offer the city advice and talking points. A citizen named Randy Fairgarden, who filed a California Public Records Act request for city correspondence with Cole, in turn provided those talking points to the media. (Among them: “To suggest there are malicious people that are part of any racist organizations working in our city government is a serious accusation and not supported by any credible evidence.”)

So Gonzalez is gone, the city ended its contract with Cole and why am I writing about it again? Because on April 28, the paper received a pretty unusual request from an attorney who said he was acting as a “facilitator” for Cole. That request: That we remove the article from our website. In lieu of complete removal, attorney John Lambert suggested we de-index the story, meaning search engines wouldn’t find it, or that we remove Cole Pro Media’s name from the piece.

It was couched as a “courtesy request,” and while Lambert wrote Editor Sara Rubin he would speak to her as to the reasons, he would only do so off the record. In his email, Lambert writes Cole “simply wishes to put this incident behind them and move on with their lives.”

“While it is important that information be archived, surely one must not be punished in perpetuity?” he writes. “It is no secret that the internet and technology have made it increasingly difficult for anyone to put even the smallest of mistakes firmly behind them and move on.”

It’s baffling that a media relations company that actively seeks taxpayer-funded contracts is now seeking to have evidence of government contracts wiped from the internet. (The North Bay Bohemian, a weekly covering Sonoma and Napa counties, received a similar request on a story that references Cole, on the same day.)

I ran the request past David Snyder, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition. He says he’s seen a lot of complaints about journalism, but never one quite like this.

“They identify no factual inaccuracies, so it’s not clear what steps the paper could take to remedy, and taking down a story entirely is an extreme step most papers are loath to take,” Snyder says. “I’ve seen letters alleging libel, factual inaccuracies and copyright violations, but I’ve never seen one that asks for an entire story to be taken down but doesn’t identify why.”

MARY DUAN writes Local Spin for the Monterey County Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com