Tales from the Sun

Sex, drugs and plagiarism at the San Bernardino Sun.

Paul Oberjuerge is unpacking 31+ years of memories in what he promises to be an ongoing series of posts (preparing for a book, maybe?) about his time at the paper.

After opening with a story of two hookers and the company credit card, Oberjuerge swiftly moves through a series of sordid, but anonymous, tales, with such tantalizing titles as "Coked up on the job," "The Streakers," "Sex in the Newsroom," and "The Torrid Hookup." These brief glimpses aren't really that wild in context. They read more like an outline for a naughty British sitcom than scenes of Roman debauchery.

Oberjuerge is at his best when he provides a setting, offering a few details about this distant time in San Berdoo, when JoJos and Bobby McGees and Benedictine & Brandy shots were as acceptable as Chevy vans and water beds; when the newsroom was more Fritz the Cat than Dilbert.

Says Oberjuerge: We tell these stories to the young people, and some seem almost wistful because most newsrooms have turned into relentlessly puritanical, uptight places — traveling 180 degrees in the matter of a generation or two.