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A reporter who has taken a job for Wacky Wendy McCaw at the Santa Barbara News-Press is going in with blind optimism about the, uh, working conditions and, apparently, not much of a paycheck. His roommate ad on Craigslist:
Hi, my name is Tom Risen. I'm moving out to Santa Barbara to write for the Santa Barbara News Press. Yes, I know about all the drama at the newspaper there, but the trouble is clearing up and my new job as a business reporter will be free of such drama. I have just got my Master's in Journalism from Northwestern and I am moving from Washington DC to Santa Barbara on Thursday. I like rock climbing, surfing in North Carolina, basketball, and good books. I've had a wide array of roomates over the years and as a journalist I'm easy to get along with if I do say so myself.
A source connected to the News-Mess situation says Risen is the son of New York Times reporter James Risen, who's the author of State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration and a former LAT writer.