[Kzyxtalk] Fwd: The Lurid History of Bruce Anderson and the AVA

[David Gurney]

(*Note - This nutcase is running for a seat on KZYX's Board of Directors)

"For decades, Anderson has shown he will deliberately lie in order sell
papers, settle scores, or just abuse people for his own pleasure. And when
the printed word has proven to be an inadequate weapon, he has resorted to
threats of violence and actual physical assault."

*Liar Unlimited*

By Mike Sweeney (2007)

Imagine my surprise when I noticed the December 31, 2003 issue of the
Anderson Valley Advertiser.  Spread across the front page was a giant
headline, “I was a Communist for the FBI,” followed with, “By Mike Sweeney
as told to Bruce Anderson.” Since I hadn’t spoken to Bruce Anderson for
five years, and then only long enough to hang up the phone, it was apparent
that he was attempting yet another shameless hoax.

The phony first-person article went on and on for thousands of words,
presenting an intricate first-person fantasy that had me “confessing” to
about a dozen felonies. Nowhere in the paper was there a hint that the
article was contrived by Bruce Anderson himself without the slightest input
from me or the slightest connection to reality.

Apparently, the impact of this brazen hoax article failed to meet
Anderson’s hopes. So he produced another one the following week, under
banner headline, “I bombed Judi Bari,” again with the attribution, “By Mike
Sweeney as told to Bruce Anderson.” And again not a hint that the article
and its lurid details were made up out of thin air.

Still unsatisfied, Anderson struck again the following week with “Judi Bari
Tells All,” prefaced with an “Editor’s Note” claiming Judi Bari, through
her executor Darlene Comingore, left him the following letter with a
“strict instruction that it not be made public until five years after her
death.” Naturally, Judi did no such thing, and neither did Judi ever say,
believe or do what was attributed to her in the fabricated article that
followed.

The reaction to this tripled-headed hoax was predictable. The legitimate
media studiously ignored him, as did long-time residents of Mendocino
County who knew Bruce Anderson’s habits. Some of his gullible readers,
however, actually took the articles at face value, and became quite excited
until more sober folks illuminated for them Bruce Anderson’s bizarre
20-year history of hoax, lies and insults.

*Lying Local Tabloid*

Bruce Anderson’s weekly inventions are the main feature of his Anderson
Valley Advertiser , which is a kind of small-time National Enquirer without
the photos. The Anderson Valley Advertiser was an innocent country weekly
until 1984, when Anderson bought it and turned it into an opinion journal.
He explained: “I’ve always viewed the newspaper as a political weapon.”
(Los Angeles Times 2/14/96).

Almost immediately, Anderson provoked an advertiser boycott in the small
town of Boonville, the hub of rural Anderson Valley in Mendocino County.
Outraged local residents made an effort to start a competing Anderson
Valley newspaper designed to take away his local readership. The Anderson
Valley Advertiser (AVA) survived by cultivating subscriptions throughout
Northern California and beyond from people who liked off-beat political
attacks, clever insults, and outrageous gossip.

For decades, Anderson has shown he will deliberately lie in order sell
papers, settle scores, or just abuse people for his own pleasure. And when
the printed word has proven to be an inadequate weapon, he has resorted to
threats of violence and actual physical assault. The key to the AVA’s
survival has been to attract attention—any attention, by any means
necessary, including just making things up.

The first big hoax hit on February 3, 1988, when Anderson published a long
front-page interview with local Congressman Doug Bosco. To give the
“interview” more credibility, it was represented as a transcription of a
tape recorded session with David Yepson, a prominent reporter with the Des
Moines Register.

The phony interview quoted Congressman Bosco as insulting his own
constituents who opposed offshore oil drilling. They were “mostly a bunch
of easily stirred-up know-nothing malcontents who couldn’t care less about
anything other than their beautiful ocean and where their next joint is
coming from,” Bosco was quoted. The interview contained numerous other
insults and comments that, if genuine, would have caused the abrupt
termination of Bosco’s political career.

There was nothing at all in the AVA to indicate the interview was fake and
hundreds of angry calls flooded the Congressman’s office. When Bosco
denounced it as a hoax, Anderson, loving the attention, insisted it was
genuine. “I’m declaring that it’s for real,” Anderson told the Santa Rosa
Press Democrat (2/6/88).  Because Anderson insisted the interview was
genuine, the hoax got national attention. Six days after the fake interview
was published, Anderson was still telling inquiring reporters that he had
just received transcripts of the “interview” from Iowa. The next day,
however, he finally admitted, “Yes, I did it. I confess.” (Santa Rosa Press
Democrat, 2/10/88)

Anderson was completely unapologetic. “ The feisty owner of the tiny
Anderson Valley Advertiser offered no apologies, ” said the Santa Rosa
Press Democrat.  And he showed no remorse for the notoriety brought fellow
journalist David Yepson. The Des Moines Register political reporter,
purported author of the Bosco interview, spent the week leading up to
Iowa’s caucuses fielding calls about Anderson’s hoax . ‘F— him if he can’t
take a joke,’ said Anderson.” (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 2/10/88)

Anderson told Los Angeles Times reporter Rone Tempest that he DID apologize
for the Bosco hoax (LA Times, 2/28/03). In Anderson’s world, it’s never too
late to add another lie. For example, he has been quoted as claiming he has
never been found guilty of libel, ignoring Anna Taylor’s 1995 verdict
against him.

The Bosco hoax was a revelation to Anderson. By brazen fraud, he had
succeeded in winning national notoriety for his tiny weekly publication.
Seven years later, Anderson would recall the Bosco hoax as his “proudest
moment.” (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 4/25/95). His history is filled with
smaller-scale deceptions. He printed a phony press release announcing that
the Mendocino County Office of Education was conducting seminars on how to
masturbate more effectively (San Jose Mercury News, 8/16/87).  He regularly
wrote absurd, humiliating articles and put the bylines of prominent local
people on them, such as “To My Penis on Our 60th ,” under the byline of
Bruce Hering (5/3/95). The Wall Street Journal noted in an early, amused
profile, “Indeed, Mr. Anderson sometimes simply makes things up, arguing
that fiction occasionally gets at essential truth better than fact.”
(8/20/85)

But what about libel? It amazes readers that Anderson has survived for 20
years without being cleaned out by a court judgment for libel. Bosco, for
example, told the media he was seriously considering a suit, but didn’t
pursue it.

“I can say anything I want, because there’s nothing for them to take.”
–Bruce Anderson

One of his targets over the years explained why neither he nor any of his
clients had ever sued the AVA for libel: “He would just use it for
publicity and if you won, you’d wind up with nothing.” (Santa Rosa Press
Democrat, 4/25/95)

*Anderson ‘s nephew married into a huge fortune.*

Dumb luck has given Anderson access to a deep pocket that gives him further
security against litigation. His nephew, Robert Mailer Anderson, married
Nicola Miner, daughter of the co-founder of Oracle Corporation, Robert
Miner, who died in 1994. The extent of Nicola Miner’s inheritance isn’t
publicly known, but by comparison, the other co-founder of Oracle, Larry
Ellison, has been named by Forbes Magazine as America’s second-richest
individual, with a fortune around $27 billion.

Robert Mailer Anderson and wife Nicola live the high society life in San
Francisco, building a 13,200 square foot mansion in Pacific Heights,
contributing generously to charities, and sitting on the boards of the
opera and ballet. Robert published the critically-praised first novel
Boonville, with thanks to his uncle Bruce Anderson printed on both the book
jacket and the acknowledgements. In 2000, the couple paid $3.2 million to
purchase a huge ranch outside Boonville. An informed source states that
Bruce’s wife Ling manages the ranch. The fabulously-rich couple maintains
very close ties to Bruce Anderson’s children. Zack Anderson, Bruce’s son,
is the co-author with Robert Mailer Anderson of a screenplay based on
Robert’s book. (San Francisco Chronicle, 1/28/04) Robert and Nicola own
several residential properties in San Francisco that are occupied by
Anderson relatives.

In 2001, Bruce Anderson retired his other outstanding mortgages and took
out a new loan of $125,000 from Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner,
according to Mendocino County records.  About the same time his nephew
bought his first mansion, Anderson removed a slogan which had graced his
front page for more than 10 years: “Peace to the cottages! War on the
Palaces!” Perhaps he thought Robert would take it personally.

Bruce Anderson’s connection to his rich nephew means anyone who
contemplates a lawsuit against the AVA can expect that Anderson will have
unlimited resources for legal defense and appeals. Yet at the same time
Anderson can trust his relatives to hide all his own assets from possible
seizure following a libel judgment.

Despite the obstacles, two angry targets went ahead and sued Anderson
anyway. Anna Taylor of Navarro represented herself in a small claims court
actions in 1995 after Anderson claimed she had defrauded a public housing
assistance program. She won the maximum small claims court judgment of
$5,000, but was unable to collect any money due to a legal technicality—she
had failed to make a written demand for correction within 20 days. (Ukiah
Daily Journal, 8/2/95, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 12/19/95)

Anderson was sued again for libel in 1999 by former Anderson Valley public
radio station manager Phil Tymon after Anderson printed a long series of
lies about him. The AVA claimed Tymon disrupted his own station while
drunk; was forced to resign as a result; organized a group to move the
station to another town; and got his job in the first place only because
his mother owned the building (all untrue). Thrown in were the usual
gratuitous insults—calling Tymon a “bubble butt,” “chubby,” “whiny,” and so
on. For the AVA, this was actually only mild treatment. But Tymon had a law
degree and taught a class in media law. So he sued Anderson for $3.75
million. Tymon’s case was particularly strong because he had already won a
small claims court judgment against another tiny outlaw publication that
had published some of the same falsehoods.

The outcome of Tymon’s lawsuit is revealing about how the legal system
allows someone like Anderson to stay in business. Despite his alleged
poverty, Anderson retained a first-class local litigator, Rod Jones. Tymon,
who had never practiced law, tried to represent himself because of lack of
funds, but later hired an attorney. This attorney failed to provide an
adequate response to a clever legal counterattack by Rod Jones, who filed a
motion for dismissal based on California’s “SLAPP Suit” Act, which is a law
intended to protect the free speech of public advocacy groups from
harassment lawsuits by big corporations. The SLAPP Suit law puts the burden
on the plaintiff to convince the judge that he is likely to prove his case
at trial. Looking at Tymon’s incomplete filings, the judge ruled that he
hadn’t presented enough evidence, dismissed the lawsuit, and assessed Tymon
for all of Anderson’s legal fees! (Mendocino County Superior Court, No.
80536) Tymon lacked funds to appeal this incredible ruling. He is still
being pursued for Anderson’s legal fees.


*Violence and threats of violence*
When lies aren’t enough, Anderson uses violence or threats. On April 25,
1988, his incessant attacks on County School Superintendent Jim Spence
finally provoked Spence to refer to him as a “third-rate McCarthyite” at a
school board meeting. Anderson took off his coat, walked up to Spence, and
assaulted him.

Witnesses testified that Anderson, who is 6 foot 4 inches tall, grabbed the
much smaller Spence by the neck and punched him twice, sending him
sprawling over the refreshment table. (Ukiah Daily Journal, 4/26/88) At his
trial, Anderson swore under oath he was acting in self-defense. (Years
later, he would admit this was a lie. “That was a criminal offense and I
deserved to be in jail,” he admitted to the San Francisco Examiner
(6/5/96)).

Anderson was convicted for disturbing the peace and offered probation if he
apologized and stayed away from school board meetings for one year. He
refused these conditions and was sentenced to 60 days in jail. Anderson
proclaimed himself a political martyr, staged a noisy support rally at the
courthouse steps, and announced he would refuse to go to jail (Ukiah Daily
Journal, 9/14/88). But he showed up for jail as scheduled.

Even the legendary tolerance of rural Mendocino County was exhausted by
Anderson’s violence. There were repercussions. The Ukiah Daily Journal
refused to print the AVA on its press any longer and the County Social
Services Department began to take a very close look at complaints they had
been receiving about Anderson’s conduct as operator of his group home in
Boonville.

*Child abuse by Anderson "group home"*

Since the 1970’s, Anderson’s primary means of support had been running a
state-funded home for troubled teenage boys, some of them retarded.
Following the Spence incident, Anderson decided to give up his state group
home license and instead applied for a foster home license from the County
Social Services department. But the department determined that Anderson was
unfit. Anderson appealed, claiming as usual political retaliation, and an
extensive investigation of Anderson ensued.

Besides the assault on Spence, the most sensational allegations against
Anderson were made by a former AVA contributor, author Mike Koepf. Like
many of Anderson’s cronies and contributors, Koepf had become a bitter
enemy. Koepf produced two former teenage residents of Anderson’s group
home, Frank Pitts and John Long, who testified under oath that Anderson had
punched them in separate incidents, giving Pitts a black eye. (Santa Rosa
Press Democrat, 2/1/90) A Social Service investigator reported that Koepf
told him: “Anderson should never be allowed to take care of young men
again. This response was based on Koepf’s opinion that Anderson has
continually psychologically abused the young men who have lived at the
group home.” (Memorandum, Billy Moore to Dennis Denny, Mendocino County
Social Services, 10/4/89).

Koepf also accused Anderson of stealing Pitts’ Social Security checks. And
Keopf testified that Anderson had put Koepf’s name down on state documents
as vice-president of his group home corporation, without Koepf’s knowledge
or consent. (Ukiah Daily Journal, 2/2/90)

Other insights into Anderson’s character came out at the hearing. In a
22-month period, Anderson received 12 traffic tickets, providing a graphic
portrait of the embattled editor speeding around narrow country roads,
barreling through stop signs.

The administrative law judge of the hearing upheld the denial of the foster
home license, finding that Pitts’ and Long’s claims were unproven, but
concluding that Anderson’s record of violence made him unfit to operate a
foster home. The assault on Spence was key. The ruling noted that
“Respondent Bruce Anderson does not admit any wrongdoing on his part and
has not demonstrated that he would not act in the same manner in the
future.” (Administrative Law Judge Ruth Astle, Case No. 238909501, 2/28/90)

"What a liar and cowardly prick you are..."- brother Rob Anderson

Violence is a constant theme in Anderson’s rhetoric. His own brother, Rob
Anderson, has been a target of his threats. Rob was once Bruce’s closest
collaborator, taking over editorship of the AVA in 1996 when Bruce was
jailed for contempt of court. Later, he joined the long list of former AVA
contributors who couldn’t stomach Bruce Anderson’s dishonesty any longer.
In a publicly-circulated e-mail exchange in 2000, Rob told Bruce:
“Only someone who knows the people and events you describe in your latest
front-page AVA attempt to destroy [former AVA cartoonist] Mary [Miles]
understands what a liar and cowardly prick you are….all bullies are
essentially chickenshit and prefer to attack people who can’t defend
themselves.”

Bruce Anderson’s reply was, “Next time I see you I’m going to kick your
gutless ass.”

One of the things that makes Bruce Anderson different from normal people is
his apparent indifference to what anyone thinks about him. This blind spot
has led him to repeated failures in his quest for power and attention.
Anderson ran for public office 9 times between 1983 and 1994. Getting
elected to something in rural Mendocino County isn’t that difficult.
Nevertheless, he failed again and again in his races for local school
board, county school board, county supervisor, and state assembly. In his
last race he polled 8 percent. Somehow, he just couldn’t grasp the fact
that most voters considered him a thug. Amusing at times, but a thug all
the same.

For years, Anderson displayed the slogan, “Newspapers should have no
friends” on his masthead, and has put this principle into practice
throughout his troubled life. Attracted at first by the outlaw radicalism
of the AVA, collaborators usually sour on Bruce Anderson when they get to
know him better. Anderson then turns on these former associates with
special ferocity. Besides his own brother Rob, the list includes Judi Bari,
David Colfax, Anna Taylor, Mike Koepf, Mary Miles and former lead
contributor Mark Heimann.

Mark Heimann was the AVA’s chief contributor from 1994 to 1999, earning a
princely $100 per week salary from Anderson. He was as aggressive and
hard-hitting as Anderson, but liked to be truthful. That’s what led to
their blowup.

As Heimann testified under oath in Mendocino County court, he submitted a
story to Anderson in 1998 about radio station manager Phil Tymon. Then,
without Heimann’s knowledge, Anderson inserted into the story false and
libelous statements about Tymon which were the cause of Tymon’s $3.75
million libel suit against the AVA. Since Heimann’s byline was on the
story, Tymon sued Heimann too.

Heimann was furious at Anderson’s deceit. When Tymon offered to drop the
suit if the AVA would run a front-page retraction and publish a letter by
Tymon, Heimann wanted to agree. But Anderson refused, and their argument
escalated until Heimann was challenging Anderson to fight. “Come down here
you chickenshit and I’ll kick your ass,” Heimann yelled from outside
Anderson’s house. Like a typical bully, Anderson quailed in the face of
righteous anger. Rather than accept Heimann’s challenge to fight, Anderson
instead called a lawyer, swore he was afraid of Heimann, and got a
restraining order prohibiting Heimann from going near Anderson’s home and
office. (Santa Rosa Press Democrat, 8/15/99)

In court, Heimann submitted a copy of a letter from him to Anderson dated
June 29, 1999, which has some blunt revelations about his former editor.
“You are the true author of the untrue statements made about Mr. Tymon,”
Heimann wrote. “You also inferred at that Sunday meeting (May 30, 1999)
that you would not be adverse to me committing perjury in order to defeat
Tymon’s claims….I have observed you repeatedly display an unreasonable
hatred and malice toward Mr. Tymon (and a host of others), and make
statements for which you had no basis to believe true.” (Exhibit, Civil
Action #99-1355). Heimann claimed Anderson had essentially fired him
because he wouldn’t lie. He sued in small claims court for $2,125 in back
wages, but lost. Then he left town.

# # #
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.mcn.org/pipermail/kzyxtalk/attachments/20180203/bd641124/attachment-0001.html