A one-woman watchdog torments the far right in deep-red N. California
REDDING, Calif. — Only halfway into the endless plague year, the most outspoken journalist in one of California’s most conservative counties had already tangled with the sheriff, the local megachurch, a rodeo operator and other characters she later pegged as “the anti-maskers, religious zealots, science-deniers, strict Constitutionalists, conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers, militia members and State of Jefferson believers.”
Shasta County’s Doni Chamberlain took each to task in the frank and folksy column she publishes on her website, A News Cafe.
Then, in July, Chamberlain posted the column that unleashed a special fury.
Titled “Dear Governor Newsom: We’ve Got Trouble, Right Here in River City,” it invited Gavin Newsom to visit Shasta County to observe the many individuals and businesses thumbing their noses at his orders to close businesses, wear masks and maintain social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“NO THANK YOU!!!!!! Don’t need no stinking communist liberals dictating to northern CA,” came one response. “Just look at the rest of CA, a den of criminals, druggies and homeless.” Another slapped her with a sexist slur on Facebook. Yet another social media nemesis struck a more menacing chord: “I think it’s time we remove her from our way of living.”
Love her or loathe her, few here are agnostic about the sometime gardener, cooking columnist and grandmother who has become the leading
