We are pleased to welcome Bert Robinson to the FAC Board of Directors. Robinson is managing editor of content for the Bay Ara News Group overseeing the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune.
“Bert is a life-long newspaper man having worked for the Mercury News since graduating from the Columbia University journalism program,” FAC Board Member James Chadwick said in nominating Robinson to the board. “More importantly for FAC, I’ve not met anyone in the industry more committed to open government and the protection of first amendment rights than Bert.”
As a reporter for the Mercury News Robinson wrote a series of articles detailing little-known closed sessions of the California Legislature that led to to the passage of the Legislative Open Meeting Act. More recently, he was a key player in the San Jose Sunshine Reform Task Force that wrote the new open meetings and open records law for the city of San Jose.
As an editor Robinson had oversight of business, local and political news coverage including the awarding winning series “Tainted Trials, Stolen Justice,” based on the newspapers’ review of more than 700 criminal trials in Santa Clara County that revealed questionable conduct, mistakes that were tolerated by the appellate court, and defendants who were wrongly convicted.