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The Bees are still liberal and staunchly independent. They still crusade, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1935 for exposing political corruption in Nevada. Four years ago, the Sacramento Bee was largely responsible for passage of a lobby-control act after it exposed California's most notorious lobbyist, 300-lb. Artie Samish.
The powerful Bees were responsible for electing a Democratic state attorney general, Edmund G. Brown, in 1950, the only Democrat to win a high state office. Republican Governor Earl Warren is grateful for their support. But in the last presidential election, the Bees could not make up their minds, so they supported neither Truman nor Dewey. "If you don't know yourself who the best man is," says Eleanor, "you can't tell others. You just turn 'em loose and let 'em vote."
Though commonplace in appearance and style, the Bees appeal to their predominantly agricultural readers with farm supplements and close coverage of their area, referred to by the papers as "Superior California." Says Editor Jones: "We're neighborhood papers on a regional basis." And Publisher McClatchy keeps busy as a bee watching her neighborhood. Says she: "A newspaper is a delicate and intangible thing that could easily go gaflooey."
* She went to Bennett Junior College in Millbrook, N.Y.