John Fensterwald Wins "The Kiko Award"
So many nominees, so few awards. The November election uncovered oodles of dirt in the corrupt soil of educational management throughout the United States. There’s Curtis Johnson, the former school board president of School Board #9 in South Bronx, New York, who pleaded guilty to “grand larceny, defrauding the government, receiving bribes, receiving reward for official misconduct and official misconduct” 
, or the on-going problems of Capistrano Unified School District . This issue of The Advocate focuses on San Jose’s ESUHSD, and one Kiko-worthy East Side player, long the subject of our ire but never a Kiko winner, must take the prize.
The winner is not a member of The East Side Union High School District Board of Trustees, but he often acts like he is in trying to sway public opinion against teachers and in favor of his own semi-conservative, anti-union brand of Libertarianism.
John Fensterwald was the catalyst that started this webzine. While Zendejas was in charge Fensterwald was more than willing to play puppet, penning invectives without much concern for the aspects of his job other journalists adhere to with pride and integrity. You know, stuff like facts, truth, and accuracy. That’s when we started to strike back hard with articles and opinions of our own. .
Fensterwald does not need to be impartial. He is an editorial writer who opines for a living. We recognize that. There is a big difference, however, between offering an opinion and doing the bidding of a politician, especially someone with as sordid a career in local politics as Craig Mann. A local newspaper’s reputation hinges on the perceptions of its readership. 
When readers sense their newspaper lacks impartiality, any article they print comes into question. At the end of the Zendejas debacle, we warned Fensterwald about the role he played in decimating the district’s morale. . By that time, even 16 year old students were wondering how the Mercury News could be so wrong. And, as we mentioned in this issue, Fensterwald appears to have been on thin ice with his employers. Team Unruly learned from a long-time Advocate reader who had past dealings with Fensterwald that he was rattled by the “teacher radicals” casting blame his way. Somewhere along the way Fensterwald learned or was ordered to keep his mouth shut.
Fensterwald did himself no favors when East Side’s biggest clown called to have him join the censure Roach circus. By breaking his silence, he opened old wounds and once again confirmed for observant skeptics that the Mercury News editorial board is happy to play barker in the most corrupt educational show in Santa Clara County, if not the Bay Area. His willingness to grant Mann’s request brings to mind one important question: if the Mercury News is willing to grant favors to a political plebeian, the lowest elected harlequin in the clown car of public service, what are they willing to do for politicians with greater clout? How many times has the Mercury granted favors to the RNC or turned a blind eye to a city hall garbage contract?
Whereas John Fensterwald repeatedly abuses the power of his position by publishing editorials to target other people’s political enemies. Whereas Fensterwald, by abusing said power, calls into question the journalistic integrity of San Jose’s only local daily newspaper. Whereas Fensterwald appears to enjoy the taste of shoe leather because his sloppy attention to detail almost always forces him to put his foot in his mouth, shown this past November by giving Shirakawa an endorsement before looking further into the appearance of conflict he acknowledged in the endoresement.. Therefore, the editorial board of The Unruly Advocate presents Mercury News editorial writer John Fensterwald our most coveted award for being a far more compliant puppet to East Side’s elected officials than Kiko ever was.
