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ANDREW
BARBANO
[Photo: Andrew Heilman, Sparks Tribune] |
His
real passion is writing
By
Maria Dal Pan, Tribune Staff
(Jan. 21, 2002) — Andrew Barbano is many things to many people. But the
husband, stepfather, founding member of Sierra
Nevada Community Access Television (SNCAT) and thorn-in-the-side of businesses
he deems corrupt or irresponsible is one thing above all: Barbano is a writer.
In addition to being a liberal columnist
for the Tribune, Barbano has written for television, radio and print media,
and is in the process of working on a book about growing up in Fresno, Calif.
"If I've got a dream, it's to be the second most famous writer to be
spawned from Fresno," he said, joining the ranks of Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwright William Saroyan. But Barbano didn't always have such aspirations.
When he graduated from Fresno State College in the late 1960s, Barbano worked
as a fry cook, and assumed he'd go into the family business of restaurant
management, he said. However, when an old football knee injury disqualified
him from the Vietnam War draft, it changed his life, he said. His hometown
started to feel small, inspiring Barbano to head south to Las Vegas.
The son of immigrant fruit pickers started his career working for a prominent
Las Vegas ad agency, which transferred him up to Reno in 1971 as the company's
"boy wonder," he said. But Barbano said his greatest accomplishments
came later in his life.
In 1981, he helped establish Nevada's Consumer Advocacy Office, and ten years
later, after an uphill battle with the Reno City Council, Barbano became one
of nine people on the founding board of SNCAT.
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THE
DEAN'S LIST The
Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described
"fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire"
columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.
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"I
saw the good that could be done," he said. "I saw the benefits of
what that station could do."
During the 1993 Reno City Council elections, Barbano noticed an influx of
Reno residents calling a Carson City talk radio show he worked on, and complaining
that campaign issues were not being discussed enough. So Barbano rounded up
some sponsors and organized the first call-in political talk show on local
TV. Then, on the night before the election, Barbano gathered the candidates
and had them talk heavy politics as callers phoned in questions.
"We threw all the cats from Reno and Sparks in a burlap sack and tied
it shut," he said. "It was hot.
"One of the few things I'm good at is starting a fire." But Barbano's
flame burned well beyond SNCAT.
From October
of 1996 through (Spring)
of 1997, Barbano had a second full-time job investigating how the University
of Nevada, Reno was spending its money, he said. Copies of his Tribune columns
on the issue were circulated among university officials, he said, and the
newspaper sent its own copies out for Pulitzer consideration.
More recently however, Barbano has been known for his columns criticizing
Starbucks —
taking a stance against the Douglas County roasting plant the coffee giant
is building.
"What I always was, was a newspaper writer," he said. "It just
took me four decades to figure it out."
Fellow Tribune columnist Ira Hansen said that although Barbano's work makes
for a good read, he tends to be too pessimistic in his views on corporate
conspiracies.
"He has lots of insights," Hansen said, "but sees a conspiracy
to cheat the workers in everything. Class warfare is always the motive."
Still, Barbano takes criticism in stride.
"I tell people that my job is to make life miserable for the rich, famous
and powerful," he said. When he's not writing for the Tribune, Barbano
performs media services and media consulting for various organizations —
from running a media
campaign to protect flaggers in construction zones to working with a law
firm that helps disabled people get Social Security benefits.
"I've got to do work for people when I feel the work will benefit the
general public," he said. "I'm proud to be somebody's attack dog,
even though that very often has pissed a lot of Brahmans of the community
off."
In addition to standing up for causes he believes in, Barbano has also been
working on a book based on the experiences he had growing up in Fresno. The
first vignette of the book titled None of the Above flowed from him
like water, he said, and there's more to come.
"If I can't do Saroyan one better, I'm not doing it right," he said.
