Dear Culver City: Culver Crescent remains committed to objectivity

Dear Readers,

When I founded Culver Crescent in November 2024, my goal was to provide the Culver City community with a news source they could trust, one that would inform readers and help them formulate their own opinions based on the facts presented.

That goal will never change, but the approach has evolved since I started this publication. Initially, there were no plans to accept Opinion Pieces or Guest Submissions because of their potentially politically charged nature and how that might undermine community members' trust in the Crescent’s neutrality.

That has clearly changed.

Maintaining the trust of Culver Crescent’s readership, namely you, in the neutrality of its reporting is and has always been my number one goal. Balancing that with the expression of strong political viewpoints and targeted messaging from outside writers that I could not manage was something I have always been concerned about, so my initial approach was to tightly regulate what could be said and to minimize any direct criticism of people or organizations.

I did not want people using the publication as a conduit for public back-and-forth arguments, and maintaining respect and decorum in guest submissions is still a crucial aspect of the process.

However, I have learned since accepting these submissions that censoring their rhetoric also does not serve the community or align with what Culver Crescent should be or what this community deserves from its news publication. In particular, I mishandled an early letter from Nancy Barba because of my initial hesitation to allow certain forms of commentary, and I can only hope this message and my handling of future letters serve as an adequate apology.

Moving forward with the 2026 Election — the first regularly scheduled election since Culver Crescent’s founding — on the horizon, the amount of Election-related content on the site will increase dramatically.

I do not believe it is politically charged to say that there are multiple schools of thought in the community about what should be done to make Culver City the best place to live it can be, and it is the role of Culver Crescent to express what those schools of thought are and why they believe in what they do, not to tell you which councilmember candidate I am going to vote for.

Both sides of the aisle may reach out to me, some more than others, and I want to try to assuage any concerns that may brew from the community stemming from what I publish or the frequency with which articles or guest pieces related to certain schools of thought are handled and published.

It has also been brought to my attention that I have not been handling Press Releases related to the Election in the sensitive manner I should have, and I would like to apologize for that. These releases should be clearly distinguishable from editorial articles outside of the Author Name, and my recent failures to create that distinction is antithetical to what the Crescent is about.

As such, all future Press Releases related to the 2026 Election will contain this or some variation of the following Editor’s Note:

EDITOR'S NOTE: Culver Crescent has not and will not endorse candidates or Measures during Elections. Information published about elections is intended to be informational and not a demonstration of support for any candidate or cause.

This message will serve as a way to hold myself accountable and hopefully dispel any concerns about perceived allegiances The Crescent may have. Our only allegiance is to the Culver City community and to our mission of supporting an informed and educated voter base.

If you feel you are seeing a disproportionate amount of content from a certain group or supporting a certain viewpoint, please feel free to reach out to me or send in content of your own, whether it's a guest submission or direct advertising. Advertising is a crucial source of revenue that becomes more important than ever for publications like Culver Crescent to generate during election season, and it will be critical to ensuring I can continue to operate the publication beyond the 2026 Elections.

Please feel free to call me on my cell at 424.298.0846 or email me at christian@culvercrescent.com, and I would be more than happy to discuss your concerns, guest submission, or advertisement with Culver Crescent.

Christian May-Suzuki is a lifelong resident of Culver City and is the publisher at Culver Crescent.