More than 150 friends turned out this week to roast the former Santa Barbara News-Press editor and and raise money for his legal battle with newspaper owner Wendy McCaw.

Former state Senator Burton took the faux optimistic approach towards the predicament facing Roberts, whom he remembers as a city hall reporter who was always “a straight shooter.” “The lawsuit … seems like a goddamned compliment to me,” said the notoriously foul-mouthed Burton. “He’s the only person I’ve ever met that’s worth $25 million when he quits a job.”

Things got a bit more serious as (Lou) Cannon, wearing a powder blue suit and matching shirt, took the podium. The renowned Reagan biographer spent less time joking about Roberts and more explaining why this issue is a “way bigger deal than just some tiff in sunny Santa Barbara.” Cannon pointed out that this is a tough time for journalists, and that Roberts did what few others would have the courage to do: quit a job he loved — and led what Cannon called the “only mass resignation over journalistic ethics in the history of journalism that I know of.”

Read more in the Santa Barbara Independent.