S.F. Chronicle Again Lays Down Racial Overtones In Oakland Killings

CHRON'S DEMIAN BULWA AGAIN LEADS PRO-POLICE SLANT B/W COPS AND BLACKS
Here's a cautionary tale of what could happen if metropolitan areas begin losing newspapers and the pulse of the community is lost from reporters:

Four Oakland police officers were killed this weekend by a parolee fearful of returning to prison. The story is tragic and points to real policies debates that need to be confronted, namely, overturning President Bush's repeal of the mid-90s assault rifle ban, but what happens when the Bay Area's pre-eminent daily shows a complete unawareness of the nuances of the story as it relates to the community?

All the Bay Area papers led with screaming front pages stories of the Friday slayings, but the cross-bay San Francisco Chronicle showed both an elitist and ignorantly slanted reporting of the story. Here's the lede Saturday from the triumvirate of Jaxon Van Derbeken, Demian Bulwa and Carolyn Jones:

Three Oakland police sergeants were shot and killed and a fourth officer was critically wounded Saturday in a pair of related incidents that together rank among the deadliest attacks on law enforcement in California history.

How did the inclusion of the imagery of an "attack" find its way into the lede without an editor asking for a rewrite? Is the new-look Chronicle attempting to color its coverage with more of a tabloid edge these days or are they oblivious to the racial overtones and inherent animosity between the law enforcement in Oakland and blacks and other minorities? The imagery of attacking the powers that be conjures up terrorist us-against-them propaganda. The terrorists "attacked" the World Trade Center. The "blacks" attacked the police department. The coverage of BART policeman Johannes Mehserle on a black man at the Oakland Fruitvale station was never describe as an attack by anyone. (Also, read the Chronicle's simplistic, downright dopey editorial from today.)

If these Chronicle staff writers knew the beat and actually covered the communities words like "attack" would not have been written. The prevailing attitude on the streets is obvious sorrow for the men in uniform who perished, yet underneath that feeling is the notion the police have taken out more of "them" than they have taken from the police. This mistrust is teeming through the city of Oakland and will likely get worse. The theory going around is that the rage on the police department's side will be taken out on the poor blacks in Oakland.

This is not the first time the Chronicle has shown a pro-law enforcement bent. An LFR posting from Jan. 5 of this year illustrated the differences between their coverage of the Oscar Grant BART shooting and the Oakland Tribune. The same reporter on this weekend's story, Demian Bulwa, showed either a lack of understanding regarding Oakland or simply was too lazy to get any other side of the story other than the Police department's

Similarly, the Oakland Tribune again published a solid, down-the-center story Saturday which did not evoke either side in a just-the-facts style. This, too, may not have been a function of knowing their backyard, but with such an explosive story playing it down the middle is the smartest journalistic course of action.

Many in the newspaper industry lament the day when a large American city will not have a daily newspaper on its streets, but what happens when reporters on any platform, whether on paper or on the Internet fail to actually report?

Bronstein Gives Props On HuffPo

Phil Bronstein, the editor-at-large at the San Francisco Chronicle better known for being married to Sharon Stone and less so for being bitten by a Komodo dragon, linked one of my stories for the Commonwealth Club for his posting on The Huffington Post. Check it out here. The link is located below the photo.

While on the subject of the Chronicle, congratulations on a superb redesign of the paper. The pages are geometrically interesting and contain a combinations of strong and unique fronts. If you're going to redesign a paper (or website) I say go large and the Chron certainly did with huge benefits. The Bay Area deserves a well-put together daily and we finally have one.

Oscar Grant Was Executed By BART Police

S.F. CHRONICLE, THOUGH, SAYS GIVE BART POLICE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT

Oscar Grant III was executed New Year's morning. There is no way around it, no matter what the BART Police say.

Watch video of Grant being shot in the back by an unidentified BART policeman at Oakland's Fruitvale station.

Grant was face down and nearly subdued when the officer inexplicably discharged his weapon into his back. Without evidence of a weapon on Grant's person, the act was murder--execution style.

The local television newsrooms have been far more vigilant than the local newspapers in reporting the callousness of this act and the lame excuses and lies spokesman for BART have peddled since Thursday morning's killing.

The San Francisco Chronicle's article this morning shows a pro-law enforcement lede that reads:

BART's police chief asked for patience from the public on Sunday after video footage surfaced showing one of his officers fatally shooting an unarmed man who was on the ground on a station platform on New Year's Day, and after an attorney for the dead man's family said he planned to sue the transit agency for $25 million.

The lede in the Oakland Tribune and its East Bay sister papers is decidedly different:

A BART police officer struggling to handcuff a 22-year-old man stood up over the facedown Hayward resident and fired a single shot into his back while a handful of officers watched, a video taken by a train passenger apparently shows.

To some the difference may be subtle, but opening the article by allowing the perpetrator to urge some sort of caution provides the point of view of law enforcement when it is not deserved. Besides, reports of widespread unrest--although deserved--has not occurred in the Bay Area.

Even more egregious is that the Chronicle reporter allowed the BART police chief to rebut the images on the video by calling them "inconclusive."

This isn't surprising coming from the Chronicle. During the December 2007 tiger mauling at the San Francisco Zoo, reporters attempted to portray the victims as troublemakers seemingly getting what they deserved by taunting the animal.

The Chronicle's Demian Bulwa continues to peddle the company line offering possible excuses such as a high state of alert permeated the force that night and the officer may have intended to fire his taser gun instead.

The shooting of Oscar Grant III is a story that needs to be told nationally. It is every bit as appalling as the assault on Abner Louima in New York, the beating of Rodney King and the infamous 41 shots fired by the NYPD at Mamadou Diallo for merely reaching for his wallet.

Once again the leading economists and purveyors of Wall Street bull are telling us the nation's financial crisis is about to get better. Think again. Read my post at The Commonwealth Club of California's blog.

MLB Website's Coverage Of Bonds More Balanced Than S.F. Chronicle

CHRONICLE RUINS EXCELLENT COVERAGE OF BONDS STEROID SCANDAL

A few years back, many in the media questioned whether the official websites of the NFL, MLB and NBA would cover uncomfortable stories about their respective sports as fairly as traditional news outlets.

I suppose those naysayers were wrong because the MLB.com's coverage of Barry Bonds's 755th homerun was far more measured than that of the San Francisco Chronicle, the newspaper whose coverage took the largest chunk out of the slugger's myth.

How do you think the two Chronicle reporters, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada felt when their own newspaper splashed the numerals "755" in a manner befitting "WAR!" on the cover of last Sunday's paper. Williams and Fainaru-Wada nearly went to prision protecting a source and raised the awareness of the downtrodden paper ten-fold and this the incongruent coverage their own paper gives to a deeply troubling ballplayer and to the road and method he traveled to tie Henry Aaron's homerun record.

Undoubtedly, this is a big new story befitting above the crease coverage, but the story is not just a warm love letter to Bonds, but moreso, the story of a great player's greed to become even greater by cheating. The angle of how much fans across America have exhibited so much apathy towards the march to 756, at least, when they're not booing him, is far more honest than the Chronicle attempting to frame the story as a great American sports spectacle like Cal Ripken passing Lou Gehrig or even Aaron passing the Babe in 1974. It almost reeks of denial for a day. As if editor Phil Bronstein said we've tarnished Bonds's reputation with solid reporting, but just for today we'll praise the scoundrel thereby selling a load of papers at both ends.

MLB.com, though, has provided even and tempered coverage of Bonds's record-breaking exploits that hasn't dissed him, but also hasn't placed him on a false pedestal. Today he's been featured on the front of the site with nearly the same importance as the Blue Jays plunking Alex Rodriguez and Tom Glavine's 300th win two days ago.

I suppose the Chronicle is truly the voice of the Bay Area, because its schizophrenic coverage of Bonds as of late mirrors Giants fans from the Sunset district to the Market Street. In this case and only in this case, it would be far more informative to read the corporation's account of this record rather than the so-called impartial press.