By Bruce B. Brugmann

And so the 31st annual Project Censored story will run once again as the lead story in the Guardian and in many alternative papers around the country.

The highly regarded Project, researched and disseminated by Peter Phillips and Project Censored at Sonoma State University, makes its case about censored and under-reported stories in a most dramatic way:
the mainstream press, including the nearby Press Democrat/NY Times and the NY Times itself, censors the story.

Not only that, but the Post Democrat and the NYTimes refuse to say why they haven't ever run a story on the project in 30 years. They even refused to answer my blog questions to the papers after we published last year's Censored story.

So this year, let us all pull together on this critical mission: spotting who is censoring the Project Censored story? Let me note the impertinent questions for the record:
Will the nearby Press Democrat run this important local and national story? Will its parent New York Times do so?
If not, will they answer my questions when I renew my blogs on the issue? Will other mainstream media censor the story? Who will run it? Let us know at the Guardian.

This is serious stuff. I led my blog of Nov. 20th/2006 with this statement: "On Sept. 10, 2003, while the New York Times and the Santa Rosa Press Democrat affiliated papers were running Judith Miller stories making the case for the Iraq War and then seeking to justify it, the Guardian published the annual Project Censored list of censored stories."

Later, after detailing the number one story on the neocon politics that marched us into war, I wrote, "the neocon story and the other censored stories laying out the dark side of the Bush administration and its drumbeat to war got little or no play--or else were presented piecemeal without any attempt to put the information in context.
The number two story was 'Homeland security threatens civil liberties.' Number three: 'U.S. illegally removes pages from Iraq U.N. report.' Number four: 'Rumsfeld's plan to provoke terrorists.' Number seven: 'Treaty busting by the United States.' Number eight: 'U.S. and British forces continue use of depleted uranium weapons despite massive evidence of negative health effects.' Number nine: 'In Afghanistan poverty, women's rights, and civil disruption worse than ever.'"

Then I concluded my blog on last year's censorship of Project Censored by writing, "This year, as Iraq slid into civil war, U.S. war dead rose toward 3,000, and the U.S. public was well ahead of the media in turning against the war, the New York Times should have finally recognized its annual mistake and published the Project Censored story. It didn't, and never has" ( and neither has the Press Democrat nor hardly any other mainstream media that helped march us into war.)

This year, the theme of the Censored stories is more relevant and timely than ever: the increase of privatization and the decrease of human rights in the U.S. Let us see what happens. B3

By Bruce B. Brugmann

The following note just popped up on my computer screen from a Guardian mother whose son, 20, is
in the army and two weeks out of basic training.

"My son just got shipped to Kuwait on his way to Iraq. Please help stop the madness."

She was reacting to the eloquent advocacy appeal she had just gotten from John Bruhns, an army infantry sergeant for the first year of the war, writing in support of a bring-the-troops-home-immediately petition from MoveOn.org.

He said, "Within my first days there (In Iraq), I realized that so much of what I had been told--about weapons of mass destruction, connections to 9/ll) was just White House spin to sell the war.

"I'm seeing the same thing all over again now. Even with this being the bloodiest summer for U.S. troops, even with Iraqi casualties running at twice the pace of last year, and even with l5 of l8 of President Bush's own benchmarks unmet, the White House is at it again. The're tell us that black is white, up is down, and things in Iraq are just great thanks to the troop 'surge.'"

The Guardian mother, John Bruhns, and former E-5 Bruce B. Brugmann (an infantryman in Korea during the Cold War) urge you to read the statement after the jump and sign the petition. The most important thing to do these terrible days is to keep the pressure on in every possible way. B3

Nuns challenge San Francisco firefighters to a no-touch football game. Win by a hail Mary pass! (From the voicemail of Sup. Tom Ammiano) B3

By Bruce B. Brugmann

Well, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat today published a story on Project Censored at Sonoma State University, the first time in 3l years that the local daily has taken serious notice of the local project.

But, notes Peter Byrne, a Censored winner for his investigation of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's military contract conflicts, the PD censored out (a) any mention of his winnlng story and (b) any mention of the underlying story of the conflicts that led to Feinstein's resignation from the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Byrne emailed Bob Norberg, the PD reporter on the story, with the following note: "Congratulations on getting your story on Project Censored printed in today's Press Democrat. Since Project Censored is based at Sonoma State University, it is a fine local story. But what I fail to understand is why you totally missed reporting on the other local angle to the story, i.e. that the Santa Rosa-based Bohemian's expose of Senator Dianne Feinstein (written by yours truly) was on the list of 25 most censored stories.

"Is it possible that because we at the Boho regularly critique the PD for being a Chamber of Commerce shill that you (or your editors) censored that interesting, newsy, LOCAL (B3: Byrne caps) factoid from your tale? Warmly, Peter Byrne"

I asked Norberg (or his editors) for comment by email. And I tried to find the story on the PD website but could not. I hope to have the story and PD comment next week. Meanwhile, you can read on our website at SFBG.com the Censored package, with the Byrne stories, and the additional story, "The story behind a censored story that was killed by the Nation."

And now on to the New York Times to see if it runs the Censored package and the important Feinstein story. Stay alert. B3

General Betray-us sings "Viva Viagra!" If an erection or surge is painful or lasts more than four hours, call Senator Feinstein."

Please note: See the stories by Peter Byrne on Diane Feinstein's conflict of interest in Iraq featured in Amanda Witherell's story The Byrne ultimatum, which was a runner up this year on the Project Censored list.

By Bruce B. Brugmann

See this week's editorial for the cost and context of Hearst censorship: "The rate hike hurts the economy."

And so, after all these years, Hearst and its San Francisco Chronicle have discovered that the Pacific Gas & Electric Company is screwing the little guys, the residents, and the small businesses of San Francisco.

The Chronicle triumphantly announced its finding in a front page banner across- all -columns headline on its front page of Saturday, Sept. 8: "PG&E BILLS: WHO'S HIT THE HARDEST?" Short boxes and graphics nailed down the point: "HOMEOWNERS: PG&E said last week that electricity rates would rise 0.9 per cent on Jan. 1 Now the increase has risen to 4.1 per cent, the result of a state ruling this week" (B3: not of course as a result of PG&E policy.)

"SMALL BUSINESSES: They'll pay 6.9 per cent more, even though PG&E said last week their increase would be 13 per cent."

'LARGE BUSINESSES: Some big companies will see their rates drop by 3.7 per cent. Others face a modest rise of l.9 per cent."

Inside, at the top of the business page, with a 6 column ahead across the page, a David R. Baker story carried this head: "PG&E shifts rate increase away from big business." The subhead read: "Households, small firms will pay more next year in wake of regulators' ruling" (B3 again: not of course because of PG&E policy.)

The lead seemed clear enough: "Small businesses and homeowners will bear the brunt of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. rate increases in January--a reversal from last week, when the utility said big business would shoulder more of the burden."

Amazing. Are Hearst and the Chronicle doing an about face after decades of genuflecting to PG&E, a position updated every Wednesday when it runs without explanation or apology a PG&E greenwashing ad on its front page.

Nope. In fact the story only makes the point in 96 point tempo bold that Hearst's pro-PG&E, anti-public power editorial line of many decades is still firmly in place.

By Bruce B. Brugmann

A big chunk of San Francisco soul died today when two of his old friends flashed the word that Phil Frank, a great cartoonist, died Wednesday.

Lee Housekeeper, the worthy keeper of the flame who organizes these memorials on deadline, gave us a call this morning at the Guardian and then put out a news flash on his hotline:

IN MEMORY OF PHIL FRANK

Please join the Boy's Night Out friends of Phil Frank today at John's Grill, 63 Ellis Street, under our brother's smiling picture, between 4 and 6 p.m. today (Thursday).

Carl Nolte, who announced Frank's illiness and retirement in a splendid story at the top of the Sunday Chronicle,
did another splendid obituary on the SF Gate. Nolte wrote that Frank, who provided a bit of San Francisco soul every day in his San Francisco Chronicle cartoon strip, 64, and had been ill for months with a brain tumor.

Nolte ended his obituary by noting that Frank,a longtime Sausalito resident, was once asked about his idea of luxury. "Being on the crest of Bolinas bridge, he said, and "falling asleep on the hillside."
Nolte noted that Frank did not get his wish but he was close. He died at an old friend's house in Bolinas that his family had rented for his final days. It was within sight of the Bolinas lagoon and his beloved Marin hills and just up the road from the cemetery where the pioneers of the town were buried, Nolte wrote.

Frank started his local cartooning career by doing front page illustrations for the Guardian in the early 1970s. Using his comic skill of taking a tough subject and making it funny as well as edgy,
he drew a cartoon for our front page on Feb. 14, 1972, of Steve Bechtel as a baron sitting on a BART crag to illustrate a front page story headlined "BART Steve Bechtel's $2 Billion Toy, a special Guardian probe," pictured below.

He also illustrated Nov. l5, l972 story, "San Francisco's TAXICAB MESS," with rumpled cab with a "Jello Cab Co." sign, pictured below.

My Frank favorite was a front page blast we did on March 14, 1974, on then Mayor Joe Alioto. Frank pictured Joe as a Roman emperor, sprouting a fig leaf, arms crossed royally, holding a banner reading "REX SOLE" confronting a horde of Roman San Franciscans giving him the thumbs down, pictured below.

Frank was an unusual mixture as an artist: he was a great daily cartoonist and chronicler of the city and the era who could also perform on the front page with dramatic illustrations that sold papers (the Guardian was a paid paper in those days and his cartoon front pages sold papers).

And he had that marvelous subversive ability to sneak cracks and themes into his cartoon strips for the Chronicle that somehow the Chronicle family owners (and later Hearst) never caught on to or let go into print unscathed. He even got in some cracks against PG&E and in support of the two public power initiatives to kick PG&E out of City Hall. Quite a talent. I always wanted him to do some work again for the Guardian, but he was exclusive to the Chronicle. Anyway, he told me he could do more good for our issues in the Chronicle than he could in the Guardian. That's saying a helluva lot, but that was Phil Frank.

P.S. Nolte emailed me a note in response to my blog about Frank. "Phil was a wonder," he wrote. "He was not only fun and interesting but he was generous with his talent. A real historian too. Samuel P. Throckmorton, one of the founding fathers of Mill Valley, was his PG&E." Samuel P. Throckmorton? Who in the world was he, I replied to Nolte. I told Nolte that Frank had entertained me for years about his yarns about how Hearst in early days had wanted to do San Simeon on the hills of Sausalito. I urged him to write the story, or cartoon it, and wondered if Nolte knew what had happened to the idea. Stay tuned for the answers. B3

Bush misses resignation deadline. (On the answering machine of Sup.Tom Ammiano.) B3

By Bruce B. Brugmann

Savannah Blackwell, our reporter who covered the PG&E/CityHall/Raker Act scandal from l996-2004, asked the SF Public Utilities Commission back in l997 for a map of the Hetch Hetchy water and power system.
She was thrilled (her words) to get a colorful, user-friendly, poster-sized cartoon version drawn by Phil Frank.

She took it back to the Guardian offices, then at 520 Hampshire Street, and taped it to the newsroom wall.
Executive Editor Tim Redmond pointed out to her where Frank had included--some ways downstream from the Hetch Hetchy dam--the home of former Rep. John Raker of Raker Act fame. This was a nod, Redmond explained, to the Guardian's long standing campaign to make real the good congressman's legislation (the famous Raker Act of l9l3) that mandated that the City of San Francisco use the public power generated by the dam to light the homes of its citizens and businesses.

"Phil understood the issue," Redmond told her. Moreover, he added, "He's a good guy--a real prince." B3

By Bruce B. Brugmann

Carl Nolte, who always likes to stay one step ahead of Guardian scandals, tossed a good one into the hopper
in our back and forth on the life and times of Chronicle cartoonist Phil Frank.

He emailed me that Phil was a "real historian" and that Samuel P. Throckmorton was his "PG&E."

Who in the world is Samuel P. Throckmorton? As attentive Bruce blog readers know, I sent him back an email asking him to identify the peccadilloes and whereabouts of Throckmorton.

Nolte, startled, wrote "You never heard of Throckmorton? He was a speculator who challenged both Richardson and Pabo Briones land grants. According to Phil Frank, he flimflammed poor old William Richardson's widow out of a lot of his land, then made a ton of money out of the town of Mill Valley."

Nolte added that the late Hal Peary, who played the Great Gildersleeve on the radio of the l940s, grew up in Mill Valley and was familiar with the doings of Throckmorton the original. Peary played a pompous water commissioner, always in and out of jams, with the marvelous name of Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve. He had a hearty laugh I can remember 60 years later, a mischievous nephew named LeRoy, and friends like Peavey, the wimpy druggist. I loved the show and followed the adventures of the Great Gildersleeve every week. And I always wondered where the name and the character came from.

Nolte cleared up the mystery. He said Peary named his character Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve after Samuel P. Throckmorton of Mill Valley. The two, it turned out, were perfect cannon fodder for historian and cartoonist Phil Frank.

P.S. The memories are good, but they grow dimmer and dimmer, as Woody Allen said as he ended his movie on the good old days of radio. And so I could not remember the name of the undertaker friend of Gildersleeve, who always spoke in a remarkably cadaverous tone. That, Nolte said, was Digger O'Dell, "your friendly undertaker." He would have said, had he seen you on tv, 'you're looking fine. Very natural.'" Nolte was referring to my brief cameo appearance on Channel 2 reporting on the memorial for Frank last week at John's Grill. B3

By Bruce B. Brugmann

The first Ammianoliner was as usual on his home voicemail:

And the Emmy goes to O.J. Simpson in "Prime Suspect." Did you steal Carol Channing's gown. If it fits, you can't acquit.

Then, the Chronicle's Leah Garchik writes in her Tuesday column:

Before the arrival of the news that Carol Channing's stolen dress had been found, Tom Ammiano called to pin the blame on O.J. Simpson. "If the dress fit/then don't acquit," he said.

Take your pick.

Personal note to Ammiano: Speak up. It's hard to get your one liners without redialing. We had to dial several times to get the joke and only got it in full in reading the word "acquit" in the Garchik item.

Personal note to Garchik: You don't have to wait for Ammiano to call. But to get his Ammianoliner of the day you must call him on his private home phone number. B3

Arnold Schwarzenegger says marriage is a sacred contract between a man and anyone he can grope.

(On the voicemail of Sup. Tom Ammiano) B3

Lee Houskeeper (no pesky e) sent out this press release announcing the public memorial service for Phil "Farley" Frank from noon to l p.m. Monday at Washington Square Park (Camp Farley).

If I were writing a story for the Guardian, or most any other newspaper, I would take this release and convert it into a story. I would make sure that Houskeeper's name, as the press guy for the Frank family, would not appear. After all, he did all the work and that would not be good to reveal.

However, since this is the Bruce blog, and I can do any damn thing I like, I am going to run the Houskeeper press release as is, since it is a good one and lays out the information and the art straightforwardly in good Farley form. That's why I like blogging now and then. See my previous blogs for more Frank lore and his early front page graphics for the Guardian. Our then Art Director Louis Dunn spotted Frank as a real talent and immediately pressed him into front service and his work appeared first in the Guardian, starting in 1972. Click here to see some early 70's Phil Frank Guardian covers. B3

A Farley Celebration of Phil Frank