Before Chief Gascon starts talking amnesty and clearing minor cases, he needs to demonstrate that he's going to take a hard line on the serious misconduct cases

EDITORIAL We're glad to see San Francisco's new police chief, George Gascon, is talking about reform. He's talking about opening up the mediaphobic culture at the SFPD, bringing in new blood at the management level, shifting schedules so more experienced cops are available at night (when most crime takes place). He wants to focus the discipline process on the most serious departmental offenders - the handful of officers who are responsible for the majority of the misconduct problems.

Those are, generally, good signs. If he's serious about changing the moribund, sometimes corrupt, and generally toxic climate in the department, though, he'll need more than promises. Over the next few months, he needs to take action on a few key fronts.

New FAIR Study

Right Ebbs, Left Gains as Media 'Experts'
Think tank balance still skews right

9/3/09

FAIR's just-released annual think tank study shows think tank citations declining for the fourth year in a row in 2008, as newspaper column space devoted to national and international news continued to shrink. The decline was particularly notable for conservative think tanks' citations, while progressive think tanks increased in number.

The study, a special online-only feature of FAIR's Extra! magazine, is available at http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3857.

Among the study's findings:

-The overall decline in citations primarily hit conservative or right-leaning think tanks, whose share fell from 36 percent to 31 percent in 2008, while progressive or left-leaning think tanks increased from 17 percent to 21 percent.

-Centrist tanks still dominated with 48 percent, and the centrist Brookings Institution, the top-cited think tank, had more than twice as many citations as its nearest competitor, the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

-Progressives were cited 30 percent less than conservatives, and half as often as centrists.

-Progressive and left-leaning think tanks took a record five spots in the top 15 most-cited list, and had by far the greatest percentage increase of citations in this annual survey. The most notable increase was in progressive think tanks with an economic focus, such as the Economic Policy Institute, the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Michael Dolny, author of the study, noted, "Both the economic crisis and the poor showing of conservative candidates in the 2008 elections appear to have raised questions about the role of conservative think tanks." However, pointing out that despite these gains, progressive think tanks are still underrepresented compared to their centrist and conservative counterparts, he also observed that "we are still a long way from true diversity of news sources."

Town-Hall Meetings

With curses, guns and red-faced rants,

Here comes the wing-nut faction.

The right wing's leaders smile and say,

"Democracy in action."

Calvin Trillin, The Nation, Sept. 14

Labor's message to its friends is clear: hold fast!

By Dick Meister

(Dick Meister, formerly labor editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and labor reporter for KQED/TV’s Newsroom, has covered labor and political issues for a half-century as a reporter, editor, author and commentator.)

U.S. unions marked Labor Day this year with greater challenges than they've faced in many years ­ but also with unusually high expectations of success.

Looming above all is the Employee Free Choice Act ­ the long-pending legislation that would open the way to significant expansion of the labor movement by denying employers the underhanded tactics they've used to block workers from unionizing.

The growth of unions, which now represent little more than 10 percent of U.S. workers, would benefit all Americans, union and non-union alike. As former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich notes, "The way to get the economy back on track is to boost the purchasing power of the middle class, and one major way to do this is to expand the percentage of working Americans in unions."

Republicans will scream "socialized medicine" on behalf of insurance companies no matter what is in this reform package.

EDITORIAL This could very well be the pivotal moment in Barack Obama's presidency. If he loses on health care reform — or worse, if he caves in to right-wing bullying tactics and abandons a strong public option — then not only will the American people and economy suffer, but Obama will have hobbled his ability to effectively address the myriad problems facing this country.

The time for negotiating with Republicans on health care is over. They have proven to be hostile and irrational obstructionists interested only in sabotaging both Obama and health care reform, repeatedly telling lies to incite anger and fear in the populace. Beyond being irresponsible, they have abandoned their role as good-faith participants in the political process.

Even when U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius suggested on Aug. 16 that private co-ops might be an acceptable alternative to the public plan — a tactical and policy mistake that understandably outraged progressives — Republicans refused to come back to the bargaining table.

With that gesture, Republicans showed that their overheated denunciations of the public option were simply a political ploy. They will scream "socialized medicine" on behalf of insurance companies no matter what is in this reform package, so Obama and the Democrats need to ignore them, develop the strongest possible plan, and do whatever it takes to get it through Congress this fall, even when that means stretching procedural rules to require only a bare majority vote for the most controversial elements.

Here is our monthly installment of Joseph E. Stiglitz's Unconventional Economic Wisdom column from the Project Syndicate news series. Stiglitz is a professor of economics at Columbia University, and recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics, is co-author, with Linda Bilmes, of The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Costs of the Iraq Conflict.

GDP Fetishism

By Joseph E. Stiglitz

NEW YORK – Striving to revive the world economy while simultaneously responding to the global climate crisis has raised a knotty question: are statistics giving us the right “signals” about what to do? In our performance-oriented world, measurement issues have taken on increased importance: what we measure affects what we do.

If we have poor measures, what we strive to do (say, increase GDP) may actually contribute to a worsening of living standards. We may also be confronted with false choices, seeing trade-offs between output and environmental protection that don’t exist. By contrast, a better measure of economic performance might show that steps taken to improve the environment are good for the economy.

A timely primer on how to become moral leaders and successful adulterers at the same time. The first rule: Spend your own money.

By Jess Brownell

(Jess Brownell, the Voice of the Midwest, operates out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a freelance writer.)

Friend of mine dropped by, said he was out walking the other day and happened to pass a local hotel. Noticed a number of well-dressed men, most with a touch of grey at the temples, not all exactly good-looking, entering. Asked the doorman what was up, and was told a highly regarded motivational speaker was appearing in the ballroom. Being a fellow always in need of motivation, he slipped in and lingered in the shadows. If the recording device he carries with him is to be believed, this is what he heard:

Welcome, gentlemen, and thank you for coming. Our time today is short, and I’m going to get right to business. No beating around the bush. Ha, ha.

Yes, in an ideal world, moral leadership and adultery would not be mutually exclusive. We acknowledge that. But we don’t live in that world. In the real world, people have funny ideas – some of which we’ve helped them to develop – and those people, sad to say, are often inclined to vote. Keep them in mind as we continue.

Scroll down for B3 comments on Dick Fogel.

San Francisco's Bay City News Service reported today that Dick Fogel, co-founder with his wife of the service, died Wednesday in Thousand Oaks.

Wayne Futak, a key member of the original founding group and now the general manager who has taken the helm,
told me that Dick "was passionate about the importance of journalism in society and he passed that on to the hundreds of young journalists who have come through Bay City News, including me.
In describing Dick's newsroom philosophy, perhaps the best tribute is the Bay City News Service Credo he established, which was given to all new employees." Futak sent along the Credo:

"It shall be the constant intention of Bay City News Service reporters and editors:
--to pursue and write the news with fairness, accuracy and a sense of professional detachment;
--to be purposeful and searching in the quest for information; and yet,
--to avoid arrogance and instead maintain a reasonable concern for the personal dignity of sources and contacts."

I asked Wayne if the BCN obit ought to have a byline. No, he said, it was a collective effort and should just say from the Bay City News Service. Here it is:

Richard Henry Fogel, 86, longtime newspaper editor and co-founder of San Francisco's Bay City News Service, died on Sept. 9, 2009, in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

A passionate advocate on issues relating to the public's right to access government information, Fogel worked tirelessly with other prominent journalists and news organizations across the country to craft the basic principles of what would later become the landmark Freedom of Information Act (Public Law 89-554, 80 Stat. 383).

Regarded as a legend among San Francisco Bay Area journalists, Fogel received the prestigious Northern California Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Born April 29, 1923, in Santa Monica, California, Richard Fogel, known to friends and colleagues as "Dick," was the younger of two sons of Moe Miller Fogel and Syndie Aileen Gardner Fogel.

It's for very good reason that San Francisco has long been considered a premier "labor town."

By Dick Meister

(Dick Meister, former San Francisco Chronicle labor editor and labor reporter for KQED-TV's "Newsroom, " has covered labor issues for a half-century as an author. reporter, editor and commentator.)

The 75th anniversary of the San Francisco general strike this year should remind us of the key role that organized labor has played in the city's economic and political life, through good times and bad - often despite fierce opposition, sometimes despite the reluctance of unions to adjust to changing circumstances.

Local labor history is full of dramatic events. But none have been more dramatic than the general strike that brought the city to a standstill for four days in July of 1934 during a time of economic troubles even greater than we're facing today. People in just about every occupation walked off the job in support of longshoremen who had struck on their own to demand an end to their truly rotten working conditions.

When, oh when, will Dean Macris finally go away?

EDITORIAL The San Francisco city planning director, John Rahaim, has kept a fairly low profile since taking over the troubled department in 2008. But some serious problems are starting to fester on his watch — and if he and the planning commissioners don't clean up the mess, the supervisors need to step in.

Rahaim remains somewhat in the shadow of the former director, Dean Macris, who is responsible for some of the worst San Francisco development problems of the past three decades. And the Macris influence is still very heavy in the department. But Rahaim needs to step out and show that things are going to change. For starters, he should:

•Scrap the plan to privatize environmental review. As Rebecca Bowe reports on page 15, the department is looking at bringing in outside consultants to help clear up the backlog in the Major Environmental Analysis division of the Planning Department. It's a horrible idea — the environmental consulting firms that do this work make most of their money from developers, and that's where their loyalties will always lie. The city planning staff is by no means perfect, but at least the unionized MEA staffers have some ability to demand that builders follow the rules and that environmental impact reports are relatively honest. The whole idea comes (not surprisingly) from the big developers, particularly Lennar Corp. at Hunters Point and the consortium looking to redevelop Treasure Island; they're worried about the short-staffed Planning Department's slow pace of project review. But we don't see those developers helping raise new revenue for the city — money that could allow planning to hire more staff.

Maybe it's no coincidence that Groucho Marx was an American citizen

Here is Chris Patten's commentary on the Project Syndicate news series. Patten is a former EU Commissioner for External Relations, Chairman of the British Conservative Party, and was the last British Governor of Hong Kong. He is currently Chancellor of Oxford University and a member of the British House of Lords.

America’s Groucho Marxists

By Chris Patten

LONDON – Groucho Marx has always been my favorite Marxist. One of his jokes goes to the heart of the failure of the ideology – the dogmatic religion – inflicted on our poor world by his namesake, Karl.

“Who are you going to believe,” Groucho once asked, “me, or your own eyes?” For hundreds of millions of citizens in Communist-run countries in the twentieth century, the “me” in the question was a dictator or oligarchy ruling with totalitarian or authoritarian powers. It didn’t matter what you could see with your own eyes. You had to accept what you were told the world was like. Reality was whatever the ruling party said it was.

The designated successor to Mao Zedong in China, Hua Guofeng, raised this attitude to an art form. He was known as a “whateverist.” The Party and people should faithfully follow whatever Mao instructed them to do.

Obama is well on his way to becoming the most pro-labor president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt

By Dick Meister

(Dick Meister, former San Francisco Chronicle labor editor and labor reporter for KQED's TV's "Newsroom," has covered labor and politics for a half-century as a author, reporter, editor, and commentator.)

It¹s clear that Barack Obama is well on the way to becoming the most pro-labor president since Franklin D. Roosevelt - clear that he's firmly committed to strengthening the vital union rights that FDR secured for U.S.
workers seven decades ago.

Consider Obama's address to the AFL-CIO's national convention in Pittsburgh on Sept. 15. Yes, the president was speaking to a friendly audience, saying what the convention delegates wanted him to say and promising them what they wanted him to promise. But his were not empty words.

Every elected official, city council, board of supervisors, and utility agency in the state needs to immediately come out publicly in opposition to the initiative and start organizing to defeat it. San Francisco elected officials, including City Attorney Dennis Herrera, need to lead the charge since San Francisco is the only city in the U.S. mandated by federal law to have public power (which it doesn't have, thanks to PG&E's corrupting influence through the decades.)

EDITORIAL A ballot measure that could spell the end of public power in California is headed for either the spring or fall 2010 ballot — and so far, the opposition is missing in action. This is a profoundly important issue, and every elected official, city council, board of supervisors, and utility agency in the Bay Area needs to immediately come out in opposition and start organizing to defeat it.

The source of the proposition, of course, is Pacific Gas and Electric Co. PG&E is facing political wildfires all over the state as communities rebel against bad service and high rates. In Marin County, a community choice aggregation (CCA) plan is moving along, full speed. In San Francisco, CCA is a little slower, but still on track. These efforts could turn two of PG&E's most profitable territories into public power beachheads. Meanwhile, in San Joaquin County, a public power movement is trying to take over part of PG&E's service area, and PG&E just spent millions of dollars fighting a similar effort in Davis.

Action Alert
NYT Slams Single-Payer
Fails to include advocates among 'diverse' experts

The New York Times devoted some rare space on September 20 to discussing single-payer (or Medicare-for-all) health reform. The result? A one-sided account of why such a system couldn't work.

With a headline like "Medicare for All? 'Crazy,' 'Socialized' and Unlikely," readers probably had a sense of what the Times had in mind with the piece, which was the latest in a series titled "Prescriptions: Making Sense of the Healthcare Debate." Reporter Katharine Seelye wrote: "Extending Medicare to all has seemed like a good idea to many--except to those who call it 'socialized medicine.' Or crazy."

The Times seemed to want to express single-payer opposition in more gentle tones, explaining that the idea is, from the start, politically impractical: "Beyond a liberal base in the House, there is little support for expanding Medicare." And outside of Congress, wise minds seem to agree: "But even experts of diverse ideological views say expanding Medicare would be far more complicated and politically difficult than it might appear."

In September of 1919, angry steelworkers launched one of the most fierce, most bloody, and most important
of the many battles that created the American labor movement

By Dick Meister

(Dick Meister, former San Francisco Chronicle labor editor and labor reporter for KQED-TV's "Newsroom," has covered labor and politics for a half-century as a reporter, editor, author, and commentator.)

It was 90 years ago this month - September of 1919 - that angry steelworkers launched one of the most fierce, most bloody and most important of the many battles that created the American labor movement.

Just 10 months earlier, the United States and its allies had emerged victorious from World War I. The steelworkers whose labor had contributed much to the war effort -- and much to their employers' huge profits - had set out to organize a union, so as to gain some control over their working lives and increase their miserly share of the profits their work brought employers.

Women now hold half the country's jobs and will hold more than half by year's end

By Dick Meister

(Dick Meister, former San Francisco Chronicle labor editor and labor reporter for KQED-TV's "Newsroom," has covered labor and politics for a half-century as an author, reporter, editor and commentator.)

Good news for women: Despite the recession - or because of it women workers will very soon outnumber male workers for the first time in U.S. history.

After many, many years of minority status, many years of generally being paid less than men and otherwise treated as second-class workers by male bosses, women now have the numbers to more effectively combat workplace discrimination.

New data from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics show that at mid-year, women held half the country’s jobs and undoubtedly will hold more than half by year’s end.

No number of part-time bloggers and citizen journalists will ever be able to perform the watchdog role of a fully-staffed newspaper.But the new web-based publication "can't just be about getting the old band together for another tour."

EDITORIAL Dave Iverson, host of KQED's Friday Forum show, introduced the Sept. 25 program with a pretty obvious comment: "Conversations about the future of journalism, and newspapers in particular, are rarely optimistic affairs." He went on to describe the new effort by Warren Hellman, KQED, and the UC Berkeley journalism school to create a new media outlet in San Francisco (a story that broke first in the Guardian's politics blog).

The guests, including Neil Henry, dean of the j-school; Carl Hall, the former San Francisco Chronicle reporter; and Jeff Clarke, president of KQED; talked in vague platitudes about the big new plans — and then spent much of the time defending and lauding the Chronicle, which one guest called "a great paper."