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Bruce Blog

In search of San Francisco soul

05.08.07 - 8:11 am | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Read more »

Let's be fair to PG&E, says the Chronicle, and applies its news principle to a study on the value of small business over chains in San Francisco

05.07.07 - 1:37 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

Last Thursday May 23, as I was preparing my introductory remarks for our third annual small business awards ceremony at Anchor Steam Brewery, I found a timely article buried in that day's business page of the San Francisco Chronicle that helped illustrate what I call the Chronicle's "Let's be fair to PG&E" news principle.

The article, I pointed out, reported on a major $l5,000 study that was specially commissioned by the San Francisco Locally Owned Merchants Alliance and provided valuable ammunition to independents in their endless battle with the chain stores. Read more »

What's the difference between the Wall Street Journal and the Hearst and Singleton papers? For starters, the Journal played the Murdoch bid to buy the paper on its front page

05.02.07 - 3:05 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

Yesterday, when I was going back and forth with my source in Contra Costa County on how Singleton papers covered the Reilly settlement story in the East Bay, he mentioned that Murdoch had made an unsolicited bid to buy the Wall Street Journal. My source, a natural born news junkie, monitors breaking news during the day. I leafed through my copy of the Journal and couldn't find any such story and promptly forgot about it. Read more »

How can you trust newspaper chains that can't cover the big story: their secret moves to end daily competition in the Bay area?

05.01.07 - 2:11 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

Click here for the Guardian editorial Reilly's Victory

Click here for the Guardian story Beyond the Reilly settlement

I was glad that I went to the Clint Reilly press conference April 23 and saw for myself what Reilly and his attorney Joe Alioto won in their historic settlement with Hearst and Singleton and just how the two monopolizing newspaper chains would cover the story about their own monopolizing moves. Read more »

What really happened at the Clint Reilly press conference on the settlement of the Hearst/Singleton lawsuit

04.27.07 - 12:21 am | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

Okay, okay, after getting a note from my Contra Costa source who follows Singleton news coverage for me in the East Bay, I realized I better explain what happened to me after the Clint Reilly press conference Wednesday morning. My source said he saw my whacked up face in the blog below and "thought Phil Bronstein was up to his old tricks."

This was a reference to the famous incident in l993 when Reilly, then a political consultant, was invited to the old Hearst Examiner by then publisher Will Hearst to advise the Examiner on how to grow its circulation. Read more »

CLINT REILLY AND JOSEPH ALIOTO ANNOUNCE A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THEIR ANTITRUST SUIT AT 10:30 WEDNESDAY MORNING

04.24.07 - 3:44 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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Stop the presses or rev up the presses: as the case may be. Check the Guardian website and the Bruce blog for full coverage, commentary, and viewing of all unsealed documents. Read more »

Paul Fenn wonders why the Chronicle ran a front page PG&E ad while covering a major CCA story in half a paragraph on page 27

04.24.07 - 10:40 am | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

I asked Paul Fenn, architect of San Francisco's community choice aggregation plan and a national expert on CCA power, if the Chronicle/Hearst had contacted him about the announcement of the CCA plan last week (no) and what he thought about its coverage His answer:

"During Earth Day week and the height of the national debate on Climate Crisis, the San Francisco Chronicle failed to show up at a major City Hall press conference on April l7 on a plan to implement the largest municipal solar public works project in history--to be built by the City in San Francisco. Read more »

And now Matier and Ross do a little flacking for PG&E and lots of shorting of public power

04.24.07 - 5:38 am | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

The day after Earth Week, the Chronicle's star columnists continued the Hearst policy of flacking for PG@E and censoring public power and greenwashing Earth Day coverage with a telling omission in their front page story on Monday April 23 how the San Francisco 49ers are hoping to get Santa Clara to pony up $l80 million or so for their $800 million new stadium.

In listing the various public fund possibilities for Santa Clara, Matier and Ross reported as a major option: "The reserve fund for Santa Clara's electric utility. Read more »