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Bruce Blog

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 »

A real Earth Week question: What would happen if a Hearst staffer sent up a question to Hearst corporate: Why are we forced to lie for PG&E?

04.23.07 - 7:18 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

Well, there it was, in the same bottom right hand corner of the Chronicle front page where the PG&E ad had been two days before, a story headlined "Green guardians go extra mile to save planet."

The April 20 story, by Chronicle/Hearst environmental writer Jane Kay, reported that Maya Butterfield, the mother of fourchildren, "drives as little as possible while she waits for a car company to sell a hybrid minivan."

The story reported that The Rev. Read more »

"The Cripple of Inishmaan": Irish charm and magic

04.23.07 - 4:03 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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What a wonderful mix of Irish charm and magic the Wild Irish Productions spun in the drizzle and fog of Fort Mason last Saturday night April 2l. It was the opening night for Martin McDonagh’s “The Cripple of Inishmaan” at the Magic Theater.

This is a difficult play to produce and do well, with the nuances and dark humor of Irish story telling based on the historical fact that a Hollywood producer came to a nearby island in l934 to make a documentary film. Read more »

Ben Bagdikian comments on the monopolization capers of Hearst and Gannett in l937 and Hearst, Singleton, and Gannett in 2007

04.20.07 - 3:27 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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A note from B3: Ben Bagdikian knows more and has written more about the monopolization of the press than
just about anybody. He is the author of six editions of the media classic, "The Media Monopoly," and dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California- Berkeley.

In Bagdikian's first media monopoly book in l983, he wrote that 50 or so conglomerates controlled most of the U.S. media. With each edition the numbers shrank and for years, whenever I would speak on journalism, I would call Bagdikian and ask him what the current magic monopoly was. Read more »

Extra! Extra! PG&E buys the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. The shame of Hearst. Why people get mad at the media (l9)

04.19.07 - 12:42 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

And so Hearst, after decades of shamefully operating as a PG&E shill and shamefully censoring the PG&E/Raker
Act scandal out of its papers (both in its old Examiner and its new Chronicle), ran a large cheery PG&E ad in the right hand corner of the front page of yesterday's April l8 Chronicle.

The ad ran without the usual identification "advertisement," even though it was a pure political ad and part of PG&E's phony "let's green the city" campaign. Read more »

Still censored: the story and debate on the impacts of media consolidation in the Bay Area

04.16.07 - 2:03 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

For years, the Guardian has been publishing on its front page the “Project Censored” story, a list and story of the most “censored” stories of the past year as compiled by Project Censored, a respected 30-year-old media research project at Sonoma State University. We always include our local version of major stories the local mainstream media miss and note that they always “censor” the big local stories involving their own papers. And of course the mainstream press makes the story even better by "censoring" the Project Censored story every year. Read more »

Shocked! Shocked! And shocked again!

04.13.07 - 2:44 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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Not one of the nation’s biggest newspaper chains (Hearst, Singleton, Gannett, Stephens)
saw fit to run a story on a key decision in favor of the Guardian motion to unseal the records during and after the Riley antitrust trial. Why people get mad at the media (l5)

By Bruce B. Read more »

An evening with George Michalski. Join me tonight at 8 p.m. at Fat City to celebrate the legendary pianist's 50 years to the day in show business

04.13.07 - 7:52 am | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann

Tonight, April l3, George Michalski will celebrate his 50th anniversary in show business with a piano recital and rollicking vaudeville show at Fat City (the old Transmission night club), at 3l4 llth St., San Francisco. Show time is 7:30 p.m., $20.

It will be far different than his first sedate recital on April l3, l957, when he played Schaum and Rolseth pieces
in the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Jean and I saw Michalski last fall at the Larkspur Theater, where he has been an ornament for sometime, and we enjoyed it enormously. Read more »

Rev up the presses! Judge Illston rules in favor of a Guardian motion to open all the Hearst/Singleton records during and after the Reilly antitrust trial

04.12.07 - 2:34 pm | Bruce Brugmann |
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By Bruce B. Brugmann (scroll down for the publishers' briefs and monopoly news you will see nowhere else)

There's bad news and good news today. The bad news is that Federal Judge Susan Illston ruled today
April l2 that the Hearst/Singleton documents of secrecy and stonewalling remain under seal in the Reilly antitrust trial. She adopted the proposals for sealing as put forth by the Hearst/Singleton/Gannett/Stephens attorneys. Read more »