Free Republic

A supporter of Proposition 8, fed up with what he believed was the gay community's and "liberal media's" refusal to accept the voters' verdict, fired off a letter to the editor. "Please show respect for democracy," he wrote, in a letter we published. What he encountered instead was an utter lack of respect for free speech. Within hours, the intimidation game was on. Because his real name and city were listed - a condition for publication of letters to The Chronicle - opponents of Prop. 8 used Internet search engines to find the letter writer's small business, his Web site...

That said, I am entirely convinced that same-sex marriage will again be legalized in California, the 52 percent vote notwithstanding. Just as the courts overrode the will of the majority in ordering desegregation of public schools and public accommodations, and just as the courts ignored the demands of the electorate by opening voting to people of color and the right to marry to mixed-race couples, so, too, will the courts, in defiance of the majority, however slim, reopen the doors of marriage to the gay community. The Sturm und Drang with which society greeted these courageous and controversial court rulings...

The "Spin Cycle" stands by a report that was never written and never published. The San Francisco Chronicle is standing by their non-existent newspaper report on Barack Obama's coal-killing comments from an interview back in January. SFGate reported: It's not true. But the Drudge Report, the Republican National Committee and apparently even GOP VP candidate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin fell for completely fabricated news from a shady website called Newsbusters today suggesting the San Francisco Chronicle has ''hidden'' audio with Sen. Barack Obama regarding his statements on coal. ''Barack Obama explained his plan to the San Francisco Chronicle this year,''...

In reporting the speech by Gov. Sarah Palin in Ohio today, CNN’s Political Ticker tried to spin her question about Obama’s coal comment as old news when it clearly isn’t. Palin asked why we are just now finding out about the interview where Barack Obama said he had hoped to bankrupt the coal industry but CNN termed this interview and Obama’s startling admission as “months-old coal comments” in an attempt to soften the blow to Ohio and Pennsylvania voters. The Political Ticker said that since the San Francisco Chronicle had these comments on its website for nine months, the news...

If same-sex marriage survives next week's ballot challenge, it will largely be due to state Attorney General Jerry Brown. It was Brown's office that decided on the final ballot description for Proposition 8, the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay and lesbian weddings. And by changing the way the measure was framed in its title and summary, Brown just might have tipped the balance in what looks to be a close election. Here's the story: Prop. 8 asks voters to affirm that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California" - a concept that...

JimJam, a blogger at Investigate the Media, has caught the San Francisco Chronicle selectively editing comments to its on-line version of the paper in an apparently deliberate effort to deceive its readers. It works like this: Like most papers, the Chronicle solicits comments from its on-line readers. Comments that for whatever reason the editors don't like are deleted, a practice that nearly all on-line websites and newspapers follow from time to time. No problem so far. What makes the Chronicle different is that when the Chronicle makes a comment disappear it goes away for everyone except the writer, who continues...

STATE SENATE President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, called the budget impasse "a Republican problem." To be precise, it is the problem of a small group of Republican senators who have allowed their egos and ideologies to trump the public interest. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, also a Republican, expressed frustration with the holdouts during a news conference Thursday. The governor effectively gave them want they wanted - in terms of the budget - when he agreed to use his line-item veto to cut the remaining $700 million deficit when it reaches his desk. The budget contains the largest reserve in state...

Why the San Francisco Chronicle is a candidate to exit print Play with me on this one: Which major American newspaper should be the first to throw up its hands and stop publishing a print product? It's a question worth asking. This could be the worst year for newspapers since the Great Depression. The double-digit revenue declines long forecast by doomsters have arrived. While nearly all the major papers still post profits, albeit smaller than before, a few prominent ones are losing boatloads. At Hearst Newspapers' San Francisco Chronicle, according to a deposition given by James M. Asher, the company's...

It’s far too premature to write about the demise of the San Francisco Chronicle, but it may be fair to say that the moves taking place over at the once-mighty newspaper’s headquarters these days have a faint murmur of a death march. Highly respected editors and reporters some consider among the most talented at the paper are being called into meetings and then quietly escorted from the building at Fifth and Mission streets, leaving those behind in shocked silence. It is the grim, somewhat inevitable consequence of an organization that lost its way and panicked in its efforts to find...

Topic: Memos Sent to Romenesko Date/Time: 6/5/2007 1:45:00 PM Title: SF Chronicle deputy managing editors depart Posted By: Jim Romenesko May 31 memo from San Francisco Chronicle editor Phil Bronstein [Deputy managing editors] John Curley and Leslie Guevarra will be leaving the Chronicle today. I want to acknowledge the enormous contributions both of these fine journalists have made to their craft and to the Chronicle. No one takes any pleasure in the loss of quality people, which is a painful reality when a newspaper reduces its staff to this extent and where there is a corresponding need for a smaller...

The Chronicle's announcement earlier this month that 100 newsroom jobs will be slashed in the coming weeks in the face of mounting financial woes represents just the latest chapter in a tragic story of traditional journalism's decline. Reportedly losing an estimated $1 million a week, the paper's owner, the Hearst Corp., concluded it had no recourse but to trim costs by laying off reporters, editors and other skilled professionals, or offering buyouts to the most seasoned journalists in order to induce them to leave. The cuts reportedly will amount to a quarter of The Chronicle's editorial staff. In the age...

Chronicle management informed the newspaper guild Thursday that it intends to cut 80 union and 20 management positions in the editorial department, the guild said in a statement. The cuts represent roughly 25 percent of the newsroom staff of about 400. Michael Cabanatuan, president of the Northern California Media Workers Guild, said management described the cuts as necessary because the paper is losing substantial funds. Newspapers across the country have seen reduced circulation and falling advertising revenue in recent years as the industry copes with the emergence of online media. The union has proposed a plan to achieve the target...

I hate to play Valleywag, but I'm hearing rumors that the San Francisco Chronicle is in big trouble. Apparently, Phil Bronstein, the editor-in-chief, told staff in a recent "emergency meeting" that the news business "is broken, and no one knows how to fix it." ("And if any other paper says they do, they're lying.") Reportedly, the paper plans to announce more layoffs before the year is out. It's clear that the news business as we knew it is in trouble. Bringing it home, Peter Lewis and Phil Elmer Dewitt, both well-known tech journalists, were both part of layoffs at Time...

In late November 2000, Phil Bronstein, the foreign correspondent who had risen to become editor of the scrappy San Francisco Examiner, was darting around town for interviews, giving a full-throated endorsement of the Hearst Corp.'s takeover of the much larger Chronicle. Many city residents expressed hope that the $660 million deal, in which the city's two dailies were set to merge, would finally deliver to San Francisco the high-quality newspaper it deserved. For 35 years, the papers had been locked lamely in a joint operating agreement, sharing business operations on Fifth and Mission streets in buildings literally joined at the...

Stars keep lining up for Proposition 87, a ballot measure that seeks to tax California's oil production to help finance alternative fuel development. The Yes on Prop. 87 campaign started airing a television commercial Monday featuring Bill Clinton that's cobbled together from a speech he gave at a rally in support of the initiative last week at UCLA. Clinton, a popular figure in heavily Democratic California, now joins a list of other big names who have come out in support of the measure. Actress Geena Davis appeared with Clinton at Friday's rally, and Julia Roberts stumped for the initiative at...

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger said "something very special happened" in his third year in office. "We found the groove," he proclaimed during an interview with our editorial board last week. And Sacramento has been grooving with him. The just-completed legislative session represented one of the most productive in recent memory. The Republican governor and Democratic legislators worked together on essential long-term goals (upgrade our transportation systems and schools, help stop global warming) and short-term imperatives (raise the minimum wage, reform foster care, secure drug discounts for the uninsured) that will have an impact on Californians' lives. (snip) We have disagreed with...

In a relatively uneventful debate Saturday night with no clear winner, Phil Angelides, the state treasurer and underdog Democratic candidate for governor, may have come out ahead by simply sharing a stage with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "At least he'll be in the same news cycle (as Schwarzenegger),'' sighed one labor official who is supporting Angelides. Analysts noted Saturday that the debate may have marked one of Angelides' first -- and last -- chances to make an impression.

One of the most mindless laws approved was Assembly Bill 2108, by Sonoma County Democrat Noreen Evans. It requires parents to stick kids in automobile backseat booster seats until they turn age 8, or the kids grow to a specified height. This onerous law will cost parents millions of dollars, and save between zero and seven lives annually in California. Is that a typo? Is it possible that our full-time, "professional" Legislature approved a law forcing parents to spend millions of dollars, and preventing their small children from riding with their bigger kids in the front seat, all to save...

Barry Bonds dropped his lawsuit against two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who published a book claiming the San Francisco Giants slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds requested that San Francisco County Superior Court dismiss the lawsuit June 2, according to court records reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News. The suit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning he retains the right to refile it. In March, Bonds sued Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, publisher Gotham books, the Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published an excerpt of the book, "Game of Shadows." Bonds' lawyers, suing under California's unfair...

by Mark Finkelstein December 13, 2005 - 06:31. Judging from this article by SF Chronicle staff writer's Leslie Fulbright, which Drudge posted, perhaps Tookie should have been canonized and supporters of the death penalty punished in his stead. The headline set the tone: "Tears, anger, silence at protesters' candlelight vigil; Speakers read from Williams' anti-gang children's books." The article depicted candle-holding Tookie supporters bravely fighting the cold and singing hymns along with Joan Baez. On the other side? A couple of shock jocks screaming 'kill Tookie', a professional pro-death penalty demonstrator, and a guy with a "Hang the Bastard" sign....