Evaluating print and broadcast news in the San Francisco Bay Area from A to F http://www.gradethenews.org http://www.gradethenews.org/2007/halberstam.htm Halberstam recognized what a privilege it was to have attained the recognition from peers and the ability just to write books for a living. But he also indicated that it was much, much more than a job. From covering the civil rights movement in the South in ways that most other reporters wouldn't or couldn't, to upending a nation's misconceptions about how the Vietnam War started, Halberstam was a guiding light for a profession now so commonly associated with shallow celebrity trash and flash -- or worse. http://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/Trounstine.htm The core counties of the San Francisco Bay Area have a population of about six million people. In addition to their seven county governments, they include scores of cities, towns, sheriff's and police departments; school boards, planning commissions, municipal and superior courts; universities and community colleges; water, solid waste and air boards; transportation commissions and public utility, weed-abatement and mosquito control boards; and many more government bodies. In this region, one newspaper company -- MediaNews -- owns or controls every paid-subscription daily newspaper except for the San Francisco Chronicle http://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/criticalmass.htm SFGate.com, the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle, last week provided a fascinating look at how both initial newspaper coverage and Web 2.0 technologies can help shape perception of a story. At issue is a confrontation between cyclists riding in San Francisco's monthly Critical Mass, and a mother from the suburbs and her family in a minivan who got caught behind the bike traffic. There was panic, there was a bicyclist hit (how hard is in question), and then someone broke the back window of her car. http://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/ppic.htm A new study warns that just 15% of the state's adults are deciding who governs California and which propositions pass. And that 15% is increasingly unrepresentative of the state's diversity. Politicians and news media must share much of the blame. http://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/goodolddays.htm When we look back on 2006, several decades from now, we may recall it as the good old days for news -- and everything else. http://www.spj.org/norcal Join the Society of Professional Journalists and Media Alliance for a panel discussion titled, "The Coming Media Monopoly: Concentration of Press Ownership and Its Effects on Democracy," June 1 at 7 p.m., at the LGBT Center in San Francisco. Panelists: Linda Foley, president of the national Newspaper Guild; Tim Redmond, editor of the San Francsico Bay Guardian; Stephen Buel, editor of the East Bay Express; and Sandy Close, director of New America Media. http://www.gradethenews.org/2006/awards.htm Grade the News has been named the 2006 receipient of the award for media criticism given by the Cultural and Critical Studies Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. GTN also won a citation from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism for uncovering ethical misdeeds of the news media. http://www.gradethenews.org/2006/medianews.htm The San Jose Mercury News and the Contra Costa Times were sold by the McClatchy Co. to the MediaNews Group of Denver as part of a four-newspaper $1 billion deal announced Wednesday. The sale would lead to an unprecedented concentration of ownership in Bay Area newspapers. http://www.gradethenews.org/2006/woo.htm Grade the News lost a friend and guiding spirit Wednesday when Bill Woo succumbed to cancer. More importantly, the Bay Area, indeed the world, lost one of its most insightful journalists and educators. http://www.gradethenews.org/2006/cluster.htm Now that the MediaNews Group, owner of nine metro dailies surrounding San Francisco, has bid for the San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, it may be instructive to look at the practice of sharing reporters and centralizing publishing known as clustering. At its Bay Area newspapers, MediaNews has pooled resources to keep moribund papers alive and produce some in-depth journalism, say defenders. But skeptics cite sparse news staffs and a single news angle as clusters limit competition. http://www.gradethenews.org/2006/doj.htm The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has begun a series of interviews this week to determine whether the potential sale of Knight Ridder papers in the Bay Area to Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group might lead to higher prices for advertisers and less competition. http://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/opengov.htm On Tuesday night at the San Jose City Council meeting, Mercury News Editorial Page Editor Steve Wright testified during a formal public hearing on proposals for a new law providing for more open government. It wouldn't have been appropriate for a reporter. But the editorial page editor follows different rules. http://www.gradethenews.org/commentaries/krsale3.htm The investor-forced sale of so esteemed and profitable a newspaper company as Knight Ridder means three things: Wall Street doesn't value quality journalism; The glory days of newspapers are behind us; The Bay Area could be on the brink of an unprecedented media monopoly. http://www.gradethenews.org/2006/copying.htm Syndicated multimedia medical reporter Dean Edell, who calls himself "America's Doctor," has for years taken credit on KGO Channel 7 for medical reports wholly or partially produced by an outside company. And his byline has appeared on the KGO Web site and a health-advice site over articles that were taken verbatim from medical center press releases.