Thursday, May 27, 2004
Triumphs all around, but not 'feel powerful' triumphs...
I was at a progressive lecture/spoken word event the other night, and one speaker talked about how he felt the Chronicle was a bad paper. His arguments were pretty strong. I particularly enjoyed how he pointed out that the Pultizer prize folks (who give out awards for journalism and generally considered the true measure of quality), while giving awards to the NY Times, the Wash Post, the New Orleans paper, even smaller market papers, haven't felt the need to give the Chronicle an award since 1952. Wow. that's not good.
World class city, one horse newspaper.
Anyway, another part of what the speaker pointed out was how the Chronicle never does any actual journalism by asking follow up questions, or pointing out inconsistancies in our leaders opinions or actions.
(I'm getting to my point here, almost) He pointed out how, for example, the left/progressive/green (however you want to call it) has been pointing out for years that the only real solution to helping the homeless was to get them into some kind of housing, then start working with them with social services... and now, suddenly, our "non-lefty" mayor has discovered that, sure enough, the solution is to get them indoors. Today's article about Angela Alioto. And I see that another lefty/progressive/green issue, that the Police Citizen Complaint folks have more say... is getting more of exactly that, reports our favorite paper.
So, the real situation here is that things are getting done. But it's getting done by 'the other side'... and that doesn't feel as good. We were right (correct) all along! Give the left the credit!
Believe me, I know it's frustrating to have your thunder stolen, and I totally agree that the media in this town needs to be much more on the job, but can't we also be happy that these things are getting implemented, no matter who is finally getting started?
