Comments on: Lying liars in the media

By: Fighting the myth of industrial preservation in Oakland | A Better Oakland

Fighting the myth of industrial preservation in Oakland | A Better Oakland — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:45:59 +0000

[...] space on land that is currently being used as a self-storage facility. dto510 has discussed these deceptions in the [...]

By: dto510

dto510 — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 19:06:32 +0000

Thanks Adam! Great to see your blog out there too.

Scott Park – I don’t understand why labeling people socialists upsets you. I mean, you’re talking about capitalist critiques – that’s pretty Marxist. Putting a portion of the privately-built housing market under strict government oversight, without compensation, is certainly socialist. And so the IZ advocates know they’re socialists! On May Day, they held rallies and wrote op-eds in favor of their radical plan.

By: scottpark

scottpark — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:54:03 +0000

Whatever. I’ll just say that anyone who actually publicly went on about how the Oakland Tribune is socialist would not be taken seriously. It is simply not a factual statement and resonates with NOBODY. Red-baiting your way into policy change will go nowhere in Oakland. Indeed, many Oaklanders are not only theoretically inclined to critque capitalism, but many of them can also be convincingly argued to be among those who have (how to say it?) yet to benefit from the capitalist miracle.

That being said, the Trib’s a piece of trash. As is the Oakland Post. Both are embarassments.

By: Adam Metz

Adam Metz — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:08:27 +0000

Hey…it’s really nice to see someone else writing about gentrification and urban/suburban friction here in Oakland.

By: Great Expectations » This just in from the Trib: Sometimes your rent goes up

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 21:19:56 +0000

[...] or merely lazy. But either way, the end product is irresponsible and just one more example of the biased drivel that passes for journalism at the [...]

By: Deckin

Deckin — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 19:09:00 +0000

ScottPark,

If no one at the Trib is a socialist, then that’s actually worse news. At least then one could credit them with having some idea, however bad. The only other interpretation then of their parroting of central planning by the city of Oakland over what it’s never shown the slightest competence would have to be that they’re unthinking fools. Given that in one story, a reporter actually used the locution ‘candle opera’ for ‘candelabra’ (and this wasn’t caught by an editor) tends to support the latter interpetation. From what I read on my local listserv, the blogs around here are making the kind of impact on the local debate that the Trib ought to be doing.

By: dto510

dto510 — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 18:34:38 +0000

Alas, my month of vacation was only from the blog, not my other responsibilities. I appreciate that we bloggers compete with the MSM and so they’ll abuse their wider readership to, say, steal our stories without acknowledgement (locally, only JDA-T consistently credits who got the scoop). The LA Times article favorably quoted California city councilmembers contemplating lawsuits against blogs for being too critical! I can only imagine what they would think of what’s on North Oakland’s mailing lists.

While a substantial minority of Oaklanders are socialists, their views are overrepresented in the media. Look at the coverage of so-called Inclusionary Zoning! The press mindlessly repeats the lie that it has anything to do with low-income housing (lucky lottery winners of IZ units would make around $85k/yr), and neglects to point out that it involves long-term government oversight of the prices and buyers of (what is hoped to be) a substantial portion of Oakland’s new, privately-funded housing stock. This radically socialist idea is portrayed by the local press to be a mainstream policy, yet 80% of California municipalities lack condo price caps. Frankly, I call this socialist bias. Strictly regulating a portion of the privately-built housing market is on the fringe of 21st-century political debate, and the media should treat it as such.

By: scottpark07

scottpark07 — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:16:36 +0000

Who, now folks. I don’t disagree with most of what you’re saying, but for someone who just got back from a month’s vacation (a MONTH! folks…in America!) you seem pretty PO’d. I mean, duh!, of course daily newspapers are going to try and take bloggers down: you are the competition!! I know you have no beef with good old competition in the marketplace.
Of course, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Thou doth protest too much.

Nobody at the Oakland Tribune is a socialist.

Robert Gammon’s obsession with Don Perata is incredibly fucking pathetic. By any measure, anybody should be happy to have him representing us. Oh, perhaps we should get rid of him and then send the Senate Presidency down to LA with the Speaker. No fucking chance! Whatever Don needs to do to make sure the Bay gets MORE than its fair share is OK with me.

By: dto510

dto510 — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:00:36 +0000

Exactly. Reading Burt’s article on West Oakland industry would suggest some sort of alternate universe without world trade and high construction costs, where the only thing keeping Oakland from reclaiming its manufacturing glory is greedy residential speculators who refuse to sign leases. The relentless socialist bias of the local media, as well as the utterly out-of-touch politicians and political activists dominating the agenda, leaves quite a bit of room for everyday Oaklanders who know something and want to contribute a dose of reality to the Fourth Estate. With minor exceptions, the Fourth Estate isn’t listening. If it weren’t for wonderful inventions like the Trib’s comments, Burt and Allen-Taylor would get away with their lies.

By: V Smoothe

V Smoothe — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 21:54:43 +0000

What the LA Times fails to grasp is that most political bloggers started writing in response to the mainstream media’s complete failure to cover local politics in any meaningful or responsible manner. We exist because they aren’t doing their jobs.

From Cecily Burt’s industrial preservation crusade to Robert Gammon’s pathetic obsession with Don Perata and incessant ode’s to Stuart Flashman, our local newspapers are frequently more biased and less honest than any blogger. Even when the journalist is not pushing an agenda, the stories fail to place policies under consideration in any sort of context, resorting instead to mindlessly repeating talking points from the biggest players on either side of the issue.