The Hypocrisy of the Editorial Board(s)
Any time a president (or former president) of the United States, an owner of a major news publication, or even a local editorial board tries to unfairly affect our elections, citizens should be notified. But good luck if you are trying to blow the whistle by going through editors.
The November 2024 California general election is no small endorsement task for any news publication’s editorial board. Just ask former editors at the LA Times and Washington Post.
Nevertheless, in my opinion, the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board appears to be hiding its candidate bias in the endorsement version of three-card monte, or worse, assumed no one read all five published Chronicle op-eds by D5 candidate Bilal Mahmood, as I have.
But please judge yourself if I am a sore loser in the SF Chronicle endorsement sweepstakes, or if the Chronicle’s editorial board is trying to place its ink-stained hands on the San Francisco election scale.
On October 17, 2024, I criticized the Chronicle’s editorial board for its “Perplexing logic” in Letters to the Editor for its mayoral endorsement of Daniel Lurie. I am following up with an opinion on the District 5 supervisor endorsement of Bilal Mahmood, my fellow challenger to incumbent Dean Preston’s seat on the SF Board of Supervisors.
In an interesting admission, as part of its reasoning, the Chronicle’s editorial board mentioned that Mahmood had written “Various” op-eds published in the Chronicle before concluding that Mahmood will be ready on day one. But a careful examination of several of his op-eds credit what Mayor Breed is already doing.
March 11, 2023, Mahmood op-ed: “… Breed’s Housing For All executive order, which requests that all departments streamline permitting by 50% within a year, is a great step in the right direction.”
September 9, 2023, Mahmood op-ed: “Despite our tortuous hiring protocols, San Francisco is charting a path forward. A new pilot hiring program may soon provide a model for the rest of the city to follow. Authorized by Mayor Breed and led by Department of Human Resources Director Carol Isen, the program is focused on improving hiring times through a mix of logistical streamlining and technological innovation.”
May 6, 2023, Mahmood’s op-ed was proof that when the editorial board referred to Mahmood as a “Savant,” they were spot on. His explanation of why SFUSD had a problem with its new payroll system begs the question: Where was Mahmood when SFUSD was looking for a new superintendent a few years ago? We could have avoided tapping one of Mayor Breed’s top city employees to rescue SFUSD.
On July 25, 2023, Mahmood’s op-ed shared the ten ideas he envisioned for San Francisco, inspired by his trip to Tokyo. There is a better chance that SFPD will adopt my concept of dealing with drug dealing.
August 5, 2022, Mahmood’s op-ed defines YIMBYism as progressive as it gets. Oh? Who does not know that our mayor, London Breed, a moderate, is the top YIMBY of San Francisco? I am a YIMBY Republican with mostly conservative leanings. And I would never vote against building here unless it was at the expense of another city.
The editorial board gave me a pat on the head when it acknowledged that I was the author of the June 2018 ballot measure which garnered nearly 98,000 “Yes” votes even though the measure failed. The measure was an apology to the citizens of Oakland for the role SF City Hall played in helping the Golden State Warriors move back to the city. The Chronicle editorial board urged a “No” vote without meeting with me to discuss the measure, which included opposing any professional sports team from skipping out on public debt, which the Warriors tried but failed to do to Oakland.
Fun fact: Bilal Mahmood and I live in the same Tenderloin apartment building. Our first conversation was at the elevators of the building about Mission Local’s weekly questions for the candidates. After about week ten of questions, Mahmood, the savant, said, “Your answers are better than mine.” He graduated from Stanford. I graduated from John O’Connell High School.
The San Francisco Chronicle’s 2024 version of its editorial board may have felt obligated to interview all the candidates when it was already enamored by or sold on its savant. But I can’t help but feel duped twice by the Chronicle’s editorial board. First, the Chronicle editorial board refused to me with me in 2018, after I turned in 14,000 signatures in October of 2017 while living in my pickup truck. Then they met with four other candidates in 2024, when they already had their man (“Savant”) based on his five published SF Chronicle op-eds.
As a longtime San Francisco resident (1960) who has worked, volunteered, and advocated for San Franciscans for over 45 years, I must repeat what I told the Chronicle editorial board: “My father taught me to love. San Francisco taught me to respect. And God taught me, never give up.”
Politics in general are rich with hypocrisy. However, when editorial boards become indignant/cry foul when owners place their weight on our elections and turn around and do the same, there should be an award for editorial board hypocrisy.
Call me bias because I live in San Francisco, but I give hypocrisy awards to San Francisco news organizations, with the SF Chronicle getting a first-place ribbon.
