MONDAY STARTER
A reader here constantly asks me why is it that when violent protests take place in the city, those protests are given scant coverage, yet when same protests are in Oakland, the local stations always seem to highlight Oakland.
It's simple: Oakland is a convenient target --blue collar, (read Black); San Francisco is regal, high-tech, glamorous and beneath such activity, (read White).
Just this morning, KCBS' Susan Leigh Taylor asked Phil Matier, "were you surprised the violent protests in Oakland crossed the bay over to SF?" As if the city weren't ever subject to the same mob scene like that in the Eastbay. How absurd.
KTVU is, hands down the worst in this department. KTVU typically leads with an anti-Oakland bias --not just Ferguson protests but murders too. Channel 2 consistently lead with the Oakland mayhem last week but was curiously low-key on the violence that took place in SF/Union Square Friday night. Maybe they don't want to piss off Macys or irritate the SF Chamber of Commerce. Those of you that watch Channel 2 know precisely the pattern. It's even more scathing when KTVU studios are in Jack London Square but you wouldn't know because KTVU never mentions that--they're too busy knocking the 510. But when it involves that Walnut Creek fountain, they're all over it.
*Sports took a back seat to real life and reality Sunday. Those players from the St. Louis Rams posed a "hands up--don't shoot" look before the game. CBS Television, to their credit, showed the entire episode and mentioned it again during the game.
Greg Papa, part of 95.7 FM, The Game's radio coverage, (they're the Raiders radio flagship here), never mentioned it, (I didn't hear it, maybe you did), even as protests took place mere miles from the stadium and extra police, the National Guard, and security lined the field.
*If Annie Andersen isn't a fake stage name I'm Ron Burgandy.
*KRON could embellish "People Behaving Badly" and have Stanley Roberts tail Annie Andersen incognito. (Hell, I'd watch).
*I predicted back in early November that a few good December storms would ease the drought a bit and everyone got all snippy --we'll, guess what--we have a storm door piled up in the Pacific and there was minor flooding in Marin on Sunday. So when you see those "Storm Watch" live shots, remember my words.
*Today is December --when holiday parties and the Christmas spirit permeate the local media...and when pink slips are given out. What classy operations.
*Nervous minds: KPIX, KGO-TV, KGO Radio especially.
*Post Raiders mayhem upside: The refreshing, candid, BLUNT conversation after the 52-0 debacle in St. Louis on CSNBA's Raiders Report. I've been overly critical of Henry Wofford but he, Bill Romanowski and Lorenzo Neal all were superb in their take-no-prisoners account of that dreadful exhibition. Romanowski didn't hide his disgust and called the Raiders "beyond embarrassing." Neal was just as emphatic and called out the players and said it was "time for major change." Wofford set the tone early by asking some uncomfortable questions that needed to be asked. It was nice to see this as opposed to some innocuous post-game nonsense that never seems to inject an ounce of reality.
*Annie Anderson of KRON wants to have dinner in bed with Peyton Manning; funny me, I was thinking she was a George Rask kind of guy.
*Liam Mayclem: My dream was to become a foodie chap.
*Narsai David: Screw you Mayclem, I got your foodie chap right here!
*Chef Ryan Scott: May a caramelized onion invade both your boxers!
*Foodie Wars.
*Rough week for Scott: he was preempted by Cal Football: word is he stuck an avocado in Oski's backside.
*Follow me on Twitter
Re the riot/demonstration coverage: occurring in Oakland is a slam dunk, if trouble is going to happen anywhere around here it will be in Oakland. Once the demonstrations and vandalism started happening in the City there was coverage. If I ran a news department with limited resources I will send them where the action is, and it is almost always Oakland.
ReplyDeleteWhen the knuckleheads started trouble after the Giants WS win there were news crews in the City, not Oakland, not Santa Rosa or San Jose. Send the crews to the story.
> if trouble is going to happen anywhere around here it will be in Oakland.
DeleteYou seem to have reading comprehension issues. His point is it is happening elsewhere but rarely gets reported, something as personal witness I can vouch for. If you don't have reporters in other locals and you do have them in Oakland, it will "always be happening in Oakland, slam dunk." It's like the traveler who arrives in town and say there sure are lots of sick people here. "Where's your hotel?" "Across from the hospital."
3:05
DeleteOakland doesn't disappoint when it comes to stuff like this. Yes it happens elsewhere sometimes, but if you are going to report on an unruly demonstration are you going to send the crew to Oakland or some other place where it may or may not happen?
KTVU is the worst at Oakland bashing. Worst at a loot of things, really. Bang Ding Ow!
ReplyDeleteMan, what a great post today. Thanks
ReplyDeleteHas Mark Davis apologized to the fans yet, or was that performance Sunday expected?
ReplyDeleteMaybe that Raiders debacle was a ploy to get LA to up its bid for the Rams. All kidding aside, that was one of the most pathetic performances from a Bay Area football team in a long time. I remember when the 49ers were sucking they took a beating from the Chargers, but at least they put some points on the board and lost 48-19 at home. The 49ers had a run of about 10 years of not being very good but they didn't lay an egg like that one. That was the worst Raiders shutout loss since 1961. 1961! That was when the team was in its second season in the AFL and Al Davis hadn't arrived on the scene.
ReplyDelete"I predicted back in early November that a few good December storms would ease the drought a bit"
ReplyDeleteWell you're still wrong because a few good December storms will not ease the drought a bit. You need a full season of "regular" storms to ease the drought a bit, given all the damage done. And you'll need several years or regular storms to end the drought entirely and get us back to normal. One little puddle generating day doesn't do squat for the drought.
I "celebrated" the drought by re-watching Chinatown this weekend. Great film, back from when they made great films (Network, The Godfather, Chinatown, MASH, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye, Being There, The French Connection, All That Jazz). "The FUTURE, Mr. Gitts, the future!" "Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all become respectable if they last long enough." "Either you bring the water to L.A. or you bring L.A. to the water." "Where's the girl?" "My sister/my daughter/my sister/my daughter!" And everyone else was wetting their pants because the next stupid Star Wars movie trailer came out. More shots of spaceships twirling in space and people in goofy costumes. I am soooooo excited--NOT.
DeleteA while ago I worked at a smallish SF ad agency. Most of the other people there lived in SF. They were amazed I lived in Oakland and would ask me things like, "Aren't you afraid to go out at night?" and "Have you ever been shot?" I lived and live in the Oakland Hills on the border of Piedmont. They, meanwhile, lived in places like The Mission, and while none of them got shot (at least while I was there) people in their general area did. They were paying almost twice the rent I was and had bars on their windows and doors. And they thought *I* was crazy.
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show you facts don't dissuade ignorance.
Ignorance and not giving the full story are two different things. Like leaving the "east" out of East Palo Alto. Big difference there.
DeleteMy Aunt lived on Florida Street in SF. A couple blocks from 24th Street. I never heard so many cop car sirens and fire trucks in my life.
DeleteMy Dad brought us to Raider & A's games over in Oakland on Bart all the time. Never had a problem. Now I go with my wife and kid, never a problem, But then again we never walk around Oakland nor do we hang out there.
I have been to every NFL Stadium in the country, when you have a crowd that big, you will have some goons who just go to make trouble.
The worst game and crowd I have ever seen was the Giants vs Dodgers during the infamous Twilight double header. That was a scene right out of an old western movie with fights every where.
You SF girlie men have nothing to do but cap on Oakland. Let me tell you the rainbows are buying up Oakland. Yes they are buying up the hood areas. Oakland will be the crown jewel in another 10 years.
You heard it here first.
I awoke this morning and turned on KTVU's morning news show. For at least an hour, the "news scroll" at the bottom of the screen declared that the LOS ANGELES RAMS beat the Oakland Raiders 52 - 0. Didn't the Rams and Raiders leave LA in the mid-90's? Who edits this shit?
ReplyDeleteMaybe the residents of Oakland wouldn't feel so put-upon if they weren't constantly competing for the most-dangerous-city-in-the-US.
ReplyDeleteRich, did you just take credit for predicting that rain will help ease the drought?
ReplyDeleteWhat next, predicting that sunrise will help ease the darkness of nighttime?
KTVU is part of FOX. What else would you expect?
ReplyDeleteSeemed to me like there was the riot/protest coverage in Oakland and SF was equivalent.
ReplyDeleteI guess I shouldn't post while drunk. I meant to say -
DeleteSeemed to me like the riot/protest coverage in Oakland and SF was equivalent.
After watching those two fools dancing 20 yards behind the Chiefs line of scrimmage with the game still on the line, it's no surprise that the Raiders had a let down after their big victory lifted them to 1 and 10. The mentality of this organization is beyond embarrassing. I know they are still in the league, but they don't really seem like an official part of it anymore. More like some kind of exhibition filler for the other team's schedules.
ReplyDeleteMy third attempt to post. I agree about anti-Oakland bias and KTVU as the worst. Steve Paulson and Bill Martin don't even cover the WEATHER in Oakland. Orozco & Tamayo always do.
ReplyDeleteI like Wofford's work; enjoying listening to him, Gilbert and Steinmetz. Too bad P.D. on the Game is incompetent and doesn't offer them a permanent job.
ReplyDelete