Journalism

Sylvie Simmons: S.F. Music Journalist, Rock 'n' Roll Detective

Gay Reporter Hassled by Castro Theatre Manager Receives No Justice From SFPD

The local reporter who recently got into a heated dispute with the manager of the Castro Theatre while interviewing a group of naked dudes in the street is getting no sympathy from the cops.Readers might recall the strange incident in which the Castro Theatre manager, Keith Arnold, cock-blocked a jo ... More >>

The Big Veto: Our Governors Hate Inmate Media-Access Bills

The local reporter who recently got into a heated dispute with the manager of the Castro Theatre while interviewing a group of naked dudes in the street is getting no sympathy from the cops.Readers might recall the strange incident in which the Castro Theatre manager, Keith Arnold, cock-blocked a jo ... More >>

Top 5 Ways Bleacher Report Rules the World!

The local reporter who recently got into a heated dispute with the manager of the Castro Theatre while interviewing a group of naked dudes in the street is getting no sympathy from the cops.Readers might recall the strange incident in which the Castro Theatre manager, Keith Arnold, cock-blocked a jo ... More >>

Gov. Brown Won't Let Reporters Have Easy Access to Prison Inmates

Assembly Bill 1270, passed by both chambers of the state legislature, would have allowed journalists to set up interviews with specific inmates in state prisons. Eight times over the past two decades a similar bill had passed through to the governor's desk, and all eight times it was vetoed.The stre ... More >>

An Inside Look at New Mission Live Venue the Chapel

Last Friday, amid an avalanche of accidental entendres (One of these, directed at a female SF Weekly correspondent: "Want to go down and see what happens to you next?"; another, aimed at no one in particular: "I'm really not that into VIP-ness") and crude cultural allusions ("It's like a Shakespeare ... More >>

Google, Oracle Ordered By Judge to Rat Out Their Phony Journalists

Fallout from the Oracle v. Google case has landed on unexpected -- but not undeserving -- heads: Those of propagandists masquerading as journalists. In a terse order issued today, San Francisco District Court Judge William Alsup mandated Google and Oracle to list the names of all the phony journalis ... More >>

Are People Finally Getting Bored with the Tech-Blog Circle Jerk?

At this point, I have to believe that all the people in the Pando Daily-TechCrunch-Uncrunched-whatever micro-universe have consciously incorporated their onanistic little circle jerk into their collective business model. You can almost picture it just that way: Michael Arrington, Sarah Lacy, MG Sieg ... More >>

S.F. Not the Welfare State of Conservative Nightmares, New York Times Finds

​San Francisco is a favorite punching bag of right-wing provocateurs who decry it as a West Coast bastion of European-style socialism. (Whatever that might be.) Sadly, even some of our city's local journalists buy into the pat image of San Francisco as a cautionary tale of the excesses of expansiv ... More >>

Why The Bay Citizen Can't Hack It Alone Anymore

​The Bay Citizen was funded with a $5 million gift from Warren Hellman to be an independent news organization in the Bay Area. But after two years in operation, it's being taken over by the Center for Investigative Reporting.How did this happen? Their billionaire died It turns out there actually ... More >>

Newspaper Guild Blasts Mayor Jean Quan Over Arrest of Reporters at Occupy Oakland

​Plenty of people are unhappy all around about what happened in downtown Oakland Saturday evening -- journalists included. Hundreds of police in riot gear descended on a planned Occupy Oakland rally over the weekend, which escalated into another violent scene where more than 400 people were arrest ... More >>

Michael Scott Moore, Former SF Weekly Writer, Kidnapped by Somali Pirates

​Michael Scott Moore, who previously worked as a theater critic for SF Weekly, was reportedly captured by Somali pirates over the weekend while he was traveling to central Somalia to research for his book about Somali pirates. The LA Times reports that Moore was on his way to the airport when 15 m ... More >>

Phil Bronstein Resigns from the Chronicle

​Former Chron editor Phil Bronstein confirmed today rumors that he is indeed leaving the newspaper after more than three decades with Hearst. However, Bronstein, 61, isn't leaving the news business.The 61-year-old tells us he will be taking on a larger role at the Center for Investigative Reportin ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

​Former Chron editor Phil Bronstein confirmed today rumors that he is indeed leaving the newspaper after more than three decades with Hearst. However, Bronstein, 61, isn't leaving the news business.The 61-year-old tells us he will be taking on a larger role at the Center for Investigative Reportin ... More >>

Ten Muppets You Probably Don't Know (But Should!)

The Muppets' staying power is an inspiration. What was borne from the silly idea of anthropomorphizing felt later forged a brand that has redefined the puppet industry, and greater entertainment industry, to this day. (The newest film, The Muppets, is scheduled for release Wednesday, Nov. 23.) And t ... More >>

State Launches Investigation of Bay Area Lawyers Involved in Hunger Strike Negotiations

​The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has barred two Bay Area attorneys from entering Pelican Bay State Prison as a hunger strike drags on at the facility, asserting that it is investigating them for alleged illegal activity that compromised prison security.The attorneys are ... More >>

Apple Unveils iPhone 5 iPhone 4S Today

​Unlike Apple CEO Tim Cook, we're going to cut to the chase and tell you what you really want to know from the Let's Talk iPhone event that kicked off at 10 a.m. today at Apple headquarters in Cupertino. For the tech journalists who sat through the three-hour conference, perhaps a more fitting nam ... More >>

Anonymous Makes Everyone Reporters with a DIY Press Pass

Jonno Witts via FlickrAnyone can be a reporter, really​After a half-dozen journalists were arrested during last week's BART protests because they did not have press passes, Anonymous decided to make it that much easier for just about anyone who can use the Internet to remain at the protests -- leg ... More >>

Michael Arrington's Rhetorical Jiu Jitsu

​ The defense that Michael Arrington and TechCrunch have mounted against charges that the tech-news site has violated ethical norms comes down to: "Trust me." But of course, that won't cut it. As with laws, ethics rules exist because people can't be trusted to always police themselves. Even if m ... More >>

Tech Blogger Off the Hook for iPhone Exposé

Screenshot from Jason Chen's video, April 2010​Gizmodo tech blogger Jason Chen has been let off the hook for buying and writing about an unreleased iPhone 4 prototype left in a Redwood City bar by an Apple engineer. Chen, a senior editor at Gizmodo, made headlines last April when he released photo ... More >>

"Page One": Producer Kate Novak on Getting Inside the New York Times

Screenshot from Jason Chen's video, April 2010​Gizmodo tech blogger Jason Chen has been let off the hook for buying and writing about an unreleased iPhone 4 prototype left in a Redwood City bar by an Apple engineer. Chen, a senior editor at Gizmodo, made headlines last April when he released photo ... More >>

SFPD Tries to Fire Cop for Balking at Conducting Illegal Searches

Screenshot from Jason Chen's video, April 2010​Gizmodo tech blogger Jason Chen has been let off the hook for buying and writing about an unreleased iPhone 4 prototype left in a Redwood City bar by an Apple engineer. Chen, a senior editor at Gizmodo, made headlines last April when he released photo ... More >>

No, Twitter Hasn't Replaced CNN

​It's become perfectly predictable: Every time there's a major news event, people spend several days talking about how Twitter and Facebook are replacing traditional news organizations -- the (sigh) "MSM." Even if the word "replacing" isn't used, that's often the implicationIn the present case -- ... More >>

HuffPo to Expand to San Francisco

A job is when you are paid ​So, Arianna Huffington is making plans to expand her media empire, the Huffington Post, to San Francisco. Once we learned that, we had to call the guild workers here -- you know the ones who started the "Hey Ariana, could you spare a dime," Facebook page. It's hard to n ... More >>

Bay Area Newspapers: How Much Longer Until They Are Extinct?

It's worse than you think.​So you think the Bay Area's newspapers are bad now - they are only going to get worse. A new survey shows that local newspapers will continue to strip away what little staff and resources they have left. Newspapers will get leaner, despite the fact that they have already ... More >>

News Media Continues Its Slow Decline

It's worse than you think.​So you think the Bay Area's newspapers are bad now - they are only going to get worse. A new survey shows that local newspapers will continue to strip away what little staff and resources they have left. Newspapers will get leaner, despite the fact that they have already ... More >>

Newsroom Jobs Down 49.4% in Bay Area, 36.4% in U.S.

The good ol' days ​Bay Area news jobs have shrunk by nearly half in the last decade, which is a worse showing than newsrooms overall nationwide, which declined by about one-third, according to a new federally funded report. Not that we needed a federal report commissioned to tell us that the marke ... More >>

Britain's Daily Mail Rips Off SF Weekly Cover Story

SF Weekly's U visa story, for all your churnalism needs.​Browsing our Google alerts this morning, we came across an eerily familiar story about U visas -- "The 'crime visa': How 18,000 illegal immigrants got legal status by being the victim of crime." Oh, wait: This was actually our cover article ... More >>

Bait Car Pays SFPD to Entice Drivers to Steal Cars

SF Weekly's U visa story, for all your churnalism needs.​Browsing our Google alerts this morning, we came across an eerily familiar story about U visas -- "The 'crime visa': How 18,000 illegal immigrants got legal status by being the victim of crime." Oh, wait: This was actually our cover article ... More >>

Village Voice Media Response to Ruling in California Below-Cost Pricing Suit

​For more than a century, the California Supreme Court has interpreted antitrust law as protecting consumers from high prices, not protecting the profits of entrenched market leaders who fear competition. The Supreme Court's refusal yesterday to follow Justice Joyce Kennard's wishes and hear ... More >>

The Thrill and the Agony

​For more than a century, the California Supreme Court has interpreted antitrust law as protecting consumers from high prices, not protecting the profits of entrenched market leaders who fear competition. The Supreme Court's refusal yesterday to follow Justice Joyce Kennard's wishes and hear ... More >>

The Story of 'Storify' -- Written on 'Storify'

​Web journalists today operate within a "link economy." As well as doing their own reporting, they're responsible for "curating" information published elsewhere. The goal is to be responsive and collaborative -- to join the conversation around a story -- rather than ignoring what competitors are s ... More >>

Mattel Launches News Anchor Barbie

Putting the "fox" back in Fox News.​Just when you thought certain airheads on network cable news couldn't get anymore plastic, Mattel has immortalized the entire profession with its very own Barbie. Actually she won in the inaugural global vote. While the popular vote went toward a computer engine ... More >>

NewsTilt Was An Obvious Disaster From the Beginning

Oh, the humanity...​There's been a lot of discussion today about Paul Biggar's account of the demise of NewsTilt, an online startup that aimed to save journalism by connecting journalists directly with readers. NewsTilt would provide journalists with a web framework and help them to build communit ... More >>

Representatives of the Media

Oh, the humanity...​There's been a lot of discussion today about Paul Biggar's account of the demise of NewsTilt, an online startup that aimed to save journalism by connecting journalists directly with readers. NewsTilt would provide journalists with a web framework and help them to build communit ... More >>

First Kremlin Tweet Sent from Twitter's San Francisco Headquarters

Hello everyone, I'm now on Twitter and this is my first message​The history of Twitter is strewn with specialness -- celebrity tweets, happy birthday tweets, tweets advertising that the tweeter had just taken a nice dump -- but the company today enjoyed one of its most special days ever with the d ... More >>

Caustic Scribe Hitchens Cancels West Coast Swing

A hitch in the plans​We've just received word of a metaphysical disaster: professional polemicist Christopher Hitchens has canceled a string of West Coast appearances, including one scheduled tomorrow afternoon at the Commonwealth Club.His excuse is "personal issues," and reading his books and art ... More >>

Get a Newspaper Job, No 'Complexity, Analysis or Narrative' Required

I CAN HAZ NEWSPAPER JOB​Paging David Simon: The San Diego Union-Tribune is reportedly laying off about 35 journalists from their newsroom, and replacing them with new "Jr. Staff Writers." What will these "Jr. Staff Writers" do? According to the journalismjobs.com posting: "Under supervision, will ... More >>

YouTube Explains Top Secret 'News Experiment' to Local Media, But Doesn't Really

Sometimes this new media transition thing can be so, how you say, awkward. According to SFAppeal blogger Eve Batey, Google-owned video aggregator YouTube is up to some hush hush citizen journalism project here in our very own San Francisco. Apparently part of a select group of "San Francisco blogger ... More >>

Four Bay Area Publications Win National Magazine Awards

A coveted Ellie.​Every year since 1966, the American Society of Magazine Editors and Columbia University's school of journalism have issued National Magazine Awards, more commonly known as Ellie's (the trophies look at lot like elephants). The Bay Area cleaned up this year, with four local magazin ... More >>

Apple May Lift Free Speech Limits on Pulitzer-Winning Cartoonist Mark Fiore

Less than a week after he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial cartoons -- making him the first recipient of journalism's Big Prize among online cartoonists -- Mark Fiore is getting a second shot at creating an iPad app from Apple, which had previously shunned his work because it lampoons public fig ... More >>

Disruptive Students

Less than a week after he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial cartoons -- making him the first recipient of journalism's Big Prize among online cartoonists -- Mark Fiore is getting a second shot at creating an iPad app from Apple, which had previously shunned his work because it lampoons public fig ... More >>

S.F. State student who invoked Shield Law reveals murder scene photo in national contest

Less than a week after he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial cartoons -- making him the first recipient of journalism's Big Prize among online cartoonists -- Mark Fiore is getting a second shot at creating an iPad app from Apple, which had previously shunned his work because it lampoons public fig ... More >>

Russian Ink

Less than a week after he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial cartoons -- making him the first recipient of journalism's Big Prize among online cartoonists -- Mark Fiore is getting a second shot at creating an iPad app from Apple, which had previously shunned his work because it lampoons public fig ... More >>

Students file class-action lawsuit against California Culinary Academy

Less than a week after he won the Pulitzer prize for editorial cartoons -- making him the first recipient of journalism's Big Prize among online cartoonists -- Mark Fiore is getting a second shot at creating an iPad app from Apple, which had previously shunned his work because it lampoons public fig ... More >>

Must Work for Free

By not paying their interns, some Bay Area publications may be violating the state labor code

Craig$list.com

The much-loved Web site is taking millions from Bay Area newspapers and causing layoffs that adversely affect coverage. And its founder's well-intentioned support of citizen journalism has a slim chance of fixing the problem.

Mecklin

The much-loved Web site is taking millions from Bay Area newspapers and causing layoffs that adversely affect coverage. And its founder's well-intentioned support of citizen journalism has a slim chance of fixing the problem.