This is an archived version of a Field of Schemes article. Comments on this page are closed. To find the current version of the article with updated comments, click here.
July 13, 2009
SF Chron: 49ers are leaving! We're doomed, dooooomed!
Either it was a really slow news weekend or somebody at Mayor Gavin Newsom's office has been lobbying the San Francisco Chronicle hard, because the paper has been packed the last 24 hours with stories bemoaning the possibility that the San Francisco 49ers will relocate to a new stadium 40 miles south in Santa Clara. This would be, according to the Chron: a shame when Jack Davis is still around to run a stadium campaign, "the end of a 63-year tradition" that helped provide "a rallying point for a city racked by the Jonestown massacre, the assassinations of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone and later the AIDS epidemic" and bad for disabled fans who only watch the games on TV anyway. For good measure, the Chronicle gave space to two elected officials who think football stadiums are just keen, one 49ers exec, and one 49ers exec turned pro-stadium pol.
I'd call this a sad sign of the state of modern journalism, but it's not like it was ever really all that much better.
At least it's providing a bit of balance to the San Jose Mercury News' coverage which too often reads as though it was written by the 49ers' PR department.
Posted by Santa Clara resident on July 13, 2009 11:24 PM
And we wonder why the newspaper medium is going out of business left and right. If they're not failing to report newsworthy stories or trying to pass off thinly-veiled editorials as regular news articles, there's always someone for whom to shill. And the SF Chron is, sadly, probably still one of the better newspapers still going, even with something like this.
Posted by Thom on July 14, 2009 04:48 AM
In Chicago we have the Tribune and Sun Times often cheerleading for the 2016 Chicago Olympics bid. Oh, they periodically have columnists questionning the costs associated with the Olympic bid, but more often then not, the Trib & Sun Times have not been objective in their analysis of what many Chicagoans believe is a Boondoggle.
At least we have the "alternative" weekly, Chicago Reader, which has offered some terrific articles questionning the secret meetings and smoke and mirrors shows that Mayor Daley and 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan have been putting on to the citizens of Chicago & the media about "the taxpayers not having to pay a dime for a 2016 Chicago Olympics."
Suppose at least there's a balance. The Mercury News is the cheerleaders/49ers' PR mouthpiece. The Chronicle is San Francisco's mouthpiece in the south bay stadium affair.
Posted by Dan on July 14, 2009 01:57 PM
All of the sports reporters are overlooking the financial details, especially the 330 million in bonds and the risk that comes with those bonds, to Santa Clara. As my spouse says, the sports reporters will be just as happy to report on Santa Clara's bankruptcy resulting from the stadium debt as they are on the stadium construction etc.
Posted by Chris on July 15, 2009 12:41 PM
Phooey. Where the hell is Ed Koch to bully the Niners into not calling themselves San Francisco anymore when you really need him?
Posted by Marty on July 16, 2009 03:00 PM