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What's everyone got against the San Francisco Sentinel these days, anyways? It's got beautiful photography, keeps an ear firmly planted on the ground of City Hall, and runs a fairly-entertaining gossip column to boot! Well, sure, there was that H. Brown controversy, but that was resolved with H's summary axing from the site, right?
Well, not quite. So all in this week, editors Pat Murphy and Luke Thomas are besieged on all sides. So SF political newssite Usual Suspects dropped the Sentinel from its blogroll this week. No reason was given, but Murphy's weekly gossip column seems to imply (if you can get through the obscurantist prose) that Alex Clemens said the Sentinel runs articles based on advertiser preference and doesn't get balancing quotes from all sides before running stories. But SFist is on the Suspects blogroll too and we don't get quotes from even one side before we run anything! What gives? Do we need to start reporting now or something too?
On the left flank, Supervisor Chris Daly revives his smoldering feud with Murphy and reports that he's gotten a letter from the City Attorney that he believes makes clear that the Sentinel should be considered a political committee, required to disclose its donors to the ethics commission. And Supervisor Aaron Peskin wrote a letter to the Sentinel (scroll down) accusing it of being a Gavin Newsom love machine, to which the Sentinel accused Peskin of just being sore that the Sentinel broke the news of a secret Supervisor powwow he didn't want out.
So what's going on? Is this some kind of H. Brown-related fallout? An upsurge in anti-Newsom sentiment? An increased call for media accountability for the holiday season? Or did we just lose our copy of the memo announcing that it's Everyone Hates Pat month?
Update: Usual Suspects posts a clarification for its dropping the Sentinel today (Thursday), explaining that they did it because of "the increasing lack of civility and decorum" on the site. Well, it certainly is true that the Sentinel does get a little snippy at times.
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What's happening here is San Francisco's so-called "progressives" on the Board of Supervisors are playing shameless flat-out Bush Administration style "EITHER YOUR WITH US OR YOUR AGAINST US!" politics.
An independant guy running a one man show (The Sentinel) has to watch his back now because he dares to speak his mind or not walk in lock step with the progressive Powers That Be. Shameful and hypocritical.
Well, even if there were some "progressive" plot to attack Pat, it would not explain the Usual Suspects thing. Alex is a lot of things, but a "progressive Power" he is not.
Oh, and strictly speaking, the Sentinel is now a two-man show.
Adolf Daly and pompous Clemens are bosom buddies. When the Sentinel opined about Clemens, Clemens removed the Sentinel from the arrogant emperor's web-site. The very next day, and hatched under the cloak of darkness, What the Fuck Were You Thinking award winner Adolf Daly, repeated his attack on the Sentinel, on the City's web-site using public resources to bloviate like buffoon.
The progressives have tried everything to unseat Murphy. h. brown was a backfired trojan horse resulting in progressives being labled as "anti-semitic". What a bunch of yahoos!
Glass jaw Clemens is sending out emails asking for negative information on Murphy "to impugn his integrity."
One thing that is becoming clear, Daly is Clemens' Rincon Hill bitch!
That's how I roll.
Clemens note on his web site leaves one glaring omission: that Clemens cussed out the Sentinel's Luke Thomas.
(link:http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/sentinelopinion/pat_murphy_believe_it_or_what.shtml).
Now is that decorum and civility, Clemens? I think not, and it shows what a hypocrite you really are.
Truth be known, Clemens is an egotistical maniac and everyone knows it.
hey, hey, hey -- let's try and keep it civil, please. We're happy to host a conversation about whether Usual Suspects was right to do what they did, but please refrain from the anonymous personal attacks, if you wouldn't mind. Thanks very much -- we appreciate it.
Clemens + Daly = $$$$ for both...
Murphy attacks Daly...
Clemens afaid $$$$ go bye-bye...
Clemens must protect investment...
*AND*
Raving anti-Semite h Brown close buddies with Daly and Clemens...
Murphy fires h...
Buddies must think what h said is okay- way miffed h is canned...
As usual (suspects), lobbyists run show, screw us all. Censorship rules!!!!
Editors' note: As we pointed out earlier this week, we've noticed that some (but not all) of the commenters for this post have identical or almost-identical IP addresses, which leads us to the conclusion that someone may be stuffing the comment box.
Also, after some discussion, we've decided not to close down the comments on this post. We're not taking sides on the issue, and we encourage debate. But everyone on both sides, no hate speech and (please note this) no libel in the future, please.
Thanks much.