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The Business of Ballot Booklet BrokeringCampaigner and ex-City Hall aide David Noyola in an insider with election impact
Sidebar: Well connected Like many who work in San Francisco City Hall, David Noyola last month was answering two phones, a land line for his official duties, and an iPhone to talk politics. Noyola has since left his position as a legislative aide for Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, and for election 2008 has put his specialized knowledge to use as a professional campaigner. His work in these two capacities illustrates how insiders can have sizable impacts on local elections. In Noyola's case, his influence is currently most visible in the city's voter information guide -- the thick booklet published before each election that lists all the candidates and initiatives, as well as the official and paid arguments in support or opposition.
San Francisco Voter Propositions for Nov. '08
By Greg M. Schwartz, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press From A to V, a complete overview of the 22 propositions that San Francisco voters will consider on Nov. 4 -- from public power and Junior ROTC to waterfront redevelopment and legalizing prostitution.
Invasion of the Policy Pushers
Interest Groups Spin SF Ballot ArgumentsBy Matthew Hirsch, Newsdesk.org/The Public Press First in a series fact-checking 2008 election advertisements in San Francisco | Sidebar: Swaying Voters at $2 a Word: Inside the Ballot Booklet | Interview on KALW-FM's "Crosscurrents," 9/9/08:
For the November 4 election, San Francisco's voter-information booklet will be packed with dozens of paid arguments around hot-button topics such as housing and public power. Many of these ballot ads are signed by community and small-business leaders and appear to reflect widespread participation in the public debate. Yet the people who sign the paid arguments don't always pay for or submit the ads themselves. San Francisco legislators changed the election rules in 1997 so voters could find out who was footing the bills. But most voters don't know that paid arguments are often bundled by professional campaign consultants whose aim is to manufacture a showing of broad support for certain ballot issues, and who sometimes have their own, undisclosed interests.
We did it!!! SF election fact-checking!!!
David Cohn here from Spot.us. I am beside myself and ecstatic to let you know that we have successfully fundraised $2,500 that will be used to hire reporters who will fact-check the political advertisements for the upcoming SF election. WE DID IT!!!! House cleaning: The content produced will most likely run at Newsdesk.org, Public-Press.org and blog.spot.us.
Ad slump batters papers, againOur colleague Tom Murphy, over at RedwoodAge.com, picked up an AP story the other day: "Soft economy speeds newspaper decline, job cuts." McClatchy, owner of the Bees in California, is among the chains leading the cutbacks, with the Sacramento Bee offering buyouts to a majority of its full-time employees. While it's true that, as the AP points out, "Newspaper executives are cutting operating costs even further because advertising revenue has fallen faster than anyone anticipated," there's another element in the mix: Most of these major cutbacks are coming from large newspaper chains, which have borrowed billions from private and public equity markets to finance recent newspaper conglomerations that they claimed would help put the industry back on firm financial footing.
SF pioneers journalism 'crowdfunding' model
As of Aug. 24 we have raised 89 percent of the $2,500 goal, courtesy of David Cohn's experimental "crowdfunding" tool, Spot.us. We're already working with two reporters who have started researching ballot initiatives and candidacies on the Nov. 4 election in San Francisco. The goal is to scrutinize claims from all sides of these political contests, research where the money is coming from and hold the partisans to account. We need 12 more people to donate $25 each to make the project happen. An article in the New York Times Week in Review section this morning that highlighted the project will no doubt help. If you haven't given to the project, please do! The collaboration with Spot.us is only a piece of the funding puzzle for a startup news organization. Please also consider giving directly to the Public Press (select us from the project dropdown list under "Please direct my contribution to"). Your donation is 100 percent tax-deductible.
Who's a journalist anyway?
There are many reasons why we still need print journalismWhere else will people find the solid reporting on events near and far that no other outlet creates? By Leigh Donaldson
Consolidation woesTwo interesting postings from journalists, expressing outrage at the destructive effects of corporate consolidation in the newspaper industry:
The Public Press' bid for tech-innovation grant goes public
This year the foundation opened up what it's calling the "garage," a Web space where applicants, thinkers, critics and dreamers can post preliminary ideas and debate them in public. Check out our page and leave some comments for the Public Press project and others.
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Newsdesk.org"Crosscurrents" on KALW RadioNew America Media |
By Matthew Hirsch, 
Dear friends,
San Francisco free-speech poster child Josh Wolf, who was alternately defended and attacked as an "anarchist and activist" for refusing to disgorge to the authorities his video of a protest -- and paid the price by serving 226 days in federal prison in 2006 -- 
Recently, the American Society of Newspaper Editors reported that about 2,400 full-time newspaper-related jobs were lost in 2007, considered the largest annual drop in 30 years. You don't have to be in the journalism business to see this as a troubling trend.
