The San Francisco Chronicle!

First Winner of the Presidential Finger Award^®

What could be a more appropriate recipient of our very first award than a corporate newspaper that has gone absolutely nutty over a story of a finger-in-the-chili?  The story, that really had no real relevance to people's lives, was the subject of dozens of stories in the Chronicle.  The Chronicle likes fingers, we will give them The Finger.  This obsession was preceded by a blizzard of stories about a runaway bride.  There is a pattern here.  These stories about hapless individuals who do strange things will never cause people to question the status quo, or even be informed about it in a meaningful way. 

It was a natural choice, and a long time coming.  By so often ignoring the real issues and instead filling its paper with fluff, by its racist portrayal of conflicts that involve the United States in the Middle East and elsewhere, it is working to advance an agenda of racism, militarism, and economic injustice.

Now for some of the specific examples that make this award for the Chronicle so deserving.  This list is not at all comprehensive.  We could easily add so much more.  More importantly, due to the work of a few honest reporters, we could also list a few exceptions as to why the Chronicle does not deserve this uncoveted award. Sometimes one can find quality in the most surprising of places.  But those would be exceptions, and it does not take way the overall excellence of a newspaper to preserving the unjust status quo. 

1.  For its non-coverage of the Downing Street Memo, which clearly documents the deception of President Bush et. al.    Despite this being a front page story all over Europe, the Chronicle has only seen fit to run one story on the item, and that copied from the Washington Post. 

Update: Because of your persistence and communication with the Chronicle, there was an editorial about the Downing Street Memo!  See this  Unfortunately, the overall story is still under-reported, and the other problems remain.  Still, you do make a difference! 

Update 2: The Chronicle runs an editorial, and reprints the contents of the Downing Street Memo in its print edition.

2. For its obsessive coverage of non-events, such as the woman who allegedly put the finger in the chili.  For some reason,  Anna Ayala's possible deception is of greater import to the editors of the Chronicle than the deceptions of George W. Bush.  It should be remembered, however, that the Bush's deceptions directly caused thousands of people, to lose not only fingers but hands, faces, arms, legs, and lives in the slaughterhouse of Iraq.  And that the bombs the U.S. drops in Iraq are exploding also in West Oakland, Hunter's Point, and the Mission with its diversion of our nation's wealth. 

3. For its biased coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.  It has been clearly documented that the San Francisco Chronicle has not given equal weight to the tragedy of deaths in the conflict, that it treats the civilian deaths of Israeli children with far greater emphasis than that of Palestinian children, for example. [See If Americans Knew for documentation]  When there are no Israeli deaths from attacks, it insists on calling this a "period of relative calm", despite the great violence being perpetuated continually by the U.S.-supported Israeli military upon Palestinians civilians during that time.

And for these and so many other instances, this finger's for you, Phil Bronstein, Editor and Executive Vice President of the San Francisco Chronicle!

It is an honor to dishonor such a undistinguished example of journalism that excels in the service of militarism, racism, and economic injustice.  Please click on the photo of President Bush above (in an episode filmed when he was Governor of Texas) to see the full presentation.  [Requires QuickTime Player]

Be sure to share your thoughts with the Chronicle, and demand that they serve people, not racism, not militarism.  Go Here. 

Judith Miller, New York Times Propagandist

 Winner of the Presidential Finger Award^®

Let Her Eat Yellow Cake!

Again we honor the media, in the person of Judith Miller, a "reporter" for The New York Times, America's "newspaper of record".  As you know, she now sits behind bars for her part in refusing to divulge what she knows about the Valerie Plame affair, the wife of diplomat Joseph Wilson who was outted as a CIA agent in retaliation for Wilson's exposing the lie of Saddam buying Yellow Cake (ingredient of the Bomb) from Nigeria.  While it is important for media to protect its sources when they are working with whistleblowers, it is very different to further the criminal agenda of a government official. 

As the media watchdog FAIR states:

The alleged crime was the act of revealing protected information to journalists in order to harm the government's enemies. Given that the alleged criminal acts apparently involved oral conversations between government officials and journalists, it is likely that no evidence of these purported acts would exist except for the journalists' potential testimony.

Unless one believes that the government ought to be able to surreptitiously use its enormous information-gathering powers to attack opponents with impunity, investigators must have the ability to ask journalists for their sources in such cases, and to compel them if necessary.

By no stretch of the imagination can one consider Judith Miller an honest reporter, just doing her job.  While there is plenty of responsibility to go around, Miller was instrumental in planting false and misleading stories in the New York Times that misled the American people regarding the "threat" from Saddam.  Not that her editors cared much, as they likely have similar world views.  The editors did eventually admit that some reporting on the fake threat was problematic, they never disciplined Miller.  It was astounding that the editors fired a reporter who filed a story that said he was at a crime scene when he was not (remember Jayson Blair?).  Then a reporter that is in no small war  responsible for getting the nation into a war based partly on her sensationalist and knowingly false reporting is not even mention in the retraction. 

See Counterpunch article here.  From August 2003

Better, see the story from the Daily Kos.

And a great piece by Greg Palast here

Judith Miller, the "Presidential Finger" is for you.