The San Francisco Chronicle, said by industry insiders to be losing tens of millions of dollars a year for its parent Hearst Corp. despite being a big city monopoly rag, has outdone itself yet again, in relegating obvious facts to journalistic oblivion. United Way of the Bay Area, a pillar of the local Establishment, has reported that donations have once more plummeted from earlier year levels, down 13% this year, and 40% in the last five.

There are several explanations enumerated for this charitable catastrophe: the local economy is still recovering from the bursting of the tech bubble, jobs are down, and a local UW—founded donation—processing outfit, PipeVine, collapsed amid scandal last year. Despite these general factors, some other charities in the Bay Area have reported their donations up this year.

But another major factor, negatively affecting United Way donations locally and across America, is completely ignored in the Chron's coverage, reported by Todd Wallack. That factor is the United Way's elimination of support for the Boy Scouts, due to the Scouts' refusal to change its rule against homosexual scoutmasters. In San Francisco, taking a stand against complete and absolute normalization of homosexuality is considered a hate crime by members of the journalistic profession.

But, in the Bay Area as elsewhere, thousands of former United Way donors have instead directed their donations to the Boy Scouts, and boycotted the bullying homophiles of the charitable Establishmentarians. The local ratings—dominant talk show host, Bay—based, but nationally—syndicated Michael Savage, has made the cause of the Boy Scouts versus the United Way one his recurring themes for years. There is no shortage of local people who have cut off the United Way over this issue.

But on Planet Chronicle, the issue doesn't exist. Despite the fact that national media and the Chron itself have devoted tremendous attention to the spat between the Boy Scouts and the United Waysters, the ongoing boycott of the United Way is relegated to the Memory Hole. Facts inconvenient to the agenda of the Chronicle simply don't make it into print.

This is shameful behavior for a news organization. But it is par for the course for a propaganda organ. The facts speak for themselves. No wonder the Chronicle is the rarest of beasts: a red—ink monopoly paper.

Posted by Thomas   01 27 04