Lobbying the media for more political balance

Here’s a letter I just sent to one of the journalists at the Examiner. She did a cover story that got myself and a fellow sex work rights activist on the front page last year (Solution for sex work issues in SF remains elusive), and I encouraged her (as I try to do with all the media folks I come into contact with) to get in touch any time she was working on a story involving the size, cost, scope, role, or power of government, to get a libertarian perspective. I saw she just had a story out on Proposition B passing in the recent election that could have badly used this perspective, so this is kind of following up.

This is one thing you can do as an activist. When you see a biased story, get in touch with the author and/or publisher and politely but firmly point it out, ask them to improve their coverage. It can help keep us and our ideas in their heads, and hopefully result in less statist bias in what they produce.

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))

···

Begin forwarded message:

From: Starchild realreform@earthlink.net
Subject: Your article on Proposition B
Date: November 12, 2024 at 2:12:20 AM PST
To: Natalia Gurevich ngurevich@sfexaminer.com
Cc: Starchild realreform@earthlink.net

Hi Natalia,

Please don’t forget to call me when you need a pro-freedom perspective in your stories! Your article published today on Proposition B (What $390M bond voters backed actually funds https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/politics/2024-sf-election-results-voters-strongly-back-proposition-b/article_f895f838-9fcd-11ef-959f-7bcca5f31dc6.html) is badly missing one. It includes five different quotes from supporters of the bond measure, and none from opponents:

• “Voters recognize these essential investments in our city’s infrastructure are a financially sound and smart investment that benefits everyone,” Mayor London Breed told The Examiner.

• "This will help us protect the health and well-being of every San Franciscan by improving and modernizing our hospitals and health centers and make them safe for the more than 150,000 patients who rely on us for their healthcare every year,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s director of health.

• “The passage of Proposition B helps ensure that our healthcare infrastructure is ready for you after the next earthquake, pandemic or health emergency and able to care of the day-to-day health needs of all of our communities,” Colfax said.

• “The funds Prop B will create for family homelessness, downtown improvements, Muni infrastructure and pedestrian safety will help us to continue making progress on the issues that matter most to San Franciscans,” Breed said.

• “We have a proven track record of delivering large capital projects that strengthen our world class public health system, and we are eager to begin the work of delivering these much-needed improvements to our community of patients,” Colfax said.

Besides these pro-tax-and-spend quotes, the balance of the article is mostly taken up by additional paragraphs touting how the measure promises to use the taxpayers’ money:

• San Francisco’s Proposition B https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/the-city/loma-prieta-earthquake-anniversary-on-mind-of-prop-b-backers/article_accc4d16-8cd7-11ef-84cf-673077a498bb.html carried 72.3% of the counted votes as of The City’s latest update Sunday, making it likely voters have approved a $390 million bond funding public-health facility upgrades, temporary housing and shelters, and improvements to streets and parks.

• The measure earmarked $106 million for repairs, renovations and seismic retrofitting at Zuckerberg San Francisco General and Laguna Honda hospitals; $71.1 million to seismically retrofit and renovate Chinatown Public Health Center https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/health/chinatown-public-health-center-overhaul-hinges-on-sf-prop-b/article_ff57810c-75ff-11ef-888b-738f8bb1b426.html; and another $28 million to relocate City Clinic, which provides an array of sexual-health services.

• Prop. B would set aside another $50 million to build temporary shelter or housing in an effort to reduce family homelessness https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/housing/homeless-sf-families-seek-shelter-spending-transparency/article_8de45f72-971f-11ef-b9e2-07e28cfdc090.html, which has grown across The City in recent years. San Francisco’s current waitlist for such shelter is hundreds of families long.

• Another $67 million will go toward improving and modernizing downtown spaces ($41 million), memorializing former San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk at the Castro plaza named in his honor ($25 million), and modernizing recreation centers and parks ($5 million).

Nowhere, by contrast, does it say anything about how individual San Francisco residents and families will have less money to spend on health care, education, food, and other needs as a result of having to pay higher property taxes or rents. Interviewing some people moving away from the city because they can’t afford to live here any more would have been in order, if not someone like myself to speak for those being non-consensually robbed to pay for programs administered by people at City Hall being paid 6-figure salaries along with their favored non-profit and business interests who stand to benefit from the robbery.

Love & Liberty,

((( starchild )))
Chair, Libertarian Party of San Francisco
(415) 573-7997

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