The Chron's Weird Bias

Of late, local political stories in The Chronicle have been careful to use certain terms: "far-left," "ultra-liberal" and such when describing candidates for Supervisor and the future face of San Francisco politics. Almost exclusively, in fact -- today's Erin Allday piece, in describing where the next board's political leanings will be, didn't ponder whether it would go right, center or left -- but just "how far left the next board will go."

It's completely possible that the Board could swing straight to the middle if Newsom buddies Ahsha Safai, Carmen Chu and Sean Elsbernd win in 11, 4 and 7 -- Elsbernd is a shoo-in, Chu certainly has the most visibility around the Sunset (and is Asian like most of her constituency), and for some reason Safai is strong. That would mean, with Michaela Alioto-Pier (who often votes with Elsbernd and Chu on whatever it is Gavin wants, and all three of whom feature prominently on Newsom-sponsored campaigns, like No On H), there would be four automatic pro-Newsom votes on every Board decision.

But that's never something the Chron considered -- just "how far left the next board will go."

The fine folks at BeyondChron have already written about this, right after the so-called "Far Left" took over the DCCC in August. "Progressive" has been erased from the lexcion (I can't find the link right now, will try to find it later) at the Chronicle, and replaced instead with almost doom-sayer-like ominous warnings of "the far left," "how far left," "how left of far left the ultra-liberals!"

Is this reflective of San Francisco voters? I don't know too many actual San Franciscans, not the nutjobs who comment on Chron articles to "RECALL DALY!!", who think that this board is some sort of out-of-touch ultra-liberal collection of liberals. What the fuck does that mean, anyway? All the so-called "liberal" candidates want the same things as the not-so-liberal ones: public safety, good schools, etc. etc. But it's the non-so-called liberal ones who are taking cash from landlords and building owners, and the liberal ones who aren't -- and who are talking about keeping middle-income folks like me in town. Is that the sign of being a non-far-lefty, taking developer cash? Then count me out.