From the annals of our last remaining daily print newspaper:
SF Chronicle Editorial Page Editor John Diaz has been crusading against “dark money” for some time now, and that’s a great thing for a newspaper to take on. Dark money corrupts elections; it’s a nonpartisan issue (although more dark money goes to Republicans than Democrats), and it’s all about public disclosure.
So good for Diaz. His latest ran Sunday.
But I am curious: Why did Diaz and the Chron’s editorial page completely ignored the dark money issues in the San Francisco mayor’s race?
It’s no secret what happened. Plutocrat Ron Conway urged his big-money pals to put money into independent-expenditure campaigns supporting London Breed. One of Conway’s tips: Use state, not local, superPACs so the money wouldn’t be disclosed until just before – or in some cases, not until after – the June 5 election.
So dark money flooded into the election. Millions of dollars of it. And Diaz, who strongly backed Breed, said nothing.
I emailed him to ask about this apparent contradiction – dark money is a big issue for the Chron everywhere but in its own hometown – but he hasn’t responded.
I also asked him about the Chron’s ties to Conway. We know that Conway is one the judges in the Chron’s Visionary of the Year Awards (his picture is right next to that of Diaz).
We know that Conway and outgoing Chron Publisher Jeffrey Johnson, who is now the president of Hearst Newspapers, served together on the board of the Bay Area Council.
We know that Johnson came to the Chron from a job at a private investment firm run by Ron Burkle, and that Burkle and Conway both work with Ashton Kucher.
So at least we know that Conway and the publisher of the Chron run in the same circles.
Does Conway fund the lavish “Visionary” dinner every year? What other ties does he have to the Chron?
We know this: Diaz has declined so far to answer those questions.
And while the paper is cozying up to the Ron Conways of the world, Diaz’s editorial page is making a big fuss about the fact that one DMV worker last year got caught taking naps on the job and a firefighter set up a tiki bar behind his house.
When I read the story and editorial on this, all I could think of was: That’s it? That’s the extent of corruption in California? Out of 132,047 state employees, an audit caught exactly one person napping?
And this is big news?
Seems to me the big news is that 132,046 state workers were not napping on the job. That’s a pretty good record. By my math, 99.999243 percent of state workers were awake and doing their jobs, based on this audit. I can’t imagine a private-sector company with that good a record.
I don’t think a fire official should build a tiki bar at a house owned by the public, but there are worse things that happen. A lot worse.
There are also hundreds of corporate loopholes and tax breaks in California that cost the state tens of thousands of times as much money as the poor soul napping at the DMV. That never seems to make the news, certainly not the Chron, which was a major cheerleader for the Twitter tax break.
You get the point.
Research assistance by Rosh Edwards
