just in time for the final month before the elections, Randy Shaw’s BeyondChron and the Bay Guardian are going at it
from today’s Bay Guardian referring to yesterdays article by Randy Shaw, where I must admit that Randy Shaw did not specifically say “I endorse Jane Kim”, because that, of course, would have been illegal since Beyondchron is paid for with city funds. Also, this article in the Bay Guardian from years ago explains well why there is a split now, because Walker was head of the DBI board for years. Walker also had the gonads to go into Randy Shaw’s own offices and protest health cuts by Shaw
Yet while Beyond Chron ran my letter to the editor today (along with an editor’s note that tried to undercut it), Shaw and Hogarth have, for reasons I don’t understand and they won’t explain, refused to correct the article, which is continuing to spread this defamatory misinformation, causing their readers to print comments such as “I can’t believe Jane was told to go run in a different district because she is Asian!!!†and “racism has reared its ugly head.â€
But wait, there’s more, also from today, Get a Clue, Randy Shaw, but that’s nothing until you get to the comments
I read BeyondChron every day, and Randy Shaw, who operates the site, and Paul Hogarth, his managing editor, often have interesting commentary. But I’m constantly annoyed by people who run what by any stretch is a journalistic operation, but don’t follow the basic rules of (even alternative, activist) journalism: When you’re going to say something nasty about somebody, you call that person for comment.
and a third article today, helps explain the split
But please, folks: The real issue here is Theresa Sparks — and the possibility that we’ll lose D6 to a downtown candidate. And there are only two people in the race capable of beating Sparks, and they’re Walker and Kim. I’ve been wrong before, but I don’t think I’m wrong here — this is a three-person race at this point. And two of those people are qualified progressives.
and again the comments get better
I disagree that the main issue here is Theresa Sparks.
There’s a huge reason to neither endorse, nor vote for, Jane Kim — apart from the carpetbagging charge:
Randy Shaw and the Tenderloin Housing Clinic.
We don’t air our dirty laundry in front of the Moderates, but many of us Progressives are tired of the corrosive effects of the homeless industry, apart from the genuine plight of the homeless. One can be against corporate cash and still resent the fact that our tax dollars go to a poverty pimp who’s illegally using his non-profit SROs as an electoral base. And it’s especially important if you’re a prog who lives in D6. Shaw is Kim’s #1 backer. The THC, and its mouthpiece, Beyond Chron, don’t need MORE influence on the Board of Supervisors, they need less. So in that way Debra Walker’s a godsend. She’s got all the right enemies.
I’d hate to have to choose between a Randy Shaw-backed candidate like Jane Kim and a Downtown stooge like Theresa Sparks. I hope Walker kicks ass this November because she’s certainly taken some names.
bonus!
The more progressives fight within themselves, the more it becomes about the candidates and their friends instead of the district, the easier of a time that Sparks will have of it.
Whether or not it is “Debra’s turn,” a concept which I reject, Shaw sought out another candidate because of his personal animus with Walker, not because of any substantive political differences, not because he was outraged about Debra’s perceived inevitability. Everyone gets to run for office if they so choose, but recipients of city contracts, especially non residents of San Francisco, should not be in the business of picking and choosing supervisors and using tax subsidy to editorialize to that effect.
No, Randy Shaw is not pure evil. But he is corrupting activism and politics in the TL and the rest of D6. Whatever progressive politics he is able to advance are checked and rolled back by the the conflicts inherent in taking public contracts. Tax dollars going to a service providers funding advocacy journalism is corrupt. That corruption needs to stop. Perhaps if Walker is elected it will and that is what scares Shaw.
After Randy has his “come to Jesus” moment, perhaps he can go on to do whatever good work he does at a rate of pay commensurate with the community he works in.
-marc
this race for San Francisco district 6 supervisor is heatin up!
