San Francisco’s Quality Daily?
Flicking through the daily papers in the coffee shop yesterday, I came across what has to be the most tasteless headline I’ve seen in a while. Thankfully it was in the “Datebook” section of the S.F. Chronicle, and not on the front page proper, but even so you have to ask yourself just what kind of numpties work on the paper?
TV’s next great series is set in Iraq. And it’s on FX. Change your regime.
For those who don’t know, FX is normally the place where old sci-fi programmes go to die.
Now we all know TV is important, that’s obvious. Other real-life events are important too – in their way. For example, events like wars in the real world make wonderful metaphors for the release of a new “unpolitical” TV drama. Every time you use the TV remote to change stations doesn’t it feel like you’ve just exercised your democratic rights, only better? Oh yes.
Sadly I’m not particularly surprised by this editorial gaffe. On an average day the San Francisco Chronicle is doltishly split into nine separate little papers.
- News (national and international)
- Sporting Green
- Business
- Bay Area (local news)
- Datebook (events)
- Home& Garden
- Food
- Wine
- Classifieds
Each one is about eight pages long. Why can’t they just have two papers, one for news with international and national news at the front, business and local news in the middle, and sports on the back pages? What’s so wrong with lumping the lifestyle stuff all in together with a different emphasis each day of the week? Is wine really so important that is deserves its own little paper? By the same logic, shouldn’t there be a little “Beer” paper?
I asked a local about this once, and she thought it was a good thing. “It shows you where our priorities lie,” was her proud response. The Chronicle is one of the few things I dislike about San Francisco.
To be fair, most newspapers have much larger front pages, accompanied by much smaller secondary sections. For example, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times usually has a 20-page or so front page. The Chronicle, for some reason, isn’t among the upper echelon of American journalism. The rarified air up there tends to be shared by the NY Times, LA Times, and Guns & Ammo.
Yeah, the Chronicle isn’t really a big league paper, but many locals bafflingly act as if it is. It’s one of the cases where San Francisco tries to punch above its weight and fails. The number of people I notice reading it when they could have the NY Times is surprising.
Coffee shops are very good places for people watching.
“Coffee shops are very good places for people watching.”
You’re so right… I go there to watch you, and no one else but you.
I could quite happily people watch in Mishka’s all day. I say people watch, I’d actually just be letching at the girls. Betwen cups of coffee and games of chess of course…
What really fucks me off are the inane headlines on these things. A headline is supposed to tell you very briefly about what the story is about. Here’s one from today’s Grauniad:
“Man shot was innocent Brazilian”
Whereas Yanqui papers tend to use leftover crossword clues, usually with random commas chucked in:
“Movies, TV said to cue faking”
Fuuuuuuuuck.
And I think you should start a Beer paper. The Daily Beer? Beer Times? The Beerdian?