Newspaper Trial Injures Public Trust
By Bob Egelko/AP

The first week in the trial over Hearst Corp.’s attempt to buy the rival San Francisco Chronicle left its own newspaper tarnished, its publisher deposed, and the fate of journalism in the city murkier than ever.

Hearst’s San Francisco Examiner, already beset by declining fortunes and persistent rumors of collapse, was hit again when editor and publisher Timothy White testified that he offered Mayor Willie Brown favorable editorial coverage last year in exchange for support of the Chronicle sale.

Brown denied the quid pro quo, saying the Examiner has been relentlessly hostile toward him despite its endorsement of his re-election last fall.

But Hearst suspended White indefinitely and promised an independent investigation.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker rejected Hearst’s argument that White’s testimony was irrelevant to the case, but acknowledged last Friday that he hadn’t yet determined its legal weight in the case, which stems from former mayoral candidate Clint Reilly’s request for an injunction to halt the $660 million sale.

Under the proposed deal, Hearst would take over the Chronicle, the city’s dominant paper, and sell the Examiner.

Reilly, an unsuccessful bidder for the Examiner, contends Hearst’s agreement to give its flagship newspaper to publisher Ted Fang, along with a $66 million subsidy over three years, is designed to let the paper fail quickly and leave the city with a single newspaper.

The Justice Department found no antitrust violations in the sale and approved the dissolution of the joint operating agreement under which the Chronicle and Examiner have been published since 1965. The agreement, which combines business operations but keeps editorial staffs separate, was scheduled to run through 2005.

But Walker stunned the publishers by issuing a restraining order against the Chronicle sale March 30, a day before it was to be completed. He said the purpose of the federal law that authorized the joint operating agreement—to keep foundering newspapers afloat—would not be served if the transactions that ended it were designed to let only one paper survive.

After White’s testimony, the staffs of both the Examiner and Chronicle circulated petitions denouncing the trading of coverage for political favors, columnists admonished and talk show hosts chortled. And the reputation of the news business took another hit, said Ben Bagdikian, a longtime media analyst and retired journalism dean at the University of California at Berkeley.

“Surveys of public attitudes over the last 15 years have shown increasing cynicism toward the news media, and here’s another blow coming out of the courtroom,” he said. “The sad part is, I think Mr. White is the fall guy.”