Petrelis Files

Dear Friends:

For years Wayne Friday, the political editor of San Francisco's gay weekly the Bay Area Reporter, served as one of former Mayor Willie Brown's appointees to the city's police commission. Many readers felt Friday and the BAR unfairly used their journalistic positions to influence coverage of police issues and local politicians.

In 2004, voters approved a ballot initiative that reconstituted the composition of the SF police commission, and the new mayor, Gavin Newsom, along with the Board of Supervisors, didn't reappoint Friday to the commission, bringing about much needed reform at the commission.

But all that pales in comparison to what's going with the Los Angeles gay publication Frontiers, and the fact that one of the new co-owners is the mayor of West Hollywood.

For more on this story out of Southern California, read what the BoiFromTroy blog has to say.

Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA
^^^

">Boifromtroy blog

January 10, 2005

WeHo Mayor new Frontiers Co-Owner
Category: MediaWatch

Seeking re-election in 2005? Need a way to get your message out? Why not purchase the largest local publication? That's what West Hollywood Mayor John Duran did, becoming one of 6 new co-owners of gay biweekly Frontiers Newsmagazine. In the new co-owners' opening editorial, the six announce their core values, among which are:

Integrity
All our actions will be honest, truthful, and fair. "Doing the right thing" means examining all of our decisions to create, as much as possible, winning situations for all concerned.

Diversity

We celebrate our decades of service to the LGBT community by celebrating freedoms for all people. Respecting and championing diversity is not just the right thing; it's the best for everyone.

But the "Integrity" value seems to have been violated from the get-go when the rag failed to disclose Duran's ownership status when they quote Duran extensively in this article on Governor Schwarzenegger's position on gay marriage. It is mentioned, however, in the news briefs story about the West Hollywood Council elections.

Hopefully "Diversity" will mean that Frontiers recognizes all gay voices--including those of Republicans--as their former reporter Karen Ocamb does on a regular basis.

P.S. Speaking of full disclosure, I have contributed to the re-election of Jeff Prang (and not just because he's the best looking among the candidates), and were I asked, I would endorse him.

Our Values and Our Mission [Frontiers]

Posted by boifromtroy at 02:15 PM | Comments (2) | Cosmos | Trackbacks (5)
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