Petrelis Files

BAR v SF Chron: Which Paper Quotes, Includes More PWAs?

Maybe I was being too naive, but I honestly expected San Francisco's Bay Area Reporter to give proper attention to the current needs and issues of people with AIDS when the newspaper put out its "AIDS at 25" edition. But after closely examining the latest BAR, I found just a single PWA quoted by name about anything related to delivery of services. That's right. In a city with thousands of PWAs, the leading gay paper had overwhelming difficulty finding a few to quote.

Let's go over the BAR's stories about AIDS in the city, starting with the lengthy cover article about possibly overhauling AIDS service organizations and how their deliver services, or not, to PWAs. The story starts off well enough, mentioning there are around 19,000 people living with HIV and AIDS, giving me hope some of those thousands will be featured. Two paragraphs later, we're told a "growing chorus of voices -- from the mayor and agency executives to donors and AIDS advocates -- is pushing AIDS service providers to seriously consider merging."

Hmmm, nice list of who's in that chorus, but one category of individuals is missing -- yep, actual clients of AIDS organizations, people with AIDS. And it isn't until paragraph 35 that the BAR brings in a PWA, Troy O'Leary, and quotes him by name. Before we read about O'Leary's concerns, we must first slog through thirty-five paragraphs devoted to the concerns of six or seven HIV negative politicians and bureaucrats. To the paper's credit, it also anonymously quotes a Latino PWA, after giving a small amount of space to O'Leary. Guess we know whose opinions matter more to the BAR when the story is about services for people with the disease.

The BAR has a puff piece about Mark Cloutier's first year as the new executive director of the SF AIDS Foundation and how his $170,000 annual salary may soon rise. Revenue is up to such a degree the agency has hired eight new staffers. No PWAs are quoted.

The BAR must think none of the thousands of foundation clients on the waiting list for a small housing subsidy have nothing to say about Cloutier's salary or anything else about the charity. Who is quoted about Cloutier's one-year tenure and the overall direction of the foundation? Why none other than Michael Weinstein, the director of the LA-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Sure, give Weinstein, from thousands of miles away, the opportunity to weigh in, but that shouldn't be reason to exclude voices of clients with AIDS who may have a complaint or two about how Cloutier spends his foundation's $21 million dollar budget.

As if that puffery isn't enough, the BAR also has a glowing article on the SF AIDS Foundation's week-long Life Cycle fundraising bike ride and the riders. Need I tell you no PWAs are quoted? I'm sure the foundation will be able to use this story to raise more funds.

But those two puff pieces on the SF AIDS Foundation weren't enough for the BAR this week. The op-ed column is by Cloutier of the foundation and is all about how great his organization, and its affiliate, the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, are. Of course, no PWAs are quoted by Cloutier, but he does mention his two foundations a total of fourteen times.

Why would the BAR devote two articles and the opinion column space to one group? The answer is found on page 13, where a full-page ad from the SF AIDS Foundation appears. It's long been known in San Francisco's gay and AIDS communities that if you want to guarantee positive coverage in the BAR, it really, really helps if you purchase full-page ads.

Previously, I blogged about this week's editorial, What about PWAs?, and how it doesn't include the voice of a single PWA, and it's worth mentioning again that the editorial forgot about PWAs, despite asking about them in her editorial's title.

Another article about the trials and tribulations of a different service agency, the AIDS Legal Referral Panel, is all about the executive director and what he says are the needs of his clients. No surprises here; no PWAs are quoted.

Interestingly, the headline for that article references the changing face of AIDS, but the BAR didn't run one photo this week of a person with AIDS and his or her face. The BAR's none-too-subtle message? The changing face of AIDS for BAR staffers means rendering PWAs invisible and silent.

Looking at the article on the gay sports movement and how it shines in the face of AIDS, the pattern of not quoting any PWAs continues.

What else? Well, the BAR published a round-up of events commemorating the 25th anniversary of the CDC's first report on the disease, and one of the events listed is for a candlelight vigil in the Castro. You'd never know from reading the BAR, but the vigil is being organized by two PWAs, Hank Wilson and Sister Kitty.

Speaking of long-term survivor Hank Wilson, the BAR runs a story about his work against poppers, under the headline, "Poppers war rages on the Net." A raging war? Who knew? Seems like the same debate about poppers is happening and the BAR may have been stuck for something else to write about in its "AIDS at 25" edition, and an update on Wilson's campaign on poppers was an easy article to churn out.

So how are PWAs doing on their cocktails? Are they pleased with the delivery of services? Do PWAs have any opinions regarding how service organizations spend their money? Do they feel salaries are too high and more money should be diverted to programs like rental subsidies? Is there any dissatisfaction among PWAs about medical care at SF General Hospital? Should more openly identified PWAs have top jobs at the organizations and seats on the boards of directors?

Do not look for answers to these and myriad other questions facing PWAs in the pages of the BAR. And don't think that this week's BAR and it's extensive HIV/AIDS coverage is really all that different from any other week.

And given that today's San Francisco Chronicle has a similar package of news articles, editorials, profiles and photos, the BAR's omissions stand out even more starkly.

Starting with the Chronicle's lead story, PWAs are prominently included in the coverage and pictures. Unlike the BAR, which quoted a single PWA in its cover story, the Chronicle quotes or features four in the photos! Bob Katz, Ross Woodall, DeShawn and Cynthia Bean.

Want to know how a few PWAs are surviving and thriving these days, and presently challenges to science? Read this Chron article and learn some things the BAR isn't interested in.

You can read lots more PWAs quoted and their concerns raised in the pages of the Chronicle by clicking here.

In closing, I wish to cast some shame on the BAR, a community publication, for how it largely omitted PWAs from the paper this week, while the corporate media giant, the Chronicle, managed to locate and include dozens of people living with HIV and AIDS.

It's time for the current staff at the BAR to update their Rolodex's and start putting more PWAs in their paper.