Chronicle stands tall, more or less: "Alternative" media MIA

As I pointed out a year ago, San Francisco's so-called alternative media is often more timid than the mainstream media they despise. Though the SF Chronicle didn't reproduce the 12 Danish cartoons that led to riots by fanatical Muslims all over the world, it at least published an editorial against this campaign to intimidate the Western media. The Islamic bullyboys were particularly successful here in Progressive Land, since the SF Bay Guardian, the SF Weekly, BeyondChron, Left in SF, The Sentinel, and other local "alternative" news and commentary outlets were silent, as was the SF Examiner.

Last week the Chronicle again demonstrated its moral and intellectual superiority to its competitors by publishing a follow-up article on how mainstream newspapers have censored cartoons submitted for publication on that and other issues. To see examples of cartoons censored by mainstream newspapers in the US, click on the images here.

Guardian and SF Weekly sell cigarettes to little girls

SF Bay Guardian Publisher Bruce Brugmann likes to think his paper is superior to the corporation-owned SF Weekly---and vice versa, no doubt. But they evidently agree on one thing: taking advertising money from R.J. Reynolds for Camel No. 9, the new pink-packaged cigarette Reynolds is marketing to girls and young women:

At a Senate hearing last month, Ohio Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown held up a Camel No. 9 ad that was mailed to smokers' homes. "It strains the imagination to think this campaign is aimed at anybody other than 15, 16, 17-year-old girls — something that's pretty morally repugnant," Brown said.

Pick up the current issue of either the Guardian or SF Weekly, and out pops a 7x9 card that replicates the look of the new Camel No. 9 cigarette pack.