The Examiner changes hands

Good to see that the Examiner has new ownership. We'll no longer have to wade through the canned right-wing stuff---Obama the socialist!---to get to the only material of interest under the previous regime---the letters to the editor, and the local coverage.

Which makes the news from SF Weekly about impending layoffs worrisome. One hopes that Will Reisman will be retained, not because he shares my views but because his steady work on the local transportation beat has been consistently useful (Rachel Gordon is his counterpart on the Chronicle). And columnist Ken Garcia too is essential reading.

But this pronouncement by the new publisher is also worrisome:

...[Todd Vogt] has asked the editorial team to write local columns that mirror the intensely liberal readership in San Francisco. "I told them that every day the paper has to reflect the readers," Vogt said. "We will not be a political stump for anyone or any cause, but I never understood, from a business standpoint, why it made sense to run five days in a row anti-Obamacare [editorials], whether the readers in San Francisco support the president or don't---it didn't make sense."

The last thing San Francisco needs is another media outlet pandering to the elevated self-esteem of our narcissistic city---the City That Knows How! City residents---especially its political class---need to be regularly told that they are full of shit and not as smart and cute as they seem to think they are. 

For openers the Examiner should revise its style book and stop calling our city "The City" in its copy.