S.F. Chronicle's mistake of the day

June 18, 2002

Dear Friends:

The Chronicle's business section today alleges Salon's attempt to unmask Watergate's Deep Throat was a bust. The paper has a point, in that Salon did not reveal DT's identity.

But what struck me as odd, and a mistake, was that the Chronicle implied the magazine Brill's Content is still publishing, and that Steven Brill is the former editor of the magazine. Well, yes, Brill is the former editor of the magazine, but the publication is now defunct. Kaput. Out-of-business. Brill's Content, like the dot.com miracle, evaporated last year, a fact that seems to have escaped the attention of the Chronicle's editors.

The Chronicle owes its readers an apology. And the paper's media watcher should know better than to give the false impression that a magazine which was dedicated to watching the media industry is still in business.

And compounding this mistake is the fact that Jim Romanesko's MediaNews web site, http://www.poynter.org/medianews/index.cfm, promotes the Chronicle story with a link to their story, but Romanesko fails to mention the demise of Brill's Content and the Chronicle implying the magazine still exists.

Who's watching the media watchers at the Chronicle and Romanesko's web site? Certainly, not Brill's Content.

Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA


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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/ar...189628.DTL

June 18, 2002

Salon's scoop something of a letdown

Dan Fost, Chronicle Staff Writer


[snip]
But instead of Dean actually unmasking the man who revealed the criminal inner workings of the Nixon presidency to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, he instead names four suspects -- a disappointing retreat.

"Obviously, it's a big bust," said Steven Brill, former publisher of Brill's Content, a magazine for media-watchers. "I guess that's what happens when you get in bed with a Nixon guy."

[snip]