Hippie clinic turned cash cow?

It was a narrative the media could wrap its collective head around: David Smith, the idealistic founder of the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, a network of health care facilities for the disenfranchised, was angry. He claimed the world-renowned alt-institution he'd created in 1967 had gone corporate, fattening executives' salaries while skimping on the care given to patients. As a result, Smith — a doctor who'd started the clinics in a rented apartment with a loan of 600 bucks — was resigning.

Throughout the month of March, media outlets — including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Associated Press, Fox News, and Fox affiliate KTVU, channel 2 — dutifully regurgitated Smith's spiel.

It was an easily digestible story. The truth, however, is uglier, murkier, more complicated, and far more interesting.

Read More
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=208