New Report Slams Chronicle’s Coverage of Development Issues

While the study’s conclusions do not come as a surprise, its statistical analysis of Chronicle news stories shows that the paper’s promotion of corporate solutions to urban problems transcends the editorial page, and is more endemic than many might suspect.

The San Francisco Chronicle’s pro-gentrification agenda is certainly not news. But in its newly issued report, Displacing the Dream, the Youth Media Council (YMC) shows that the paper’s framing of news stories is even worse, and more pernicious, than many realize.

During its three-month study, the YMC report found that Chronicle stories about problems in the housing market (foreclosures and the housing “bubble”) exceeded stories on displacement, homelessness and school closures by more than 3-1.

And what is particularly noteworthy about this finding is that according to the October 27 Chronicle, there have relatively few foreclosures in San Francisco while the vast majority of the region’s problems are in Contra Costa County.

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