A ChronWatch reader recently asked why we no longer critique the Chronicle. Here’s the story.
ChronWatch was formed almost ten years ago to critique the S.F. Chronicle, hence the name of the website . At that time, readers did not expect the flagrant media bias that exists today. News content was assumed to be reported without bias with opinions restricted to the editorial pages. The Chronicle was among the first newspapers to ignore these traditional media rules as it adopted an unfailing and unapologetic liberal bias.
Naively, ChronWatch hoped its critiques would influence the Chronicle to adopt a more balanced political tone.
At the same time, the quality of the Chron offerings deteriorated markedly. Predictably, circulation dropped. That downward trend continues today with Chron circulation down over 11% in the past year.
Several years ago, ChronWatch finally realized it no longer made sense to continue to critique the Chron. The bias was still there, even more so. But, the newspaper’s quality and substance deteriorated so badly critique no longer seemed appropriate. In fact, the offerings were so poor that ChronWatch editors began to feel sorry for the Chron. Accordingly, we stopped our critique. With some remorse I canceled my Chron subscription after some thirty years of daily delivery to my home.
The S.F. Chronicle is a sad tale of institutional decline. The Chron was once a proud media establishment that now struggles in its pretense at relevance.
