Media Analysis Exposing the Holes in Reporting
Support for the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao has been strong in media presence, but is it strong among Oakland voters?
Since the FBI raid on her home, support has been questionably quiet. At the same time, there has been a constant stream of reporting on the FBI’s interest in her home, involving numerous political and business actors.
Meanwhile, the Sheng Thao recall organizers have been pivoting the narrative against her despite the non-profit that backs them, Neighbors Together, receiving a cease operations due to campaign violations by the California Attorney General. Recently, 4Kron reported that the recall committee was under investigation by Oakland’s public ethics commission without including this information.
Suppose you Google search for the Neighbors Together Oakland investigation. In that case, you will find that Oaklandside.org is the only news source reporting on the California Attorney General’s demands for the non-profit to cease operations.
Do a Google search for Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and FBI, and you will find it has been reported numerous times by every local news outlet and featured on Fox News and The Washington Post.
The recall organizers argue for Thao’s accountability while refusing to disclose their donors, leaving many in Oakland to wonder what outside influences are manipulating the narrative around crime and Oakland’s “doom loop.”
The mayor has only been in office for two years and has barely had a chance to implement any policy for the public to establish a strong opinion of her record. So far, her record will be one of fighting off an FBI investigation and an expensive recall paid for by Oakland taxpayers based mainly on rising crime in the previous administration.
This analysis does not support Thao but reviews the different media sources reporting on the mayor, the recall efforts, and the surrounding stories connected to the recall.
4kron Reports Investigation of Mayor Thao Recall Committee Leaving Important Information Out of Report
Thursday, July 25, 2024
For the recall of Mayor Sheng Thao, 4Kron news reported a news broadcast titled, “Mayor Thao recall committee under investigation for campaign law violations.” Oakland’s public ethics commission is investigating the Thao Recall Committee and the groups behind it to see if they violate campaign laws. The president of the Thao Recall Committee claimed, “The Public Ethics Commission is being weaponized to come after the mayor as enemies. While they have let the mayor get a free pass with all of the political corruption.”
Meanwhile, the political analyst for 4Kron claims there is not enough information for this investigation to worry about. The report neglected to include an Oaklandside article that reported that the nonprofit for the Thao Recall is being told to cease operations due to campaign violations by the California Attorney General.
Key claims and story framing: Pay attention to Brenda Harbin-Forte, president of the Thao Recall Committee, who is framing the story and her claims. She is well-versed in a well-crafted and prepared statement, which means PR briefed her for this news interview.
According to his LinkedIn, Seneca Scott, who works with her on the recall, previously owned a PR Strategy/ Consulting Lobbying firm, Wolf Strategies, from Jan 2015 to Feb 2023. He started Neighbors Together, one of the nonprofits behind the recall, in May 2021 and ran against Sheng Thao in the 2022 election.
Then there is the expert. 4Kron had a political analyst, Michael Yaki, interviewed to add more context to the claims of the investigations. Yaki said this only sidetracks efforts until the election. “Until more information comes out, this is just a minor distraction for both sides as they prepare for the November election.”
Somehow, Yaki was unaware that the California Attorney General had ordered the recall Thao campaign non-profit Neighbors Together to cease operations because it would not reveal its contributions or submit proper paperwork. Did both 4Kron and the political analyst not know about the California AG’s demand to cease operations? I’m sure Harbin-Forte knew.
Either way, we must question if someone is disingenuous and sloppy with their reporting and claims. By explaining the story to these activists who do political education with many people in the community, they can now use this framing of analysis and form better rhetoric.
Michael Yaki is Senior Vice President & Senior Counsel of Policy and Programs at Petros PACE Finance. PACE programs are financial programs in real estate and development. Google search of Yaki has not updated his LinkedIn since his appointment as commissioner to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights ended in 2022, and he has been featured several times on 4Kron as a neutral political analyst.
Bombshell Drops—More Information
LeRonne Armstrong and another OPD chief were investigated and faulted for leadership failures
July 25, 2024 – Oaklandside
This report gives reason for Mayor Sheng Thao to have fired Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong after he rallied against the mayor for putting him on leave. The city of Oakland investigated the former police chief, finding Armstrong and his immediate successor, Darren Allison, failed to handle OPD’s internal affairs division rigorously and fairly in the allegations of perjury and bribery by an OPD homicide detective.
Armstong has been backed by her former opponent, Loren Tayor, who intends to run for mayor again if Thao loses the recall. Last month, Armstong launched a campaign run for City Council at Large.
What does Andy Duong know about widely criticized attack ads in Oakland’s 2022 mayor’s race?
July 25, 2024 – Oaklandside
The key issue with the FBI investigations concerns her partner Andre Jones, Andy Duong or California Waste Solutions, and businessman Mario Juarez’s connections to financing campaign fliers against Loren Tayor. A lengthy report from Oaklandside explains that the FBI is interested in everyone, including Sheng Thao and the Oakland Police Department phone directories. Since it is an investigation, and they are gathering information from all parties, it is too soon to assume anything. Yet, there is a constant drip of released information directly to the San Francisco Chronicle from the FBI, which is unusual. This could mean someone within the FBI is leaking to the press, and they likely have a connected interest.
Exclusive: FBI agents seized phones from both Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and her boyfriend
July 26, 2023, San Francisco Chronicle
There isn’t much valuable additional information beyond the headline in this article. It brings up Rebecca Kaplan, the current City Councilmember at Large, who has been a well-known adversary of former mayor Libby Schaaf. Schaaf is currently under several campaign investigation violations, which remain mostly silenced in the press. Schaaf had endorsed and supported Loren Taylor for mayor and appointed LeRonne Armstong as the former OPD police chief.
Libby Schaaf’s investigations/Media Bias for the former mayor who is currently running for California Treasurer:
- Confidential file alleges former Mayor Libby Schaaf secretly used political committee to raise money from city contractor
- Libby Schaaf is under investigation for allegedly running a political committee that attacked a rival
- Mayor Schaaf took illegal campaign contributions, public ethics commission finds
- Ethics Commission Recommends Oakland Mayor Pay Fine, Return Campaign Contributions (Review how this headline removes Libby’s name from the headline)
Judge overseeing Sheng Thao recall campaign lawsuit suddenly recuses herself
July 26, 2024 – Oaklandside.org
Returning to 4Kron’s report with the Thao Recall Committee president, Brenda Harbin-Forte, claiming, “The Public Ethics Commission is being weaponized to come after the mayor as enemies. While they have let the mayor get a free pass with all of the political corruption.”
While political analyst Michael Yaki is Senior Vice President & Senior Counsel of Policy and Programs at Petros PACE Finance, claimed the investigation into the Mayor Sheng Thao Recall Committee’s finances is a big “nothing burger,” Oaklandside.org reports earlier in the week Judge Julia Spain threw out an investigative subpoena against the recall campaign. Two days later, the judge Spain reversed that order and removed herself from the case.
A judge’s removal from a case typically means there is a conflict of interest. Spain may have known someone from the Recall campaign. Her ruling to allow the campaign not to reveal its high-spending donors is unusual and possibly against election rules.
Spain ruled in alignment with the Thao Recall’s claims, saying enforcing the sopranos would “blatantly violate due process, infringe on the privacy rights of unnamed individuals, require an unreasonable search of the private records and implicate the constitutional freedom of association of entire categories of individuals who were not provided notice of the subpoena at issue and were not informed that Petitioners sought access to their private records.”
Oaklandside notes one possible connection to Judge Spain is the head of the recall campaign, Brenda Harbin-forte, who served as an Alameda County Superior Court judge from 1998 to 2019.
According to East Bay Times, Harbin-Forte recently entered the race to become Oakland city attorney.
Conclusion
It is really interesting what corporate media finds newsworthy compared to the one non-profit, local Oakland news source, Oaklandside. Corporate media tends to hire journalists not from Oakland to report on Oakland, while Oaklandside hires journalists from the area who have extensive knowledge of their beat. Corporate media has short deadlines and profit concerns. Nonprofit news writing will focus on in-depth research and fully report the stories.
Comparing the way the two report news may make it easier to piece the pieces of the puzzle together when questioning why certain details are not being reported in your nightly news broadcast.
Citations and PDFs Linked and can be downloaded for research purposes.
Citations are included in this article because article links often disappear. It is good to have a full reference of where the sources come from for future reference just in case. These articles are to be used for research purposes.