Is The San Francisco Chronicle Promoting The Perata Candidacy On The Sly (Part 2)?

From The Anybody But Perata Website
September 19, 2010

A month ago, we asked the question if the San Francisco Chronicle was pushing Don Perata's candidacy for Oakland mayor by giving Perata's picture unusual prominence in the Chronicle's online stories ("Is The San Francisco Promoting The Perata Candidacy On The Sly?").

Now the San Francisco newspaper appears to be doing it again.

On Sunday, September 19, the Chronicle published an article by local journalist Brenda Payton about the Oakland mayoral race ("Oakland Looking Up As Mayoral Election Nears").

In the story, Payton writes that "Ten candidates are running [for Oakland mayor this year]. Former state Sen. Don Perata and City Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan are considered 'The Big Three.'"

That is the only mention in the story about any of the mayoral candidates. The rest of Payton's story consists of quotes from Oakland voters about what they expect from the next mayor, with none of the voters mentioning any of the candidates by name.

As you can see below, however, the Chronicle decided to highlight a story about Oakland voters in the online version of its story with a picture—not of Oakland voters—but of one mayoral candidate, and only one: Don Perata.

 

Even though the photo above shows only Don Perata, the caption reads as if there are three candidates highlighted, saying "from left: Rebecca Kaplan, Don Perata, and Jean Quan."

A smaller photo of candidate Jean Quan appears just below the larger Perata picture, and an online reader can eventually go through several links to make the Quan picture to make it larger. No photo of Rebecca Kaplan—who Payton identifies as one of "the big three" candidates in the election—appears in the online version of the Chronicle story.

As we wrote when this same issue came up in Chronicle online coverage of the Oakland mayor's race a month ago, putting a prominent picture of Perata on the Chronicle online stories—and only Perata—is one of the techniques of advertising, often called "product placement." You keep putting the image of your product—or candidate—before the public until that image is burned in the public's mind. Eventually they are subtly drawn to the product—or candidate—without even knowing why.

Political campaigns do this all the time. That is why they pay so much money for political advertising in mailers, newspapers, and on television.

So we ask again, as we asked a month ago: why does the San Francisco Chronicle seems to be providing this type of "product placement" advertising for the Perata for mayor campaign for free?

Return to top