The Berkeley Daily Planet is as unprofessional and biased as a "newspaper" can be. Why the quotes around "newspaper?" Well, the DP breaks every law of good journalism, be it having a reporter (Douglas-Allen) who both covers Oakland as a "journalist" and also writes editorials about it, a member of the staff whose fawning odes to the paper are printed as "independent letters," a cartoonist whose drawings have reached the polluted waters of anti-Semitic bias, a primary advertiser who was allowed to review a book he himself had written, and an editor/owner who can't keep her manifest biases out of the publication.
The latter refers to Becky O'Malley, whose principal reporter Judith Scheer quit the publication saying that O'Malley excised quotes from those people she didn't like. Indeed, when it comes to biases, O'Malley's obsession with loathing urban development and Israel percolate, or I should say "pour" through a majority of editions.
On the latter, O'Malley published an op-ed by an Iranian who wrote that Jews deserve every tragedy, including the Holocaust, they have experienced through history. And the paper is regularly filled with editorials, columns by former editor of the Communist Party's newspaper Conn Hallinan, op-eds and letters which reflect the owner/editor's contempt for Israel and indeed often stray into the excreta of anti-Semitism.
Correspondingly, her advertisers-not wishing to be associated with such garbage-have left the paper in droves, leading the DP to lose scads of money. Hence, the paper will soon be taken out of street news racks and distributed only in a few cafes-a signal of its welcome demise to come.
Becky O'Malley has exhibited little integrity in what she prints. Most reflective of this was the infantile op-ed rant she recently published by the virulently anti-Israel, anti-white Joseph Anderson who wrote that the murder of the four Oakland policeman amounted to karmactic justice. You would not find such rubbish in any reputable newspaper. But then again, the Daily Planet would never fall within the standard of "reputable."
For those who wish to see a meticulously researched website compiled by a most respected local businessman, John Gertz, please access www.DPWatchDog.com. On this site, you will be able to read examples and analyses of Becky O'Malley's screed and her abhorrent excuse for a newspaper... read more