The Editor's Back Fence

Because of vacations and other complications, no one from the Berkeley Daily Planet’s All Volunteer Army of unpaid reporters was available to watch the Berkeley City Council on Tuesday. I usually do that myself on the internet from the comforts of home, but I had previously signed up to take two ten-year-olds to watch Wagner from standing room at the San Francisco Opera. (Yes, yes, you might think I’m crazy, but they loved it—just like the mythology novels consumed in quantity by today’s literate pre-teens.)

Eventually I, and you, might watch the video online, and someone from the Planet crew might even post an analysis, but for a quick take it is instructive to check out how our colleagues at three of the sources which are now attempting to crack the less-than-lucrative Berkeley market saw the meeting. 

First, we have the report which feeds into the arrangement which somehow and sometimes links the Berkeleyside.com website, baycitizen.com, the S.F. Chronicle and the New York Times: 

Downtown Berkeley gets $1.2 million to give itself a makeover 

San Francisco Chronicle (blog) 

By Lance Knobel 

The Berkeley City Council last night approved the formation of the third property-based improvement district (PBID) in the city, increasing fourfold the funds available to the Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA) for environmental ... 

This particular story focuses on what happened at the council meeting to impact local merchants, which is appropriate for a publication which is looking for ads from that segment. 

A more general report, complete with comments, is on berkeleyside.com here: The writer also tried live-blogging from the meeting itself, a Herculean task, trying to do play-by-play in a game where the main action is hide-the-ball. 

Then we have the report produced by and for the local manifestation of the new Huffington-AOL merger, patch.com. 

The reporter here, whom I employed for many long years, can be counted on to discover what Berkeley’s old lefties (some would include me in their number) want to see in an otherwise grey landscape. 

Council Debates Budget: Streets vs. Services 

Patch.com 

By Judith Scherr 

The hot point at Tuesday night's council meeting on Berkeley's budget boiled down to a skirmish over $105000 out of a $319 ... 

Then there’s the perspective espoused by Dean Singleton’s Bay Area News Group, online as Inside Bay Area and in print somewhere near you as the San Jose Mercury, the Oakland Tribune, the Contra Costa Times, the West County Times, the Berkeley Voice, the Albany-El Cerrito Journal…and…and… and. 

They only have to pay one reporter to fill all of these news holes! The Big Picture is what works for many of these readers: 

Council approves West Berkeley research plan 

Inside Bay Area 

By Doug Oakley 

Aiming to bring more jobs and business to Berkeley's industrial area, the City Council Tuesday night voted to allow research and development companies in areas designated "protected space" for artists and small manufacturers. ... 

If you have time to read all of these divergent reports, you might be able to figure out what happened at Tuesday’s Berkeley City Council meeting. It all did happen, but what happened of importance depends on your point of view. 

For The Rest of the Story, as Paul Harvey used to say, watch the video.