Have you guys been to the Oakland Tribune's website lately? If you have you may have noticed a relatively new feature on the site called "My Town." This feature allows readers to navigate directly to the news relevant to their city since the Trib is not completely Oakland exclusive. The four city specific links in the bottom middle of the homepage are Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont and . . . . any guesses?? Maybe San Leandro? Albany possibly? Oooh I know Emeryville!! No, those would all be incorrect guesses. I'm afraid the answer is MONTCLAIR.
Proposed streetscape at Antioch Ct. in Montclair VillageI was upset by this because clearly Montclair isn't a city or a town, its merely a part of Oakland. This raises the question: Why is Montclair the only part of Oakland that gets its own segregated news? I don't know the particulars, but I do know know something about Montclair's trust fund of social, cultural and educational capital. I won't delve into it here but comparing Montclair's Census information to Oakland's Census information is quite revealing, as is this chart detailing Montclair's educational and professional advantages. So I understood why Montclair may have fenagled its way into their own newsroom over the likes of Ghost Town, Bushrod, Eastmont or The Fruitvale.
Click on Oakland income map for link to zoomed in viewWhat I didn't understand was why Montclair was favored over other parts of Oakland with similar demographics, such as Rockridge, Redwood and Sequoia Heights and the Skyline Hills. Why didn't they have their own part of the Tribune website? But then I discovered that they did!! The section was called "Montclair."
This brings us to my bigger point. "Montclair" is just a code word on the Tribune's website. The Montclair homepage is not in fact Montclair exclusive, it is quite exclusive howevver. The common denominator is that the news pieces on this webpage concern all the affluent and predominantly white parts of Oakland (and even the hated Piedmont!). The headlines for today alone refer to the Glenview and Rockridge districts in addition to the Redwood Day school and Bishop O'Dowd, Skyline and Piedmont High Schools. None of these places or schools have anything to do with Montclair- they have to do with upper-middle class and predominantly white Oaklanders.
This to me is extremely racist and classist and I feel that the Oakland Tribune should be taken to task for this. Please discuss this in the comment section. Do you think this is unjust? Or am I doing too much?
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8 comments:
as a former glenview kid..... my elementary school was full of us 'regular' oakland folks. I guess i see your point given that there's already the 'montclarian' newspaper. I mean, I guess my jaded self see's it as business as usual.
This was definitely a business move as the Tribune must cater to its readership. Ideally, it would cater to all Oaklanders equally and not single out any particular neighborhood/district for enhanced coverage. However, I would presume that there are more paid subscriptions in the more affluent neighborhoods of Oakland which keep the Tribune alive. That doesn't justify the move, but it does make business sense.
But could it also be that Montclair gives the Tribune a lot of its "feel-good" stories while the rest of Oakland seems to provide most of the crime and poverty-related news? They may have been in search of a balance and the hills is going to be reliably positive compared to the flats. Again, this doesn't make the weighted coverage right, but the newspaper has to stay in business in a crime-stricken city. If you take away the hills, it's hard to see the Tribune still being there in its same capacity.
I would like to see them either focus just as much on other Oakland neighborhoods, or have that section rotate weekly or monthly so that all districts get attention. I choose to believe that there are positive things going on in every neighborhood and the Tribune journalists just need to do some investigative journalism. Reporting on positive stories in lower income parts could actually provide a means of communication and support for the rest of the city.
maybe if the other neighborhoods learned how to read they would care about this problem
hahaha that was bad i know
I don't think you're making unnecessary noise. This is shady. You're analysis is spot on. The trib has always been kind of a joke, especially considering that some majority of their writers don't live in the immediate east bay, much less Oakland. I know this city has high rent rates, but I always thought this was a little off. And that Palo Alto chief isn't alone, she's just the only one dumb enough to make a blatant press statement about pd policy. Stay up Luke.
First of all, way to stay anonymous "anonymous." Smart move. Secondly, I think you're right Barry. I'm sure that it has a lot to do with the Trib's readership in hard times.
Interesting blog, I had thought about this too. The My Town / Montclair section is from the Trib absorbing The Montclarion (run by the Hills Newspapers chain until a few years ago, which also included The Piedmonter and The Berkeley Voice). Perhaps one reason that it's The Montclarion and not The Rockridger, The Crocker Highlander or The Above 580 Weekly, is because Montclair is the single largest affluent neighborhood. They basically have their own Councilmember, making it bigger than downtown, Uptown/Koreatown, and West Oakland combined, or twice as large as Grand Lake.
I here you all, I am amazed that with this day and age we continue to push out and oppress our people. We as Oaklanders whether from the West the East where ever have beautiful qualities about ourselves and neighborhoods. I agree, reporters should really look deeper into our communities and present and report the good things we have and offer. Yes, Oakland is a violent place, or is portrayed that way via the news but we are beautiful and strong and human and we have something more to offer.
That's it, we can't stand for bull like this
Wow, talk about jumping to the worst conclusion possible. I think there is a Montclair section because the Tribune bought the Montclarion, a newspaper that catered to Montclair.
But if it was that simple couldn't have a column about the white part of Oakland could we.
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