For the past few years the S.F. Chronicle was led by Phil Bronstein, super-chief editor, and his side kick, Narda Zucchino.  They both have since moved on to other fields. (Phil was apparently booted upstairs) However, it is notable that the newspaper became open advocates for liberal causes under their direction.  Furthermore, in an attack on traditional journalistic principles, they did so in both the news and opinion sections.

As a side bar to those events, it is interesting to speculate how much the attitudes of their spouses affected their marital partners approach to journalism. How much influence did they have on the Chron’s headlong plunge into advocacy journalism?

We have no way to tell what the two editors believed personally on the political front because they seldom go into print.  On the other hand, the two spouses provide many verbal expressions of their core beliefs.

For awhile, Sharon Stone of Hollywood “fame” (sort of) was Mrs. Phil Bronstein.  Sharon has the delusional disease so prevalent in Hollywood.  She assumes that her movie star status somehow allows her opinion to be worthy of world attention.   For example, she recently fired off an opinion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to an Arab newspaper:

Hollywood icon Sharon Stone believes the Sept. 11, 2001 bombings of the United States should not have been used as a pretext to launch the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The actress said in an interview with the Al Hayat daily that she fails to understand how the American public supported those wars to start with, only to denounce their fallout later. She also bemoaned what she called America's decision to ignore the deaths of so many Iraqis.

"When we choose war, we should understand that we choose murder, bloodletting and torture," Stone told the newspaper.

"I feel at great pain when the spotlight is on the death of 4,000 American soldiers, while 600,000 Iraqi deaths are ignored . . . War is not a movie, it is a tragedy of dead bodies, victims, the disabled, orphans, widows and the displaced."

That’s deep thinking from Ms. Stone! Right? No one paid much attention to the remarks of a Hollywood airhead except the terrorist leaders:

Mideast terrorist leaders today thanked actress Sharon Stone for claiming to Arab media the U.S. used the Sept. 11 attacks as "pretext" for launching wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The terrorists stated Stone's remarks, published this week in Arabic, reinforce their views that current U.S. foreign policy is leading America toward destruction.

"What Stone said strengthens what we have been saying all along – that the Bush administration and the American evangelical Christians who control U.S. policy are leading America to defeat," said Muhammad Abel-Al, spokesman and senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terrorist organization.

Can we assume that Sharon paired her deep intellect with her sleazy sex image to influence Phil Bronstein in directing the Chronicle to voice similar opinions?

As for Narda, she is the wife of columnist Robert Scheer.  Robert’s S.F. Chronicle columns are all about hating Bush and all things American.   That isn’t too unusual, but Robert’s columns do so with an incredibly sick tone. They are distinctly one-note and horribly boring. One has to believe that pillow talk among the Scheers was along the lines of Robert’s rants. Robert’s opinions would certainly be sleep inducing.

Before Phil and Narda departed the Chron scene, they were the two top editorial dogs.  They directed the Chron into becoming an unabashed proponent of the liberal persuasion.  To fill out the picture, we should also note this dynamic duo concurrently led the Chron into a financial death spiral with plummeting total readership numbers.   And, under their tenure, the newspaper became technically bankrupt and dependent on the financial support of the parent company, Hearst.  Little wonder they are both otherwise employed.

Nice work, guys!  Sharon and Robert must be proud of you.

(Written with tongue in touch with my cheek, but with an element of truth.)