It’s Just a Question, Part II

We are going to have to approach Mayor Gavin Newsom again in the not-too-distant future, as we follow up on the beating of the Yale choir and other I-Team investigations. So, I wanted to make sure you understand the ground rules the Mayor’s Office has set up for us to get comments from Newsom.

Our last interview with the mayor got quite a response from viewers. We posted the entire exchange here. We asked about the investigation into the Yale incident, and about a published report that described Newsom as being under the influence of alcohol and acting inappropriately. We got e-mail and comments on our blog from both sides. Sierra wrote:

“Dan Noyes does great reporting. He tightens the screws where they need to be tightened. How much money has been spent on a barely existent emergency preparedness plan? How many months did the Mayor’ Office put off questions and delay submitting the appropriate annexes? The Mayor is a public servant. If he is acting inappropriately, then we have the right to answers. Go get ‘em, Dan!”

But an e-mail exchange I had with Bruce, a viewer from San Francisco, reflected some of the criticism we received for the interview. It also gave us the chance to explain the difficulty we’ve had in dealing with the Mayor’s Office and Newsom himself:

-----Original Message----- From: Bruce F____ Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 8:31 AM To: Noyes, Dan Subject: Very disappointed with your "performance"

I watched while you conducted a sensible and well-done interview of Mayor Newsom recently about the brawl on N.Y's Eve wherein the Yale choir member had his jaw broken. However, at the end of the interview which clearly caught the Mayor on his way to his car, you sprung on him a completely irrelevant question, irrelevant to the foregoing interview, asking about the Matier-Ross article about his drinking. What did his personal drinking habits have to do with the Yale brawl?!
It was indeed a cheap shot to get a story and was an extremely unbecoming action on your part. I have no interest in watching your news shows any further.

Bruce F____
San Francisco

-----Original Message-----
From: "Noyes, Dan"
Sent: Jan 17, 2007 12:48 PM
To: Bruce F____
Subject: RE: Very disappointed with your "performance"

Actually, Bruce, no, I didn't "catch" the mayor on the way to his car. I called his office earlier in the day and requested a brief on camera interview at City Hall, arguing that would be better than me meeting him at a public event. But, Newsom will not do one-on-one interviews with me -- or most other journalists in town, so they insist that we catch up to him after one of his public events.

We had no guidelines on the interview -- even though I tried to speak with Newsom as he walked up to the camera to thank him for his time, and to outline the topics, he ignored me until the camera rolled.

Newsom had avoided reporters for three days since the Matier and Ross story; no one had been able to ask him about it. It was my duty to ask the question. In most any other city, the mayor would have held a news conference the day the report came out to address it, and every reporter in town would have been asking similar questions.

Are you suggesting that any interview should be limited to one topic? That's not how it works. When you finally get an opportunity to question a public official, all topics are on the table and they know that.

Finally, if you look at my exact wording, it was a pretty tame question. I asked a public official to comment on a published report. I didn't ask, "Were you drunk that night?" He could have taken the chance to address it, said no comment, or offered any of several explanations he should have prepared in advance. This was, after all, three days after the report came out.

I hope you'll reconsider watching ABC 7 -- we have many important stories in the works.

Best,
Dan

-----Original Message-----
From: Bruce F____
To: Noyes, Dan
Sent: Sat Jan 20 14:39:51 2007
Subject: RE: Very disappointed with your

Points well taken. I appreciate your taking the time to respond and I do apologize for my tone in that previous email. One never gets the "whole story" from sound bites or clips. In the future, I will certainly withhold judgment until I have all the facts. Thanks, Dan. I will continue watching.
Bruce F____

One other example of the difficulties we face in dealing with the Mayor’s Office: his press secretary, Peter Ragone, rarely answers his cell phone or the direct number to his desk. On a recording, he instructs the media to send him an e-mail on his Blackberry, but the address Ragone gives is not working. His staff tells us they don’t have another e-mail address for him.

It could be that Ragone is not pleased that we posted an entire e-mail exchange we had with him, over shortcomings in San Francisco’s emergency planning.

We’ll keep at it.

Comments

[sfmike]

I think you're the best journalist in San Francisco right now, and the level of vitriol you're receiving in your comments sections about the Yale case and the Mayor Newsom interview just goes to prove it.

Thank you so much for being one of the few reporters in San Francisco who doesn't necessarily buy "the official line," which I'm afraid is what most of the paid journalists in this town regurgitate. Again, thank you.

[Jerry Jarvis]

I thought it was great that you did what you did for the reasons you did it.Keep up the great work.

[Dan]

Hey Dan everyone knows the Mayor is dyslexic and cant put three coherent sentences together.

The issue here is whether or not you have the same problem.

Aren't you embarrassed enough yet, because right now you either look dyslexic or deceptive.

Did your anonymous 'witnesses' and 'sources' simply neglect to disclose the alcohol at the party or did you actually choose to conceal it??

You must understand full well that the Yale students will face repercussions for attending an underage alcohol party while representing Yale University during a singing tour.

"...Some partygoers smuggled in their own alcohol, including champagne, vodka, beer and tequila. A relative said that when she checked on the partygoers, she noticed no drinking...."

"...One of the Baker's Dozen group, Sharyar Aziz Jr., went to the kitchen to take a beer from the 30-pack the guest had brought and said the guest told him curtly, "That beer is not for you." ..."

"..."I had been a risk manager for the legal division of the Police Department," Rapagnani said. "The last thing I wanted was kids served alcohol at my house." ..."

"...Aziz said he had only one beer while at the party..."

"...Fairman said almost everyone was drinking alcohol that guests had brought to the party. "We are college kids, and drinking is part of our lives."

"...Police interviewed another Yale singer, Adam Johnston, and quoted him in their report as saying that after midnight some of Johnston's friends -- primarily Aziz -- argued with a young man wearing a Santa Claus hat and that "profanity was used and physical threats were made by both sides."

[Dan]

My favorite quote....

"...Aziz said he had only one beer while at the party..."

Yeeeaaaaahhhhh.

[Dan]

My second favorite quote...

"...Police interviewed another Yale singer, Adam Johnston, and quoted him in their report as saying that ..."profanity was used and physical threats were made by both sides."

[Dan]

This is just shameful...

"...A few more notes on the Baker’s Dozen controversy…

The couple whose daughter hosted the party, Reno Rapagnani and Leanna Dawydiak, tell me no alcohol was served at the party; they had lots of food and soft drinks. But, some of the young men who were involved in the attack on the Baker’s Dozen apparently brought alcohol to the party, and weren’t sharing with other guests – some of whom reportedly asked for a beer.
..."

http://iteamblog.abc7news.com/

[Ho Hum]

"Dan"

You have nothing new to add to this blog. Your rants against Dan Noyes are banal. Please go away; you're boring.

[Blake Ross]

I just watched the Dan Noyes piece on ABC 7 news and I was amazed.

What a petty piece of junk journalism.

Who cares if some squid employed by the major is doing an amateur job and doesn't understand blogs and the internet or netiquette?

Is this the kind of hard-hitting journalism "Chief Investigator" Dan Noyes aspires to? Annoying Gavin Newsom and thrashing his mini-minions?

Hey Dan. Get a real story or get another job.

Yale Choir Boy Investigation Tangent: The Inside Scoop!

What a loser..........