Ragone On The Blogs

Phone lines have been blazing between the San Francisco Mayor's Office, the Board of Supervisors, the Hall of Justice and ABC 7: "What's going on with Peter Ragone? What will the I-Team have tonight?" To most of you, Ragone is just another talking head on the evening news or quoted in the newspapers -- he's the press secretary for Mayor Gavin Newsom. But, insiders at City Hall see him differently. Watch our report and make up your own mind.

At issue -- more than a dozen comments on blogs posted from Ragone's home computer in recent weeks. The story started at Sfist.com and we found comments from Ragone's computer on our site. It appears the press secretary has been using phony names to build up the mayor and blast his critics.

We're streaming an interview I did today with a professor of journalism at San Francisco State. Yumi Wilson has good perspective on this issue, having worked for the San Francisco Chronicle covering Gavin Newsom when he was a Supervisor and Willie Brown when he was Assembly Speaker. She also was surprised by an old e-mail exchange when I asked Ragone for interviews.

As always, we welcome hearing from anyone on this issue -- that's why we give you the chance to post comments here. I really look forward to hearing from "John Nelson"; I know he won't be shy about posting.

Comments

[Phony Name Ned]

Dan,

What a great report tonight. Here we were thinking the idiots posting hateful comments on your Yale blogs were the 415 gang members. Turns out it's Ragone (I'll bet he's posted others as well from other IP addresses). What a LIAR! The look on his face when you asked him if he's posted under other names was priceless.

Yeah, I post under a phony name too, but that's because I don't want people who sound violent or unbalanced to have my email address or know who I am. But Ragone's in a different position; he's a public spokesman for the mayor.

Clearly, the City's in even less capable hands than we all thought.

You go, Dan, you're the man!

[GavinWatch]

Good work at exposing Peter Ragone for the bully that he is. Even if it can't be definitively proved that he is posting under aliases, Ragone's posts on SFist are shameful and immature. His comments show a pattern of trying to discredit SFist as "Gavin haters" and intimidate SFist into not criticizing the Mayor.

Here's a sampling of Peter's comments:
- "do you really hate gavin newsom this much?"
- "why do you hate gavin newsom sooooooo much?"
- "im talking about your full time newsom hater status."
- "rita, lighten up and stop just hating on newsom at all times."

Shameless self-promotion: check out http://gavinwatch.blogspot.com/ for more coverage.

[Dan]

I found it first!!!!!

""can i just tell you how much i am loving newsom right now."

Is that you Gavin?????

Posted by: unconcerned native sf | January 12, 2007 at 03:45 PM "

http://iteamblog.abc7news.com/2007/01/i_had_to_ask.html#comment-27672808

('unconcerned native sf' is one of my anonymous multiple user names if you will remember).

Ha ha seriously I have a question.

The I-team story showed a shot of someone inputting a 'whois' query.

Whois is a domain name registry and will only produce a result for someone that has registered a domain name.

Did Pete Ragone have his own domain name???

OMFG could it possibly be....www.ragone.com?????

Peter Ragone has been an incompetent, creepy guy from day one and I'm suprised it took him this long to get his slimy a$$ in trouble...please fire this horrible liability to the Newsom administration.

"It was revealed yesterday that Peter Ragone, Mayor Gavin Newsom’s Press Secretary, purchased a Tenancy-in-Common (TIC) unit in a building where an Ellis Act eviction of a disabled tenant occurred. When questioned about the fact that he had purchased a unit where such an eviction occurred, Ragone told Beyond Chron, “I had no idea. How would I have known?” However, documents reproduced here reveal Ragone signed and dated two separate fliers showing he had read and approved them, and both clearly state “Owners did perform an Ellis Act eviction on this property.”

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3123

[Thomas]

Dan, get a life. He's a good mayor. Because of your stupid coverage, I need to switch channel. There are much more valuable news for the city! If you are so hating, why don't go to Iraq and give us some of news for our country and troops!!! What kind of reporting is that!!

[dan]

Well I've tried and tried and can't find a whois of peter ragone at a sf address....

What is his domain name??

[notragone]

I'm glad I'm not Peter Ragone because he deserves to be fired.

[Not Ragone Either]

Come on "Dan", be clueful.

The 'whois' shot is typical of TV news using stock video filler. You seem to know everything else so I don't understand why you don't know this.

Try to keep up. Ragone made some posts under his real name from a Comcast-registered IP address. The same IP address was used for the his assumed-name posts as well.

[First Time Noyes Viewer]

This is the first time I have ever watched an I-Team segment because I usually watch the 10pm news on KTVU.

Funny stuff. But this is basically tabloid-quality material. A press secretary posting to blogs anonymously? Press secretary=Mayor's PR. PR people can be stupid. This is not news (see Kim Etheridge, Terrell Owens' publicist). While interesting, the report sounds like a personal vendetta (I'm not sure if that's intentional). It, and this blog, displays a papparazzi-esque infatuation with the mayor's every move. This seems like the New York Post plastering A-Rod sunbathing in Central Park on the front page.

Bottom line - The media cares a whole lot more about this type of stuff than the average person. And the journalism professor, while certainly an expert, would naturally be so much more appalled about this than the average person.

Again, it's amusing; but barely rates as news, and is only investigative in the loosest sense of the word.

[RAPP81]

Someone earlier commented:
"Whois is a domain name registry and will only produce a result for someone that has registered a domain name."

That is not true. You can look up an IP address to find out who owns the IP address, whether it be an ISP, company, organization, or even an individual. (arin.net/whois)

In this case, the guy from SFist.com took note of the IP address from the true Ragone poster, checked to see who owned the IP address (in this case Comcast), then cross referenced said IP address with other posts left on that site.

Comcast does use DHCP for IP assignment for their cable internet subscribers, however generally, when a particular subscriber re-logs on using the same device, they are reassigned the same IP address.

[Brian]

Great report. I watched you ask him about the fake names about five times... still can't get over his reaction. Can we please have honest discussion of important issues from the Mayor's office? I am so tired of the talking points.

[Daphne F]

What a colosal waste of time this report was. I agree that Ragone's actions are dispicable, but for ABC to stoop to the level of reporting on it is equally bad. Is it really such a slow news day that this is the lead story? Progress in this city is stymied by ineffective politicians (yes, I think Newsom is one of them), but ABC does the public a disservice by engaging and perpetuating this political BS. Why not report on the real issues in this city? I waited in line for breakfast at Dotties last Sunday at 7:30 am and witnessed a person openly freebasing crack on the sidewalk. I ride overcrowded, understaffed Muni buses all the time. I consistently walk past the same 4 homeless people who sleep in the same stoops (and have for 2 years) every day on my 6 block walk to work. There are real issues in this city that need fixing and publicity, and I hardly consider Ragone's posts to be one of them. If you want to go after the mayor, bring up some real issues rather than fixating on the fact that the mayor's office doesn't want to talk to you. On the mayor's side, I think Ragone should go - not because he lies to the ABC team, but because he seems flattly incompetant. Shame on you both.

[Brian]

I completely disagree that this isn't newsworthy. Our elected officials have a responsibility to talk to the public in an open, honest way. Using spin, talking points, and yes, fake blog posts only serves to weaken our democracy. This is about as unethical as the Bush Administration & corporations releasing fake news stories to TV stations. Oops, didn't KGO run those?

[Adam]

This is absolutely newsworthy. Mr. Ragone is currently Mayor Newsom's top aide. This behavior reflects very badly on Mr. Ragone and especially badly on Mayor Newsom's judgment and work style. Do you think Mayor Newsom's administration is just playing games and deceiving bloggers and reporters? Or do bloggers and reporters actually represent the people of San Francisco?

[Daniel Kohns]

A political communications professional, I have counted Peter Ragone as a friend and trusted colleague for many years. In that time, I have not once witnessed him so much as skirt the ethical boundaries of his profession. I would expect the media of as sophisticated a city as San Francisco to spend their time covering truly substantive issues with the intelligence their readers/viewers deserve, rather than stoop to such a level of "gotcha" tabloid journalism.

[dan]

Stop dissing tabloid journalism you all!! This is completely GREAT!!

You mention you are a professional political communications or something, whatever that is, so surely you must see the incredible incompetence of allowing 'best friends' to use your computer to post partisan comments.

It is just absurdly stupid for Ragone to get busted like this and any political rival should take comfort that such a clumsy nitwit is in charge of the mayor's PR.

All I can say is Ragone must be a REALLY REALLY connected guy because it takes access to HUGE money to keep a high profile job after all this.....

[dan]

And I have one more comment about the 'whois' issue.

A whois search apparently had nothing to do with identifying Ragone and so I'm not the only one a little ignorant of internet protocols around here (if it was in fact ignorance and not flat out deception or negligence).

The 'stock filler shot' of the whois search was inaccurate.

Gawd I spent hours trying to figure out the last three digits to 24.23.188.xxx.

[Nero]

Give us a break, Daniel. I mean really, what ARE the "ethical" boundaries of a PR slug?

And Daphne, this is absolutely newsworthy. Consider all the points you bring up and believe need to be dealt with. Instead of being forced to answer the hard questions about what he's doing to address the city's problems, and why there's been so little progress in those areas, Newsom's got this oily dodger running interference for him.

This didn't start off as 'Why is Ragone posting anonymously?', but rather as 'Mr. Mayor, what are you doing in these important areas?' You know the saying, where there's smoke, there's fire? Well Ragone's throwing up so much smoke and mirrors, something's definitely burning. Should we ignore that, and let San Francisco burn?

[Adam]

Dan,
Keep up the good work. I appreciate your persistence. This guy Ragone is an embarrassment to the Mayor, who is acting childish for not complying with Prop I. Talk about not being able to handle a defeat. Gavin, you lost! Now show up like you're supposed to.

[former insider]

just a few things to consider:

* Peter Ragone is not, never has been, and never will be the Mayor's top aide. In terms of getting things done, Steve Kawa is the man, but smart folks will keep their eyes on Mike Farrah (oftentimes hard to do, he's in the background so much) and especially Alex Tourk (not terribly hard; Tourk is a power-climbing hack who is great at running the footwork of a campaign but is so useless now as Deputy Chief of Staff that they re-assigned his assistant to another office!) God help us if Alex Tourk gets to take Kawa's place.

* Yes, Ragone is a complete idiot (at least don't get caught!) and his comments leave much to be desired (just about as boring as he is), but let's also remember that:

a) sfist (and sfbg, etc.) _ARE_ GAVIN HATERS! I don't think anyone could could honestly argue with this one!

b) Dan Noyes (and the type of "journalism" that he offers us with the I-Team) is basically just gussied up, sensationalist tabloid-fodder, and Dan's obviously got a little bit of a fixation on the Mayor. I haven't been impressed with ANY of Dan's so-called investigative reports on the Mayor - they just seem childish and I think most people do think of them as such.

There are a lot of important issues in this City and a lot of things that do need discussion and investigation. Some of the Mayor's administration is not all that great, and there's still the HUGE (much more important issue) of the sheer incompetence and indifference of so many of the City's "so-called" Civil Servants. Oh, and by the way, those are the folks that we're pretty much stuck with without any sort of serious reform and house cleaning - Don't like a Mayoral Staffer? (or as they used to be called - Special Assistant?) It's no problem to get rid of them for whatever reason - they're AT WILL. no biggie. Done. However, Mayor Newsom (and the rest of us, unfortunately) are stuck with the likes of the surly Muni driver (likely making $80k+ with barely a high school education) or the lazy Parking & Traffic clerks, the Muni Communications Deputy whose writing (to other public officials, no less) would make a 7th grade teacher cringe, the gardener that doesn't show up, etc. Because of our Civil Service system, Gavin can't do a thing about these folks, they just keep getting promoted and eventually retire and continue to collect.

There are LOTS of smart, talented and hardworking folks that work for the City (and even for Gavin Newsom), but they've got all of this dead weight to carry around and try to make up for. Until we can get rid of all of that cruft, We'll be stuck with our hugely bloated and ineffective City government, no matter how many times Dan Noyes wants to show us how big a journalist he is and fuel his own petty crusade against Newsom.

[Adam]

Former insider? Must have been a while ago. You think Steve Kawa is still around?

[Mark]

Great report! Ragone is a shmuck and this administration is like reliving high school all over again. They are too young and immature for this city!

[1st Time Blogger]

Good job Dan! You seem to be the only fearless journalist in this town who doesn't have some sort of love affair with the mayor. You have successfully exposed one of the mayor's minions for possessing the smugness and incompetence that continues to drag this city down.

The information being generated out of this mayor's office has always smacked of one-sided exaggeration...such as the "fact" that the mayor's numbers have consistently remained in the 80's, even though a recent poll apparently has him in the 30's.

Keep up the good work!

[GavinWatch]

You raise some interesting points, Former Insider. We hope you stick around this virtual debate.

First of all, enough with the "GAVIN HATERS" smear! Is everyone who disapproves of the Mayor's actions automatically a "hater?" We don't hate Gavin. We just don't think he's a good Mayor. We kinda feel sorry for all the pressure the guy seems to be cracking under.

And We don't think Ragone is an idiot. When he's on his game, he can impose his point of view with a Karl Rove-like intensity. But he messed up and crossed the line, and now his ego won't let him admit it.

We'll agree that Dan Noyes has a bit of a gumshoe attitude, but dismissing him as "tabloid-fodder" is an unwarranted smear.

Without Noyes' tenacity, Annemarie Conroy's unqualified stint of political patronage would probably still be lording over the Office of Emergency Services. And if there was a major earthquake in the near future, that could have cost lives.

What you say about the inept "cruft" of the City's civil service is probably true. But that's a prime example of why we need a new Mayor. Gavin's promises of "civil service reform" ring as hollow as his promises to refrom the SFPD.

But it's a tricky problem: How do you inact real "civil service reform" without devolving into an attack on organized labor?

Gavin had some great sound bytes on this very subject a couple years ago. But has he accomplished anything? Yet another example of the failure of governing by press release.

For continuing coverage, go to http://gavinwatch.blogspot.com/

[dan]

Daniel are you really the press secretary to US Congressman Mike Honda???

Because you don't look so good right now after the person you vouch for in public has been caught lying ON CAMERA to a journalist.

I hope for your sake no one is reading this blog, or if they are, then I hope your ip is not traceable to you .....

quote ...political communications professional, I have counted Peter Ragone as a friend and trusted colleague for many years. In that time, I have not once witnessed him so much as skirt the ethical boundaries of his profession. I would expect the media of as sophisticated a city as San Francisco to spend their time covering truly substantive issues with the intelligence their readers/viewers deserve, rather than stoop to such a level of "gotcha" tabloid journalism.

Posted by: Daniel Kohns | January 30, 2007 at 10:24 AM
... end quote

[stopragone]

More Ragone:

http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=3123