San Francisco, an iconic American city known for its beauty and charm (but more recently known for having streets wracked with crime, lined with homeless and paved with human excrement) gets a long-overdue cleanup ahead of an important APEC summit wherein President Joe Biden shall meet Chinese dictator Xi Jinping. But the cleanup, inasmuch as it makes the wrong people look bad, garnered no coverage on the nation's major evening newscasts.
Watch the newsworthy admission from California Governor (and potential 2024 presidential backup) Gavin Newsom, as he admits that San Francisco's filthy streets only drew attention because of the APEC summit:
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I know folks say they're just cleaning up this place because all this fancy leaders are coming to town. That is true. Because it is true. It is also true for months and months and months we have been having different conversations and we have raised the bar of expectation between the city, the county, and the state.
Here's how The New York Post reported on the massive cleanup:
Drug addicts, dealers and homeless who have plagued San Francisco’s downtown have miraculously disappeared this week as the city cleans up for a huge international event.
Sources tell The Post the homeless have been pushed to other parts of the city in preparation for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which starts tomorrow and runs through Nov. 17.
However, residents and business owners said city officials’ attempts to “herd” transients and drug addicts is only a “Band-Aid” to a severe problem as drug overdoses continue to plague the city.
It's a massive cleanup, ahead of a high-stakes summit between Biden and Xi. In fact, the Post goes on to report that the local authorities even cleared out the massive open-air drug encampment outside the Nancy Pelosi Federal Building- the one that prompted the federal government to issue a work-from-home order out of concern for employee safety.
And yet, none of the major networks found the time to cover the story. They had time for other San Francisco stories, such as that of Paul Pelosi taking the stand in the trial of his hammer-wielding assailant. NBC goes one step further: they did cover the summit on their evening newscast, but Not One Word about the cleanup or the city's woes. It was all APEC. But get this: NBC News NOW did devote the time to a report on the city's woes.
In many ways, NBC acted in a manner not unlike that of Gov. Newsom. Sweep the problems (or the inconvenient reporting) away from the main spotlight. But in due time, they will return.
