By Tim Redmond
The Sunday Chronicle story on the power struggle at Your Black Muslim Bakery that led to the murder of Chauncey Bailey is a reminder of why the world needs newspapers. The latest installment of the Chauncey Bailey Project, which shows the tight connections between homicide inspector Sgt. Derwin Longmire and bakery leader Yusef Bey IV, is another.
These stories could never have been put together by part-time bloggers and citizen journalists. Investigative reporting on this level requires staff — experienced, full-time reporters who have the resources to did into stories.
This is serious stuff: WIthout the Chauncey Bailey Project and the Chron, it’s entirely possible that Chauncey Bailey’s murderer(s) would never be brought to justice. The Oakland cops were bungling the case; it took the newspapers, with a team of paid reporters, do get to the bottom of it.
So as much as the Chronicle drives me nuts, and as much as I’m not sure what the business model should be in the future, democracy is going to require some sort of old-fashioned newspapers.
UPDATE: Ken Conner, the Chron’s Metro editor, just sent me the following:
A minor point about the reference to the Chauncey Bailey project story about the link between the lead detective on the case and the bakery members. Actually we broke that story on Nov. 11, 2007 — months before the project. Both the New York Times and NPR have corrected stories about the project that made the same mistake.
Okay, then. My basic point remains.