Who is the media elite? Continued…

Who is the media elite? Continued…
December 20th, 2006
By Mick Gregory

Walter H. Shorenstein the SF Real Estate Baron worth a billion, is also the money behind Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy.

If today’s political donors have taken the place of yesterday’s corrupt ward bosses, Walter Shorenstein can easily call all of San Francisco his home turf. The Democratic machine hardly hosts an event, plans a party, or schedules a speech in the City by the Bay without consulting Shorenstein. And when he speaks, high-ranking Democrats tend to listen.

During the ill faited Gore campaign, Shorenstein was reportedly bemoaning the lack of attention Al Gore had paid towards the Bay Area, where the vice president was heavily favored to win. “They have no problem picking up the phone and asking for 25 thousand more dollars,” a source close to Shorenstein told the San Francisco Chronicle, “but they won’t answer the phone when asked to come out here and energize the troops.” Shorenstein’s call evidently got through: Within a week, President Clinton had added a rally in San Francisco to his schedule.