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The Houston Chronicle is a daily newspaper in Houston, Texas. It is one of the 10 largest newspapers in the United States, with a circulation of more than 549,300, and with the demise of its long-time rival Houston Post, its nearest major competitors are located in Dallas-Fort Worth. It is owned and operated by the New York based Hearst Corporation.

Its opinion page editor, James Howard Gibbons, has stated that "The Chronicle's editorial policy is neither liberal nor conservative, but based upon principles and pragmatism that transcend, or, less grandly, avoid partisan ideology." However, in an Viewpoints Outlook column published in August 2004 Gibson stated "The White House, U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are in the clutches of politicians who are either extremely conservative or charlatans".

History

The Houston Chronicle was founded in 1901 by a former reporter for the Houston Post who obtained financial success on an investment he made while covering the Spindletop oil well boom. The paper was once owned by Jesse H. Jones

Criticism

On the political right, the paper's main critics are conservative talk radio stations including KSEV radio and an affiliated weblog entitled Chronically Biased. The paper's editorial page is often a target for satire and derision in Houston political circles for what critics perceive as an overbearing habit of promoting light rail transit. Chronically Biased features a cartoon character named "Captain Chronicle" who espouses light rail transit as the solution to all of Houston's problems including those unrelated to traffic.

In May of 2005 the Harris County Republican Party joined a boycott of the newspaper, which had previously been espoused by KSEV hosts. The Republican Party accused the paper of having a liberal political slant, of biased coverage of the light rail project, of supporting Planned Parenthood, and of waging a "personal smear campaign" against Houston congressman Tom DeLay.

The newspaper also has critics on the political left. The Houston Press, an alternative weekly paper that often takes a liberal perspective, frequently runs a column entitled "News Hostage", which critiques the Chronicle. The Houston Press described the paper as a "tireless promoter of rail" and mocked its editorial board's habit of portraying rail as the key to making Houston a "world class" city.

Light Rail memorandum controversy

In late 2002, Chronicle website managers accidentally posted an internal memorandum to reporters on its home site, HoustonChronicle.com. The memorandum outlined a draft agenda of coordinated news articles, editorials, and political commentaries to be published by the paper, seemingly to promote a hotly contested mass transit referendum to expand Houston's controversial METRORail system on the 2003 ballot, which was later approved narrowly by voters. The memo's anonymous author suggested in part:

"I propose a series of editorials, editorial cartoons and Sounding Board columns leading up to the rail referendum, with this specific objective: Continuing our long standing efforts to make rail a permanent part of the transit mix here. The timing, language and approach of the paper's editorials would, of course, be the decision of the Editorial Board. But I suggest that they could be built upon and informed by a news-feature package with an equally specific focus"

The memorandum then proposed several "investigative" news stories and editorials designed to examine "the campaign led by Tom DeLay and Bob Lanier to defeat rail expansion." DeLay, a Houston congressman, and Lanier, a former mayor of Houston, had both actively opposed light rail in the past.

The document was online for only an hour, but long enough to be viewed by some readers. Two days later the Houston Review, a conservative student publication, published its full text and an accompanying commentary that criticized the paper for bias. Several other local weekly and monthly newspapers including the Houston Press and the Houston Forward Times seized on the controversy, as did local talk radio stations, bloggers, and the conservative Free Republic Internet forum. The Houston Press, which is sometimes accused of a liberal slant, also accused the Chronicle of having a bias toward rail.

The Chronicle's response was notably muted. Its only official response appeared in the "corrections" section later the same week stating: "An internal Houston Chronicle document was mistakenly posted to the editorial/opinion area of the Web site early Thursday morning. We apologize for any confusion it may have caused."

Later, the Houston Press tracked down Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen, who defended the memorandum in unapologetic terms: "I make no apologies for having a thorough discussion of the issue. We have nothing to apologize for…There was an inadvertent posting of it to the Web site, and I'm sorry about that, but I make no apologies for the contents of it."

In subsequent weeks several Houston bloggers reported writing letters to the editor about the memorandum, though none were ever published . Beyond the correction statement and Cohen's comments, the newspaper maintained complete silence about the memorandum scandal or the allegations of bias it produced.

Further, in keeping with the indications of the memorandum, the Chronicle editorial page became a vocal public advocate of the METROrail referendum in late 2003 and repeatedly endorsed its adoption. At the time, the Chronicle's critics noted that the paper's Editorial Board continued being a vocal advocate of the expansion of Houston's light rail and charged that the paper became a partisan participant in the debate over light rail expansion. Most notably, the Chronicle filed a complaint with the Harris County District Attorney's office asking that Texans for True Mobility (TTM), the main organization opposing the referendum, be investigated for potential violations of Texas election law for refusing to reveal its contributors' identities. Violation of the law, a misdemeanor, is punishable by a maximum $500 fine.

Under Texas election law, candidates and political action committees must make financial disclosures. The Chronicle's complaint argued that this law covered TTM because, though it was registered as a non-profit organization, it made "paid political moves" regulated by state election law when it sent out direct mailings saying "Metro's Rail Plan Costs Too Much ... Does Too Little" and "Metro's Plan Won't Work Here"; and running television and radio advertisements denouncing light rail the day before the referendum.

Texas campaign law allows nonprofits to run "educational" advertisements, but those advertisements cannot endorse specific political positions or people or make a specific recommendation in a pending election.

Later that year, the group revealed that that their TV and radio ads were funded by $30,000 in contributions made the day before the election by two PACs controlled by DeLay. Rosenthal later dismissed the Chronicle's complaint, finding it without merit on the grounds that the statute did not apply. Rosenthal's involvement in the probe itself came under fire by the Houston Press, which in editorials questioned whether Rosenthal was too close to TTM: from 2000 to 2004, Rosenthal accepted some $30,000 in donations from known TTM supporters.

Planned Parenthood Contributions

The newspaper's objectivity on the issue of abortion has also been called into question following revelations that the Chronicle makes several annual contributions to abortion provider Planned Parenthood. According to an investigation by the Houston Review, the Chronicle and one of its executives, Richard J. V. Johnson, have donated several thousand dollars to the abortion provider and sponsored its events. The paper's support for Planned Parenthood has also been cited by KSEV radio and the Republican Party as a reason for their boycotts.

Iraq War

In early 2004 the Chronicle was accused of bias regarding its coverage of the death of Leroy Sandoval, a soldier from Houston who was killed in Iraq. Chronicle reporter Lucas Wall visited the family of Sandoval for an interview about the loss of their loved one.

After the article appeared Sandoval's family members complained that a sentence alleging "President Bush's failure to find weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq misrepresented their views on the war and President George W. Bush (the Sandoval family was supportive of the war). The next day Sandoval's stepfather and sister called into Houston talk radio station KSEV and explained that Wall had pressured them for a quotation that criticized Bush and then included the line alleging Bush's "failure" against the wishes of the family.

A bitter on-air showdown ensued between Dan Patrick, the radio show host, and an assistant managing editor at the Chronicle, who defended his reporter's story. The incident prompted Patrick to join the call for a boycott of the paper. The story was also picked up by the local Houston television stations and, a week later, the O'Reilly Factor.The issue cooled down when Chronicle publisher Jack Sweeney contacted the Sandoval family to apologize.

External links

• The Houston Chronicle
• The Houston Press

• Weblogs critical of the Chronicle:
• chronicallybiased.com
• Lone Star Times "Lone Star Times"
• Texas Media Watch Political Opinion Column Disguised as News

• Texas newspapers