According a report published by SF Weekly, SF MTA chief Nathaniel Ford seems to be willingly ignoring the online concerns of his riders, telling one man that “he doesn’t read blogs” when asked about a recent Weekly cover story on Muni’s woes. Maybe this is why Ford can feel “optimistic” about the agency, because he doesn’t know what a huge swath of riders are saying about the transit agency?
According to the Weekly, author/activist Harry Pariser says “I gave the SF Weekly cover story to Mr. Nathaniel Ford, who had not seen it. He told me he doesn’t read blogs when I asked him about it at first. But this is a news article. Amazing!”
Ignoring for a moment the tiresome (and, seriously, totally past the sell-by date) discussion on the differences between a blog post and a “news article,” we have to ask, really? No SFist, no Muni Diaries, no NY Times Bay Area Blog (OK, hard to blame him, there), no Akit, no got my pass in here somewhere, no N Judah Chronicles, no Streetsblog, no City Insider?
The Weekly hops on Ford’s assertion because to them, it implies that Ford had not read their article, but penned “a critical letter to SF Weekly regarding the story.” (A letter you can’t see online yet, as, says Weekly writer (who blogs!) Joe Eskenazi “SF Weekly has received, but not yet printed, Ford’s letter.”)
But, at least to me, I’ve got to wonder (assuming Pariser’s account is accurate), what has inspired Ford to refuse to read his news online? We’ve asked the SF MTA’s media relations team, and will update when we hear back. Update: MTA spokesperson Kristen Holland received our questions with sparkling humor — not being sarcastic, she is cool — and said she will report back to us. Exciting!
