A regional journalism organization recognized freelance investigative reporter Seth Rosenfeld with a freedom-of-information award this week for his Public Press series exposing secrecy and lax state regulation of the burgeoning ride-hailing industry. Rosenfeld spent five months in late 2019 and early 2020 digging into the cozy relationship between the California Public Utilities Commission and the companies it purportedly regulated, Uber and Lyft. In “Ride-Hailing’s Dark Data,” launched online in January 2020 and as a print edition cover story, Rosenfeld found that for six years the commission withheld from public view annual safety reports detailing the industry’s troubling record of crashes and injuries, with sometimes deadly consequences.
Author Archives: Michael Stoll
Michael Stoll is senior editor and co-founder of the San Francisco Public Press. Formerly executive director, he has also been a reporter and freelance writer for local and national outlets, including the San Francisco Examiner and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has taught journalism at two Bay Area universities, and researched media ethics at Stanford.
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, Homelessness, Media
Criticism Highlights the Case for Responsible Accountability Journalism
The website SFist on Thursday accused the San Francisco Public Press of inaccurate reporting and fabricating a source in an article on a private company that cleared a homeless street encampment last month. These allegations are false. The Public Press stands behind our story and two follow-up articles by reporter Nuala Bishari.
Posted inFrom the Newsroom
Help us deliver more award-winning journalism
While awards should never be the sole arbiter of quality, we’ll take the recognition when offered! We’re proud to announce two new awards
Posted inCoronavirus, From the Newsroom
Covering Coronavirus and the New Normal
With the global coronavirus outbreak bearing down on us, the Public Press is committed to serving the community with relevant, timely and accurate information about public health and the response by local institutions. We pledge to remain nimble in our news coverage and provide clarity about important developments where needed. We’re focused on following storylines […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
A Free Press Is Taking Root in South Korea
Corruption of national leaders. A fragile democracy teetering between constitutional order and authoritarianism. A desperate populace leaning on journalists to hold the powerful to account. While those patterns resonate in many countries — and the news cycle suggests the United States in early 2020 — it’s encouraging to know that journalists across the globe are […]
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, Climate Change, Environment
Journalist Discusses Reporting on Local Governments’ Slow Response to Sea Level Rise
Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll talks with journalist Kevin Stark about Stark’s reporting that showed how local governments were slow in responding to the predicted effects of sea level rise on the Bay Area waterfront. “So I think the scientists were hesitant to get out and say you shouldn’t be building, but what they […]
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, From the Newsroom, Media
But Why a Radio Station? Michael Stoll of the Public Press Explains It All
San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll talks with Jennifer Waits, who hosts the radio show “Radio Survivor,” about why and how the Public Press launched a low-power FM radio station. “We always thought of ourselves as a newspaper based on a public broadcasting model, and now we’re a public broadcaster based on a […]
Posted in“Civic” Podcast, From the Newsroom, Media
Looking Back on First 10 Years of the San Francisco Public Press
San Francisco Public Press Executive Director Michael Stoll and Publisher Lila LaHood look back on a decade of working in a nonprofit news operation they founded — including the hurdles they had to overcome to establish nonprofit status for the Public Press — and look to the future. “We are hewing much closer to the […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
A Decade of Defying Downward Expectations
In February 2009, our freshly launched website featured just a handful of stories. So, we were surprised when a reporter from the Wall Street Journal called wanting to know whether the San Francisco Public Press, which was planning to officially launch in March, was going to “replace” the San Francisco Chronicle. Facing falling revenues (it […]
Posted inFrom the Newsroom, News
Journalism and the Arc of Social Justice
A panel of experts and stakeholders explained the state of the homelessness crisis at our January 2018 event, Solving Homelessness: a Community Workshop, an event that overlapped with our continuing print and online coverage of the issue. Photo by Garrick Wong // San Francisco Public Press/Renaissance Journalism We honestly didn’t expect the issue of […]