Editorial : It is wrong to attack journalists based on their news reports that you disagree with

Again, a journalist in San Francisco has been personally attacked because of his news reports lately. Joe Eskenazi, an award winning journalist and Columnist/Managing Editor of Mission Local, was referred to as "Joe EskeNAZI" by Leanna Louie, a Chinese American candidate who runs for District 4 (Sunset District) Supervisor in the upcoming November election.

The anti-semitic discriminatory message was posted by Louie on her Facebook page in the afternoon of August 23. On that day prior to the post, Louie was interviewed by a KQED reporter. Louie then wrote in her post that “It was so nice to talk to a journalist who actually had a dialogue with me. Unlike Joe EskeNAZI who called me and talked over me and didn't even write any of my responses."

Eskenazi is a Jewish and was born in San Francisco. He attended U.C.Berkeley and has been a journalist for over two decades. He worked at SF Weekly and San Francisco Magazine before joining the Mission Local. Eskenazi was named by Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Northern California Chapter as the 2019 Journalist of the Year.

On August 10, Eskenazi published his first article related to Louie who was alleged to have changed her voter registration three times in three months in 2022. Louie is a longtime resident of District 10. She told the voters in Sunset District that she had moved to District 4 before she filed papers to run for their Supervisor in the November election.

According to the report by Eskenazi, Louie registered to vote in Bayview in 2016. She registered to vote at a leased Sunset apartment in March 2022. In April, Louie registered at her address in Bayview and voted in the Assembly District 17 race. In May, she re-registered again at her Sunset address.

"On her declaration of candidacy, she listed a District 4 address on 35th Avenue as her 'home', but included her longtime family home in District 10 as her 'mailing' address," Eskenazi reported.

On August 11, the day after the article was published, Louie responded on Twitter and wrote, "Mission Local is totally inaccurate in reporting. Fake news. I registered my 94116 address on 3/8/2022. The Department of Elections sent ballots to my old registration address in 94124 in April 2022. I did my civic duty by voting."

"In May, I received ballots at both 94124 and 94116. I was confused. I went to the Department of Elections in person to get clarification on 5/9/2022." Louie continued, "Department of Elections (DOE) staff verbally apologized and fixed the issue. I voted in person at DOE to oust Chesa Boudin on 5/9. DOE received a complaint questioning residency last week. DOE asked me for proof of residency. I provided proof. END OF STORY."

On August 23, Louie posted on Facebook and capitalized last four letters of Joe Eskenazi's last name as "EskeNAZI". NAZI is defined as a discriminatory language for anti-Semitism.

Social media visitors have poured in to condemn Louie's post against Eskenazi. In the early morning of August 24, Louie apologized on Twitter and wrote, "In a recent Facebook post, I used all caps to highlight the word NAZI in the last name of a journalist who has written several inflammatory articles about me recently."

"I expressed my frustration with Mr. Eskenazi's barrage of news articles in a highly inaccurate manner." Louie stated. "This formatting of his surname was in poor taste and I want to sincerely apologize to Joe Eskenazi, his family, and the Jewish community. I did not know that Joe is Jewish when I made the post."

Within the Chinese community, Wind Newspaper has received a number of messages from our members to protest against Louie's post about Eskenazi. They supported the work of all journalists to keep the community informed related to elected officials and candidates who are running for public offices.

Eskenazi is not alone. In my 30+ years of covering news stories in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was personally attacked many times by different groups of individuals who disagreed with the articles that I had written. Those individuals had held protests in front of our newsroom, or lobbied the management to fire me, or yelled at me at public events. It also occurred after I launched Wind Newspaper in 2020.

It was very wrong to attack Eskenazi and any journalists who have done their news reports based on public records and facts. We are journalists not to cover news stories to please anyone. Our job is not to promote anyone. You might agree or disagree with our articles.

The news media is often called the Fourth Estate that is the unofficial fourth branch of government after the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court. We act as a watchdog of the government, informing the public of official corruption, misconduct or misguided policies.

Why was Joe Eskenazi interested in writing about Louie like many of the government officials in his 20-year career as a journalist? Because Louie is running for public office which is very powerful and she would make decisions on city politics once she gets elected. The public and the voters deserve to know more of their candidates. It is journalists' job and social responsibility.