The Newspaper of the Mind

The, lurid stories behind the lurid stories and all that. But what is our philosophy? And most importantly, why would you want to read us?

If in Casablanca, we might be asking “of all the gin joints in the world, why did she have to pick mine.” There are 200 million blogs on line.

But at BR, we’ve staked out some world famous Berkeley beats: Telegraph Ave., the Cafe Mediterraneum, People’s Park. “Berkeley’s Soul” (Telegraph/Haste). Still we’ve gone off-beat, when driven to it.

Like the New York Times, or the New Yorker, we have our own style. The style often satirizes, or pokes fun, possibly inappropriately. Some, like Micah M. White, a “co-founder” of the international Occupy Movement, and a recent Berkeley resident — don’t like our stuff.

White called my early articles on Occupy Berkeley — “an insult.” Later, he called my work “crap…the worst in the country.”

Still, what is our philosophy? We strive, firstly, to humanize. In our recent story on the four-alarm destruction, of an 1916 apartment house on Telegraph, we “covered,” one of the victims, a young Hampster named Tango.

My editor, at the Berkeley Daily Planet, said she’d heard four dogs, had perished in the fire as well. “But I can name my victim,” I retorted.

We have quarreled with our sources, and written of it. Made our fair share of mistakes, and reported to you about it.

We’ve named a neighborhood, reconstructed a sensational murder, and successfully gotten the word “chicken-shit” into our headline, on a dare. We are impulsive, and brassy. We often write purple — with noirish abandon.

We have assembled a cast of Runyonesque locals, many homeless street punks, Berkeley radicals, and Medheads to amuse you

Your continued readership will further acquaint you with Berkeley’s lowest, and highest.

Change means growth, and BR is changing. From making it easier for you to find the pieces you want, to changes in coverage, and emphasis, BR is on the move.

Our Reporter-in-Chief Steed Dropout. Photo by Ted Friedman.

STEED DROPOUT BIO-TWEETS

Lived near Lincoln’s home, on 7th. late 50s @U.I., SF state, mid-sixties, M.A.

Newspapers, college teaching, nightclub comedy. Homelessness. 35 dropout years.

Return to reporting 2007, Berkeley Daily Planet. Founds Berkeley Reporter, Dec., 2011. Approaching 30 blogs.