SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 6.21.2024 UPDATED
The media, by accident or design, has already found Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao Guilty. Of what????
The mainstream media loves a feeding frenzy. The local news hounds are in full throated tabloid mode. Following the early Thursday FBI no knock raid on the home of Oakland Mayor Thao.
It’s all speculation at this point. The Justice Department is being closed lipped about why the hours long search occurred. The FBI has said nothing.
Nonetheless the media with its saturation coverage is playing nicely into the political hands of the Mayor’s opponents. Who, by the way, have just handed in sufficient signatures to have a Recall election this November.
The Mayor’s opponents have just been handed a political gift by the media. With their coverage and giving air time to Mayor Thao’s political opponents.
Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.21.2024
More than a day after the FBI raided and searched her home, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao had not been seen or heard from as of midday Friday, and spokespeople provided no information on her schedule or whereabouts.
Thao had not commented on the federal law enforcement operation that unfolded early Thursday morning, when FBI and IRS agents and postal inspectors raided four properties, including three linked to a family that runs Cal Waste Solutions, the city’s curbside recycling provider.
Her staff only referred questions to the FBI, which would not say why its public corruption unit was interested in the mayor.
On Friday, City Administrator Jestin Johnson was, as usual, directing day-to-day operations in Oakland City Hall, spokesperson Sean Maher said in a statement.
“The show has to go on — we have to continue to have a functioning government,” Oakland City Councilmember Kevin Jenkins said in a phone interview Friday. Jenkins was at home with COVID and had not been in touch with Thao.
The mayor’s absence baffled many residents and leaders in a city already plunged into crisis: Thursday’s raids followed both the verification Tuesday of enough signatures to qualify a November ballot measure to recall the mayor, and a rash of shootings Wednesday during a Juneteenth celebration at Lake Merritt.
Thao had not responded to multiple calls or text messages from the Chronicle, and her phone went straight to voicemail on Friday.
Top photo: The media camped outside the home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao – 6.21.2024
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