I have called the Houston Chronicle a whore for years. Used to go to the Bissonnet Corridor to find her. She provides great service at a very reasonable price.
Yet every month, I still pay for her services.
That may sound hypocritical until you understand the arrangement.
I do not pay the Chronicle to tell me what to think.
I pay because she still knows things.
She has reporters at City Hall, the courthouse, police headquarters, Austin and places most of us cannot spend all day wandering around. She has access, institutional memory and enough money left to occasionally dig up something worth stealing.
And every now and then, she even does damn good work.
The problem comes when the reporting ends and the editorial board climbs onto the mattress.
This week, the Chronicle editorial board told Mayor John Whitmire that he needs to show courage over ICE, use his bipartisan relationships, bring business leaders and conservatives aboard and push harder for accountability after the killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. (Houston Chronicle)
Nothing particularly wrong with that.
Except this is the same newspaper that endorsed Whitmire for mayor in 2023. (Houston Chronicle)
It is also the same editorial board that, just a few months ago, blasted him for backing away from Houston’s ICE ordinance after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened more than $100 million in state funding. The Chronicle said Whitmire had “buckled” and mocked Houston for looking pretty weak. (Houston Chronicle)
Now the Chronicle wants Whitmire to use the very thing that helped make him attractive in the first place:
His ability to work with Republicans.
So let me see if I understand the house rules.
When Whitmire works with Republicans and the Chronicle doesn’t like the result, he has surrendered.
When the Chronicle wants Republicans brought around to its position, suddenly his bipartisan relationships are a civic treasure.
That is not necessarily hypocrisy.
It may simply be excellent customer service.
I have dealt with reporters for decades. I even spent time as chief of staff to a Houston council member who was getting beaten bloody in the press. The people who recruited me did not particularly like me, but they had a problem.
So I gave the reporters better stories.
That taught me something about newspapers that I have never forgotten.
You do not always have to stop a story.
Sometimes you simply give the reporter something juicier to chase.
That is also why I still subscribe to the Chronicle.
I read what it reports.
Then I read what it thinks.
Then I look at the difference.
Sometimes the story is hiding right there.
The Chronicle may occasionally climb into bed with politicians I dislike. At other times it climbs into bed with politicians I like. Sometimes it changes partners before the sheets have cooled.
But Houston only has so many people still being paid to knock on doors, read budgets, ask questions and annoy public officials.
So I keep paying.
Not for affection.
Not for loyalty.
Certainly not for advice.
I pay because my favorite whore still brings home gossip worth checking.