Newhouse: An American tragedy in Oakland

[Blue_Tires]

Chauncey Bailey was a muckraker. That's not all he was, but it was his public image, and it cost him his life.

Muckraking is the equivalent of knighthood in journalism — the diligent, investigative, raking-the-muck probing that rights societal wrongs. And Bailey had ascended to muckraking knight in the Oakland community.

Then he was slain in 2007. Bailey's death was the most prominent killing of an American journalist since the 1976 car-bombing death of The Arizona Republic's Don Bolles.

Bailey would be proud of the award-winning Chauncey Bailey Project, emanating from his old workplace, the Oakland Tribune, for uncovering what he would have been even prouder to unravel himself.

Speaking of winning awards, Zachary Stauffer, 30, of Oakland, was honored this year by the Fargo (N.D.) Film Festival for producing the Best Short Documentary, "A Day Late in Oakland," about Bailey, who was the Oakland Post editor when he was killed while investigating financial improprieties involving Your Black Muslim Bakery.

Stauffer's 261/2-minute documentary, which was his master's thesis at UC Berkeley, will be shown at the Oakland International Film Festival today at 5 p.m. at the Jack London Theater and Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. at Merritt College.

Stauffer majored in history at Boston College with a filmmaking minor, intending to merge both fields of study into the role of documentarian. After

http://www.insidebayarea.com/columns/ci_13534542

[Number23]

1. Wow. Now THIS is a movie that I can get into.

Thanks for posting. Had never heard of Mr. Bailey nor his story.