When Watchdogs Stop Watching: How the Mercury News Lost Santa Clara...And Public Trust

The San Jose Mercury News played a crucial role in Santa Clara's collapse from national ethics role model to one of California's most troubled cities—and the newspaper's silence is a big part of why this happened.

For seventeen years (1998-2015), I worked as Santa Clara's professional ethicist on an ambitious public ethics education program that earned international recognition. Scientific surveys from 2006 to 2008 showed that 9 out of 10 residents believed the city was heading in the right direction. By 2024, that number had dropped to 4 out of 10.

What changed? The San Francisco 49ers systematically purchased control of City Hall through $13 million in campaign spending—creating a five-member council majority that votes as a bloc on every major decision favoring the team. And the Mercury News, which once provided tough accountability coverage, went silent just as the story mattered most.

How the 49ers Bought City Hall

The team's strategy was straightforward and devastatingly effective. Initially, they bedazzled the City Council with celebrity and possibility. They outplayed city and consultant lawyers, drafted stadium contracts that favored the 49ers over the city, and convinced both the public and council that a publicly-owned stadium with an NFL team as long-term tenant—and a team-affiliated management company handling both NFL and non-NFL seasons—was good for the city.

But their most powerful move came ten years later. In 2020, 49ers PACs began making massive independent expenditures to create a new team-selected Council majority. By 2024, the 49ers had spent $13 million in a city where candidates traditionally accepted a $30,000 spending cap. Five of seven council members now owe their seats to unprecedented 49ers spending.

The ethics standard is clear: avoid any relationship that will compromise—or appear to compromise—a decision-maker's ability to make independent judgments for the people. The 49ers' $13 million investment in council seats creates exactly that appearance.

In 2022, the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury released "Unsportsmanlike Conduct," concluding that the Council majority "can and does put the interests of the 49ers above those of the public." A review of Council/Stadium Authority minutes from 2022-2024 confirms the pattern: every major decision favoring the team passed 5-2.

The Newspaper That Stopped Reporting

In 2010, the Mercury News covered the 49ers stadium campaign with tough questions and real accountability. Reporters dug deep. Editors held power to account. It was watchdog journalism at its best.

Then everything changed. Sharon Ryan became publisher in 2014. She later joined the Executive Committee of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group—where 49ers owner Jed York became board chair in 2020. The team became a major newspaper partner. The editorial board endorsed every 49ers-backed candidate, including Anthony Becker, later convicted of perjury for leaking a confidential grand jury report to the team.

Stories about conflicts of interest, unpaid stadium revenues, and dismantled ethics safeguards went unreported or buried. Here's how far things have fallen: During a recent ethics debate, the "49er Five" listed their accountability mechanisms—Civil Grand Jury, DA, FPPC, courts, ballot box. Missing? The Mercury News. When I moderated ethics discussions years ago, the newspaper was always cited as a crucial check on power. Not anymore.

Silence as Strategy

Over a year ago, I sent Mercury leadership detailed documentation showing how their coverage violated Trust Project standards—the journalism integrity program prominently featured on their website. I documented missing stories about millions in unpaid revenues, ignored Civil Grand Jury reports, the systematic dismantling of ethics infrastructure. I filed formal complaints with the Trust Project.

Complete silence.

This isn't incompetence—it's institutional abandonment. The newspaper that once held power accountable now ignores the story unfolding in its backyard. Residents increasingly turn to the San Francisco Chronicle for actual reporting. The Chronicle has become Santa Clara's paper of record by default.

Why Ethics Stories Disappear

The Mercury's failure reveals newspapers' institutional fear of ethics stories. They'll cover corruption after indictments, when it's legally safe. But the conflicts of interest that make corruption inevitable? The slow erosion of trust? Those stories demand explaining why something legal might still be profoundly wrong.

Ethics stories are hard. They require journalists to explain why relationships matter, why campaign spending at unprecedented scales creates obligations, why voters deserve to know when institutions designed to serve the public have been quietly transformed into instruments serving private interests instead.

By the time newspapers finally tell these stories, the damage is done—to governance and to the twin pillars of democracy: trust that local government serves the public, and trust that news media tell citizens the truth they need to vote wisely.

The first step to fixing any problem is acknowledging it exists. Until that happens, the newspaper that once held power accountable remains part of the problem it was designed to solve.

NEXT IN THIS SERIES: How the 49ers systematically removed city officials who challenged their control—and the costly year-long vacancies that followed.