Publisher’s Stunning Testimony Was Not New

The San Francisco Examiner publisher who was abruptly suspended by Hearst Corp. after admitting on the witness stand that he offered favorable editorial coverage to Mayor Willie Brown was only repeating what he told the Justice Department in December.

Timothy White’s deposition five months ago before government antitrust lawyers was virtually identical to his explosive testimony Monday in federal court. A transcript of the deposition said two Hearst lawyers attended the session.

“Apparently they have fired this man not because of the information itself, but because it was revealed in a public forum,” said Joseph M. Alioto, lawyer for businessman Clint Reilly, the former mayoral candidate suing to block Hearst’s purchase of the San Francisco Chronicle and sale of the Examiner.

White, in a statement issued by Hearst, said he had been “tired and confused by the question” asked in court Monday. He was placed on indefinite leave Tuesday.

According to a transcript of White’s Dec. 16 deposition, federal lawyers questioned him about his Aug. 30 meeting with Brown. At that time, Brown was publicly opposing Hearst’s plans to buy the Chronicle and sell the Examiner or merge it into the larger paper.

A Justice Department lawyer asked if White intended to convey to Brown that his support for Hearst’s purchase “would result in more favorable treatment” by the Examiner. White answered yes.

He gave the same answer to the same question in court Monday, and later specified that he was talking about editorials, not news coverage.

Both Brown and Examiner Executive Editor Phil Bronstein, who also attended the lunch meeting, said outside court that no such discussion took place.

Debra Shriver, Hearst director of corporate communications, said White was suspended entirely because of what he revealed in testimony Monday. Regardless of whether any lawyers for the company were at the deposition, “senior executives at the company were not aware of the content of the testimony” until White testified in open court, she said.

The transcript shows that two Hearst lawyers were at the deposition: Gary Halling, the company’s chief attorney at the trial, and Jonathan Thackeray, Hearst’s vice president and general counsel.

Shriver said Thackeray told her that he left the deposition before it ended and did not hear the testimony in question. She did not know whether Halling remained throughout the proceeding.

Hearst said it was launching an internal investigation into White’s testimony. The Examiner reasserted its independence in a front-page message to readers Wednesday: “The newsroom employees of the Examiner are proud that our editorial support is not, and never has been, for sale. We fully expect any employee to be held accountable for actions that undermine our editorial integrity.”