Former B.A.R. reporter Bruce Pettit dies
Bruce Pettit, a City Hall and political reporter with the Bay Area Reporter from 1977 to 1979, died January 20, just 11 days shy of his 77th birthday.
He had been suffering from long-term heart disease and was in hospice care at his Noe Valley home. Pastor Sadie Stone of Bethany United Methodist Church was with Mr.
Pettit and said he died peacefully. Mr. Pettit, who compiled this obituary before his death, started The Pettit Report newsletter on San Francisco politics in 1980, hosted the "Viewpoint" cable TV show on San Francisco politics from 1991 to 2006, and wrote for other mainstream and LGBTQ publications.
At the B.A.R., he covered such stories as the 1978 passage of Supervisor Harvey Milk's gay rights ordinance. The headline and byline of that story appeared in Gus Van Sant's 2008 "Milk" movie that starred Sean Penn.
