Deeply hurt to read on the Twittersphere that three prominent Seattle journalists are all a-guns blazing, sniping at each other and just generally lobbing hot rhetoric and blocking like two of them think the other is on the wrong side of the Dnipro River, Ukraine when actually we’re all honorary Ukrainians on the cusp of liberating Kherson. I’m sure Dow Constantine and Danny Strauss just love this Saturday Night Slap Fight.
I name-checked those two because due to those two, freedom of the press is being targeted in Seattle. Yes, the Seattle Heidi Wills helped connect with the Sound Transit she helped give birth to — and fight to save in 2019. The Seattle of the Seattle Times, KUOW, KVI, UnDivided, PubliCola, the Discovery Institute and so much more. The Seattle of the University of Washington that gave America some of her best daughters — Heidi Wills, Heather “Newsbrooke” Brooke and some Rachel W. who hates attention because she doesn’t realize she is figuratively flying off their wings.
We should give thanks we are not in Moscow, where freedom of the press is very limited and accurate news comes out thru Telegraph app postings. We should give thanks that we are not in Kyiv dodging Iranian suicide missiles and Russian cruise missiles. We should give thanks that Donald John Trump‘s ’sinful January the Sixth insurrection was put down before we lost this exceptional country — but not before his and Senator McConnell put in sufficient Justices to strike down a woman’s right to full medical care. Oh and make SF Supervisor’s Catherine Stefani’s job that much harder to make the NRA the payphone of lobbyists. Shameful.
Freedom is not free. Freedom is paid for by every warfighter standing the watch — and every firefighter, police officer, and paramedic. Freedom is paid for by public health professionals and public records officers, and public access channels like Seattle Channel and SFGOVTV, too. Freedom is protected by every serious journalist on the beat.
As Dr. Newsbrooke wrote herself:
“At a time of information overload, good journalists are more important then ever. They serve as the public’s hired guns to collect information from various sources and challenge it for the purpose of distilling down what is important and true. They-signpost issues that are worthy of our attention.”
Indeed. That’s why the sniping back and forth has to stop, and we need to protect one another right now. We together build important signposts for all, so when one signpost is attacked — and now two — we all are.
I agree with Brandi Kruse that we in the media have to be unified right now against this “slippery slope”. What happened to FixHomelessness.org’s Jonathan Choe some including I feared could happen to KUOW’s Isolde Raftery among others and it did.
Isolde, a Washington Coalition for Open Government Key Award winner, is right about why we have to take this so serious:
Here’s why a media blackout is a big deal.
The press shares information about public meetings with those who cannot attend — maybe they have a disability, or work, or not enough money for childcare. Maybe they’re tired or anxious about Covid.
The reason doesn’t matter though: How can there be a reasonable expectation of privacy in a room with at least 230 people gathered to discuss a highly charged public issue?
To me: This is an Article 5 moment — attack on one is an attack on all — for defending journalism and frankly freedom of the press in the Central Puget Sound like our Navy defends freedom of navigation on the high seas. Shame on those who don’t recognize that and want to keep up their petty little slap fights egged on by so-called supporters and such.
We must make our foes bow down to the First Amendment and to good ethics with a united front and NATO levels of solidarity. It’s up to us to defend our home and our profession, to continue the good work of those who have gone before and to retain an exceptional America worthy of defending. That should be our unified focus now.
Already the Seattle Elections and Ethics Commission has been asked to weigh in. That’s a good start.
Also helpful: Media pressure to get the cameras back in — and an apology from Danny Strauss.
The bigger issue is who, when and where will we be tested again? Our unity and following up is what will prevent the next test. Our disunity and lack of follow-up will prompt the next test.
Either we’re unified or we journalists shall be redacted separately with our signposts destroyed until there is opaque governance everywhere. That’s up to US.
There’s my unity speech. Let’s roll!