http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The Seattle Times Co. began an active campaign Wednesday to support Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna and gay marriage, part of a push to demonstrate the effectiveness of newspaper political advertising.
Ummm.
The subscription department was very busy just now.
I just got off of the phone. I let them know that there is just one industry that has the protection of the constitution. That industry is the press.
The press is not protected so that it may engage in politics. The press is protected so that it does not engage in politics.
What was more offensive? The fact that they did it? Or the fact that they think Washington voters would be stupid enough to fall for the Fauxnews equivalency bullshit.
"We support gay marriage, so we're not the crazy types. We're just being "fair" aren't we? "
The excuse they make publicly is that they are trying to show how political advertising works.
That way, they can really show that it works.
How about they just give the advertising away for free to people who have no publicity? If someone who has no name recognition were to suddenly see a large bump in their name recognition and polling, don't you agree that it would show the success of print media?
In this case, the way they can tell that it was successful is if the issues pass. Ref74 (The marriage equality initiative) , in my opinion, is going to pass anyway.
How Did it Get this way?
I have been annoyed by Kos' historical carping on print media. Print media is still relevant for many people. It's relevant for older people, and it's relevant for people who have no access to digital media- poor people.
It would still annoy me, because the access issues aren't any different, regardless of which direction the political winds blow the newspaper.
We got here because the Seattle PI went fully digital a few years back. This turned us into another American city with one major newspaper. They pretended that they would be able to be fair. They aren't.
The journalist who wrote about this, Jim Brunner, appears to be on board the false equivalence bus. I let him know personally that I hold him responsible for his actions in supporting the false equivalence.
See the first comment for the quote I wanted them to have about my cancellation.
I thought I'd be one of the last people to subscribe to a hard copy of the paper.