Times Endorsement Interview

My email, on my return from recent travels, included an invitation from the Seattle Times for their “Endorsement interview”.   My BCC candidacy, as well as my prior 48^th District candidacy last year, is based in no small part on the Time’s complete lack of “interest” in my concerns about Sound Transits policies. 

Four years of attempts to attract their attention via emails of “opinions” and offers to meet with anyone on their staff to discuss the issues were ignored.  It was particularly frustrating since any competent investigative journalist would have quickly concluded Sound Transit made a monumental blunder when they neglected to consider two-way BRT as the “no-build option” for the bridge center roadway.  Revealing that reality in the paper could have saved the area hundreds of millions and years of increased congestion.  Instead they've spent the years abetting Sound Transit mendacity, incompetence, and arrogance (see 8/02/12 post)

When I attempted to make that point (9/05/12 post) during last year’s “Endorsement Interview” they simply weren’t interested.  To put it mildly, the rest of the interview “didn’t go well” and I was “excused” early.  I followed the interview with several posts concerning the paper’s lack of responsible journalism (9/13/12, 10/25/12, 11/19/12, 1/06/13, and 5/21/13).

Since the election I’ve made a point of using email to refer the Editorial Board, the Executive Editor David Boardman, and columnists Danny Westneat and Bruce Ramsey to many of the posts on this blog.  While they may or may not have read them, I’ve yet to receive any response or read of any Sound Transit criticisms in their paper.  This “blind eye” to concerns has led me to conclude the Times has become a co-conspirator with Sound Transit on policies that, if allowed to continue, will devastate the entire areas transportation funding for a very long time.

Needless to say I declined their invitation for an Endorsement Interview.