Communications - #7 Dec 93

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Paul Andrews' Oct. 24 Seattle Times article on Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was so sycophantic that we couldn't help but notice some distracting sniffing and sucking noises.

Based on a "rare interview" with the billionaire big man (we counted only eight direct quotes in 70 inches of copy), Andrews gushed ad nauseam off the front page and into the business section. There, Andrews offered a bizarre, futuristic world where we will call up a basketball player's latest stats on the Allen-owned America Online bulletin board while we watch the Allen-owned Portland Trailblazers on the Allen-owned satellite channel.

Of course, this multimedia-sports-info-wetdream happens in the year 2000 in the living room of our Allen-owned Seattle Commons townhouse. (Allen has loaned the Commons Committee $20 million.)

Perhaps Andrews, who wrote the book on tycoon Bill Gates, should spend more of his time spinning theories about Microsoft's hardball tactics in the software biz. And the Wall Street Journal recently detailed "human resource" plans to weed out "under-achievers" at Microsoft. But never is heard a discouraging word from Andrews.

While Andrews admits that his glimpse into the future of Allen Land is "highly theoretical," it looks horizontally integrated to us. Let's face it, the corporate gang-bang in "digital convergence" mergers has profound antitrust implications. Instead of sucking on a mind-numbingly shallow cathode-ray teat, we'll soon be sucking on an interactive, monopolistic, mind-numbingly shallow cathode-ray teat.

And another thing: We appreciate Paul Allen's admiration of Jimi Hendrix. But is Allen's planned $10 million to $20 million investment in a Hendrix museum a real tribute, or just another part of his multimedia empire?

Boeing Rides Media's Friendly Skies

Two of the most often heard criticisms about how the mainstream media cover big business: lack of balanced labor coverage and downplaying of corporate misconduct.

These two widely held perceptions converged in October in the pages of The Seattle Times business section. Consider:

On Oct. 11, a three-paragraph blurb mentioned a recent Fortune article that ranks Boeing among the top 10 worst corporate polluters in the United States. Fortune said Boeing "has an insipid two-line environmental policy statement; sets few numerical goals for reducing waste and pollution; [and its] hazardous waste is rising, not falling."

One would think that Fortune's findings (many of which previously were detailed in the April edition of The Free Press) would warrant further inspection by the biggest best-financed newspaper in the state. They didn't.

Later in the month, on Oct. 29, a story screamed atop the Times business section about how an official of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers - which represents Boeing workers - was indicted for embezzlement and other financial misconduct. The three-column story went o to rehash the wrongdoing of two union officials, which previously had been detailed at length by the Times.

The paper has had a field day with the machinist union scandal, which, though clearly newsworthy, ain't no Watergate. Meanwhile, Boeing continues to pump millions of pounds of toxic waste into the state's air, water and soil every year - with ne'er a peep from the region's mainstream print or broadcast news media. And thousands of Boeing employees are being poisoned by carcinogens and other hazardous workplace chemicals at this very moment.

R.I.P.

Inspired by a computer bulletin board on international issues, Tresi Kilbourne hoped to use desktop-publishing technology to "redemocratize information and correct the imbalance of news from the Third World." So he started Subtext, a Seattle-based publication specializing in international news. Subtext did well at first, which Kilbourne attributed to the elections in Nicaragua and the Gulf War. Paid subscriptions reached 400. "After Clinton was elected, there was massive relaxation and a loss of interest in the Third World. Our subscriptions and renewals didn't keep pace," Kilbourne said. "There are no shortcuts in the newspaper business. WE had thought we could produce a low-budget newspaper in our spare time, but I think that was probably naive." Subtext folded earlier this year. It will be missed.
Arterial, one of our favorite local arts and culture magazines, published its eighth and last issue this fall. It's a particularly sad demise, given the magazine's refreshing mix of traditional arts coverage with social and political musings. It's also painful to see a publication go under even though it had the support of the Seattle and Washington State arts commissions, and Allied Arts. Notwithstanding its collector's-item appeal, Arterial's final issue is worth picking up. Featured are stories on printer/tattoo artist Owen Connell, Seattle-based environmental radio show Earth on the Air, and poet Denise Levertov, as well as a moving photo essay called "Landscapes" and works by local poets.
John Pack's best laid plans of creating a media empire in Seattle have gone the way of most financially overextended publications. Pack was the "Editor-in-Chief/Publisher/President" of Face II Face magazine, whose seventh and last issue came out in October. What's equally curious and pathetic is that even with a $150,000 investment from the Underground Night Club in the U-District, Pack still couldn't keep the magazine going. Part of the problem was that Pack printed the magazine on high-end paper and offered huge discounts on ads, even giving some away for free. Pack reportedly left town owing thousands of dollars in printing and other bills. Out of the ashes of Face II Face has arisen Month, whose first issue came out in early November. Ex-Face staffers pulled Month together using warmed-over Face articles and former Face advertisers.
The Urban Spelunker and Twist Weekly are rumored to be having financial troubles.

J-A Management's Offensive Fails

Pro-union employees at the Bellevue-based Journal-American newspaper recently tasted the sweet and the sour.

The sweet came in the form of a failed union decertification drive. In late October, employees voted 57-34 to retain the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild as their representative, despite an anti-union campaign by management.

The sour comes from knowing that they are now working for bosses who have actively worked against the guild. Management could now further delay contract bargaining in an effort to erode support for the union.

"A root canal would be more fun," said Liz Brown, the guild's unit chair at the J-A in describing the protracted bargaining and the insecurity of working without a contract since February. Brown noted an edginess among managers as well, especially front-line supervisors who deal directly with the employees.

Nick Chernock, a top manager at the J-A, declined to comment to the Free Press on why management had taken an adversarial stance. He did, however, talk about the latest United Way charity drive at the newspaper.

Times' Blethen Plays Publisher Card

Even though every other member of The Seattle Times' editorial board wanted to endorse Gary Locke for King County Executive, publisher Frank Blethen wanted it his way. The result? Tim Hill became the Times' choice in the race, though the paper took the unprecedented step of printing beneath the Hill endorsement an editorial making a case for Locke, who wound up creaming the incumbent Republican.

"It was unanimous for Gary Locke, but Frank buys the ink," said a Times staffer. "He's bigger than the other elephants."

"It's happened before, but this was the first time they took this way out [by printing the accompanying editorial]. Frank kind of glories in that feeling of democracy. He likes that stuff," the staffer said not-so unsarcastically.

Why did Blethen push for Hill? Was it because Blethen is a member of the Republican... I mean... Rainier Club? Or was it because Hill recently came out against what he called onerous taxes and regulations that were unfriendly to media darling Boeing?

"It caused quite a bit of eyebrow lifting, even around here," the Times staffer said.

Bias Watch

Seattle's daily newspapers consistently leave the words "employees," "workers" and "people" out of articles about layoffs at Boeing. A classic case in point: A Dec.1 story by Seattle Times business reporter Polly Lane doesn't have the word "employee" until nearly the end of the 500-plus-word article. And in this particular sentence, Lane deftly avoids introducing actual people: "Boeing employs 89,100 statewide and 118,509 company-wide." Employs what?? Mules? Yak? It's people, and any linguist will tell you this style of writing subtly but palpably takes the human element out of the message, therefore leaving the reader with an incomplete grasp of the issue. Oh, and Lane didn't interview any workers or union representatives from Boeing, which enjoyed record profits and sales last year.
German car producer Mercedes-Benz in August sent letters to 30 magazines in which it advertises. The letter threatened to pull advertisements if the magazines printed negative articles about anything German. Half the magazines had already agreed before public pressure forced the company to cancel the request.

Widows & Orphans

Scott Fivash, publisher of such magazines as Washington CEO, Return to Christian Living and PS (a slick, regional lifestyles mag) recently landed a financial investment from friend Jack McMillian, a co-chair of the Nordstrom Co, The Seattle Times reported Oct. 27. "I have been very impressed with the job that Scott Fivash and his team have done with their publications," the Times quoted McMillian as saying. No surprise here. After all, birds of a corporate feather flock together.
EXTRA! , the magazine of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, in its Nov./Dec. issue describes a purge of "politically correct" staffers at affiliates of the Fox TV network, which is owned by conservative Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch. The policy was outlined in a letter form the news director at the network's Washington, D.C. affiliate, WTTG, to Fox chair Les Hinton. A WTTG news staffer told Variety that the letter "verifies there is a conservative agenda being funneled from top Fox management down to this station." What? No more hooters on "Married With Children"?
Canadian authorities have arrested at least 60 people for carrying into the country copies of newspapers containing details of the bizarre torture-murders of two young girls. Unlike the U.S. Constitution, Canadian law gives the government broad powers to actually outlaw the flow of information generated from court proceedings. In this case, a husband and wife couple is standing trial for the two murders, and the presiding judge has thrown down a gag order that has blocked Canadian newspapers from writing about the trial, an order that's being followed. The Canadian drivers were arrested at the border for carrying copies of American newspapers that covered the story.
Succumbing to readers threatening to cancel their subscriptions, the Journal-American of Bellevue now calls its gay and lesbian personal ad section "alternative lifestyles." The section used to be called "Men Seeking Men" and "Women Seeking Women." Speaking of homosexual backlash, people are starting to cancel their subscriptions to the P-I because of perceived increase in coverage of gay and lesbian issues.

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Contents on this page were published in the December/Jan, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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