SPIKE

THE RABID
MEDIA
WATCHDOG





Click Here For Brown Nose

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.

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

Widows & Orphans




[
Home] [This Issue's Directory] [WFP Index] [WFP Back Issues] [E-Mail WFP]

Contents on this page were published in the December/Jan, 1994 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1993 WFP Collective, Inc.