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Bias Watch: KOMO High-Fives Boeing

"Congratulations to everyone at Boeing. You do have a reason to be proud." This statement, cheering the recent successful test flight of Boeing's new 777 jet was made by: Unfortunately, KOMO's own Dan Lewis read this statement off of his Tele-Prompter during a special, half-hour news report on Boeing's latest product. The solemnly delivered line closed the show, which aired Sunday, June 12 at 11:30 p.m.
How on Earth can a news organization purport to be objective when it out-and-out congratulates an institution that carries such tremendous economic, political and social weight in that organization's coverage area? You could almost hear Boeing public-relations staffers slapping themselves on the back in celebrating their latest coup.
Not to beat a dead horse here, but we always thought that the No. 1 pillar of the mainstream media was its even-handedness. Sure, we understand the enormous pressure brought to bear on the local print and broadcast media to play up the good news about an entity as influential Boeing and downplay the bad. The fact that these organizations actually submit to that pressure is at the very least disappointing, and at worst, malfeasant.
Dan Lewis and the rest of the KOMO news staff owe their viewers an apology-and a promise that they will never again engage in that sort of blatant boosterism. It's PR, not news. TV journalists have their shortcomings, but even they should know the difference.


The Networks
*Workers at ABC's 20/20 have asserted that producer Victor Neufeld has consistently discouraged reports on nuclear safety issues. Neufeld's wife has been a publicist for the nuclear power industry, specializing in steering news reports to an industry perspective. (EXTRA!)
*NBC, which was formerly known for squelching nuclear safety stories during its ownership by General Electric, has now squelched Rights and Wrongs, a news program on international human rights. The program has been dropped from the European SuperChannel, which NBC recently acquired. Producers of the show believe the show was dropped because it challenges corporate interests. (In These Times)


Public Television
*The Center for Science in the Public Interest has awarded PBS their hucksterism prize. CSPI found that "underwriter credits" on supposedly noncommercial PBS were often almost exactly the same as ads run on commercial networks.

Public Radio
*Listener-supported college radio station KUNM in Albuquerque has come under attack by organized right-wingers for its Pacifica News coverage of gays in the military, and other programs. The station has board elections which are in effect open to anyone, not just subscribers. At least one conservative insurgent won a seat in the latest mail-in election in May. (Radio Resistor's Bulletin)


Editor Goes Free, Journalism Imprisoned
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington filed a lawsuit June 1 in US District Court in Tacoma charging that parole restrictions for Ed Mead, an editor of a national prison rights newsletter, violate the rights of free speech and free association. Parole restrictions prohibit Mead from corresponding with people who have been convicted of a crime.

Mead served 18 years in prison on a conviction stemming from his role in a foiled bank robbery committed by the Seattle George Jackson Brigade. While in prison, Mead became active in prisoner rights issues, wrote legal writs for prisoners, and organized against prison rape. Together with Paul Wright, currently an inmate at the Monroe Reformatory, Mead four years ago founded the newsletter Prison Legal News, which has a subscribership of over 1,000.
Mead was released in 1993. The state's Indeterminate Sentence Review Board has refused his request to modify his parole restrictions to allow postal correspondence related to his newsletter.


The Truth is Stranger than Fiction
If you pick up a copy of The Stranger in July, don't do like you normally do and just toss it aside after you read Savage Love and check to see if you were seen in the "I Saw You" personals. Word is out that the paper has hired a news editor and wants to actually squeeze some journalism in with those 30-odd pages of "Don't you wish you were this hip" ads. George Halland, news editor at KCMU for three years prior to the whole CURSE conflagration and a regular contributor to The Stranger over the past year or so, will be at the helm of what he says will be a regular section in the paper. "I think it's something that The Stranger has been wanting to do for awhile," he says. "It's just a matter of having time and money to do it." We're not holding our breath on this one, but it's good to hear that the "Tastes Great, Less Filling" Stranger seems to have realized that a near-celebrity sex columnist, cotton candy journalism and personal ads can disguise a consistent lack of substance for only so long.


Rightsizing in the Alternative Media
Seattle recently said "so long" to two small-scale, alternative publications.

The Urban Spelunker, a poorly-conceived Stranger rip-off published by Tim Keck-wanna-be Dennis Toomey/Brian Less, finally bit the dust after a year-and-a-half run. However adrift the Spelunker was when it first came out, it disentegrated quickly after scenester Babs Babylon (a.k.a. local freelancer Melissa Rossi) defected to the Seattle Weekly earlier this spring.
And Twist, a regional gay and lesbian rag, of sorts, also went under. Publisher Mark Karten gave it his best shot to produce a specialty magazine for Seattle, Portland and points in between. But given the highly localized nature of gay communities and their associated services and nightspots, such an endeavor proved naive. After all, businesses in Seattle don't want half of their advertising money paying for papers being distributed 200 miles to the south-and vice versa. Perhaps two separate publications may have worked out for Karten. Regardless, we liked Twist's directness and newsy edge, as well as Karten's willpower in resisting overdone entertainment and pop-culture schlock.



Widows and Orphans
--Fisher Broadcasting Inc. has acquired KVI-AM and KPLZ-FM. Fisher is the owner of KOMO-AM and KOMO TV in Seattle, and KATU TV in Portland, all ABC affiliates. J. Shannon Sweatte was chosen in May as the General Manager of the Fisher radio stations.
--The North Seattle Press and The Lake Union Review, the two best neighborhood newspapers in the city, have merged into one-The Seattle Press. Published by Terry Denton and Elizabeth White, and edited by James Bush, the biweekly Press and monthly Review have consistently served up the most in-depth and urgent local coverage of any of Seattle's borough criers. For example, no one-we mean no one-has taken a harder look at the Seattle Commons project than Bush. The first issue of the biweekly Review came out May 11. With a circulation of 27,000, it's the largest community paper in town. While publishing under one nameplate certainly will end some reader confusion, finances no doubt played a role in the merger. Still, Denton, Bush and the rest of the staff are a classy bunch. Plus, their office is directly across the street from Fremont's Buckaroo tavern. Ya gotta like that in a paper.


Bad Ads
Seattle Democrat Nita Rinehart sponsored a state bill which would have banned lottery advertising in Washington State. The provision passed in the state Senate but was killed in the House; instead, a study of the ads was commissioned. In one Lotto ad, a mother dreams of winning the lottery so she can send away her problem son to military school. Currently, Washington has the nation's second highest rate of compulsive gambling, according to state Rep. Mike Heavey (D-Seattle and Vashon), quoted in the Post-Intelligencer.


Circulation Layoffs
As many as 75 Seattle Times/P-I circulation department employees may lose their jobs as the company attempts to lower payroll costs. The company has also hinted at possibly gutting the circulation department by contracting out circulation to independent firms, according to the Bulletin, a publication of the local Newspaper Guild.


Make Jerry's a Non-Fat
Though technically not a media-related item, we could have sworn we saw Jerry Garcia unfurl a mini-power-chord move coupled with a sassy little half-spin at the June 14 Dead show at the Seattle Center. Pardon our Jean-Goddenism, but maybe the strangely inspired Jerry slurped a lattŽ before the concert.


New Views
Seattle public TV station KCTS/9 has begun airing the series We Do the Work, devoted to exploring workplace issues. Recent installments have dealt with airline safety and the increased use of cut-rate airliner maintenance in Mexico and Costa Rica, 24 hour child care centers, and an analysis of news coverage of workplace issues. The program will air on Fridays at 9pm for the summer season.



Do you have a tasty media morsel for Spike? Do you know of censorship, bias, or other derisive behavior in the print, radio, television or computer media? Send it to the WFP WAfreepress@gmail.com and get it off your chest.

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