Communications - #13 Dec 94

SPIKE

THE RABID
MEDIA
WATCHDOG

Casualties

Seattle Progressive Media: 1994 in Review

For those of you who didn't notice, 1994 has truly stunk for progressive media here in Seattle. While rock bands from out of state were flocking to Seattle to pick up recording contracts like pigeons scurrying for bread crumbs at the park, local mainstream newspapers and radio stations took a major step to the right. And few in our "scene" seem aware of what's transpiring.

Talk Radio: KING 1090 AM R.I.P.

The most recent assault took place on the AM radio dial. It's no secret that KING 1090 had been sold to the owners of KIRO radio, but in September, when the station gave a mere 24 hours notice prior to a stationwide format change, even the radio show hosts were stunned. And so were the listeners, after all, KING was the station one turned on to hear the ideas of reform-minded progressives such as former two-term Governor of California, Jerry Brown and the rabble-rousing retired public servant from Texas, Jim Hightower. As quickly as these voices had entered our sleepy town... they were gone. Neither show had been on Seattle airwaves for a year. The voices of many local personalities have also been lost as they have moved on to greener pastures in other cities.

Although KIRO TV has been sold to the Dallas company, A.H. Belo, KIRO and KING AM remain in the hands of the Bonneville International Corp. of Salt Lake City. Call the stations (KIRO: 728-7777; KING: 448-3666) and bug them until they bring back KING's missing programs and personalities.

The Times Doesn't Hear the Beat

When considering the death of KING AM, keep in mind this is the same year The Seattle Times dropped its Media Beat column from the regular rotation whilst adding a column from the local conservative John Carlson, who thinks in a tank somewhere in downtown Seattle, or something like that. Three guesses what kind of tank that might be.

Media Beat authors Norman Solomon and Jeff Cohen are associates of Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR), an organization based in New York that for the past several years has been documenting the corporate media's gradual slip to the far right. Seattle Times ' Editorial Page Editor, Mindy Cameron, stated the Media Beat column was too much of the same thing every week, and that the two writers had had there chance to say what they had to say in the Times. "Too much of the same thing," can be used to describe the Carlson column.

Thanks, in part, to instant campaigns conducted by the smaller, local print media (Stranger, Free Press ) Solomon & Cohen do appear every now and again in the Times and Alexander Cockburn's new syndicated column has even shown up. However, the erratic scheduling makes these columns very easy to miss and forces progressives to subscribe to a watered down, right-slipping newspaper in order to keep up with them.

Although there are writers on the Times' staff who can be considered moderate to liberal, no regular column provides Seattle readers with the consistently hard-edged corporate media scrutiny that Media Beat does. (Keep up the pressure to bring back Solomon & Cohen: contact Mindy Cameron at the Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle 98111)

Earth Off the Air

1994 also marked the demise, or leave of absence, of Earth on the Air, a locally produced, nationally aired radio show dedicated to providing a voice for the forces striving to do right by the planet earth.

With subject matter ranging from "process art" to "environmental racism", EOA produced excellent half-hour radio magazines that never ceased to inspire and enlighten.

Where is the Support?

Successful progressives have an obligation to support small progressive enterprises, not just as occasional contributors, but as sturdy benefactors. Progressive media needs a strong foundation. If the Kim Thayils and Krist Novoselics of the area would walk their progressive talk and put a small percentage of their new found fortunes back into the NW's left leaning endeavors, projects like Earth on the Air, 911 Media Arts Center and, yes, the Washington Free Press could do what they do best and breath easier over the financial concerns. You need not be famous to participate, either. If you're making the dough, put some of it back into the community where it is needed the most.

Our job here at the Free Press would be so much more pleasant if we didn't have to do a periodical "progressive media eulogy" such as this one. And, now that the Republicans have taken control of huge chunks of the federal and state government, it is imperative for everyone out there reading this to help strengthen progressive-minded projects. The censors are lurking and election '94 gave them all an immense boost of confidence.

-Matt Robesch

Seattle Times: Endorsing Extremism

The Seattle Times has made great strides from its place ten years ago as a fish-wrapper for the shuffleboard set. But the paper seems to have lost its way recently, and has been more concerned with positioning itself within a public opinion increasingly dominated by the mobilized minions of Limbaugh soreheads, and in pleasing its advertisers, than in illuminating political events for its readers. The paper has responded to pressures from the market and vocal minorities by tacking sharply to the right.

This reached its culmination with this year's political endorsements. Publisher Frank Blethen intervened to give the nod to two far-right candidates for Congress (Jack Metcalf and Linda Smith, both of whom won). Editorial page editor Mindy Cameron was given the thankless task of rationalizing this to an angry readership, and argued that the paper hoped Metcalf would have only one term. Times editorialists had previously expressed the hope that Linda Smith would take her key from Christian liberal Mark Hatfield rather than from the fundamentalists, a sentiment about as realistic as a call for Jesse Helms to adopt the foreign policy views of George McGovern. Cameron went on to argue that "there are too many ideologues and rabid partisans out and about today and they are seriously undermining the caliber and usefulness of public debate." Given this sentiment, the question of why Metcalf and Smith were endorsed remains unanswered.

Cameron is back to her old tricks again in legitimizing political shifts to the right with a recent column which portrayed a "moderate" Jennifer Dunn, even though this is the same Dunn who helped write Newt Gingrich's "Contract with America," and who has an average vote rating from 17 left-leaning groups of 11% for the '93 Congress, as compared to an average 83% rating from 13 conservative groups. Cameron also claims that Dunn is pro-choice, even though she received only a 15% rating from the National Abortion Rights Action League, but an 89% rating from the National Right to Life Committee, and 100% from the National Committee for a Human Life Amendment.

Seattle (Slightly Less) Weakly

The Seattle Weekly has made a few small steps away from its identity as a lifestyle rag designed to aid affluent 30 and 40 somethings in most efficiently parting with their disposable income. During the first full year under new editor Knute Berger, the Weekly has made some forays into investigative journalism, most notably a recent cover on the continuing failure of King County prosecutors to bring charges in the murder of Antonio Jackson.

But in the main, the Weekly is still beholden to publisher David Brewster's handwringing, "it'll never work" brand of neoliberalism. Brewster is sort of a Charles Peters type, of Washington Monthly fame, but without Peters' intellectual breadth or committment to investigative reporting. The paper is still dominated by consumerist fluff pieces masquerading as journalism; witness recent cover stories on "Babs Babylon's Dance Club Guide"; "Counter Intelligence: A Guide to 21 Classic Lunch Counters"; and "Does Seattle Have Star Power?", about the production of Hollywood films in Seattle.

-Mark Gardner

Contents on this page were published in the December/January 1995 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1994 WFP Collective, Inc.

Casualties

Seattle Progressive Media: 1994 in Review

-Matt Robesch

Seattle Times: Endorsing Extremism

Seattle (Slightly Less) Weakly

-Mark Gardner

Bias Watch

Erwin Knoll R.I.P.

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