FIRST WORD

IDEAS THAT
CUT THROUGH
THE BS




Where We're From

With 30 years of success to reflect on, there's no stopping Puget Sound's progressive media movement.

By Mark Worth
The Free Press

With this, the 21st issue of the Washington Free Press, we celebrate the end of our third year of publishing Seattle's only progressive general-interest newsmagazine. Seeing as though most publications our size don't make it to the age of five, I guess that makes us middle-aged. But instead of plunging into an existential crisis (though we did have a facelift recently), we'd like to take the time to thank some of the people and institutions who-whether they knew it or not-helped us get this far.

First off, we'd like to thank the New Right, without whose vitriol the urgency of communicating progressive political and social ideas would be greatly diminished. Hopefully, now that we've thanked all the Newt Gingriches, Linda Smiths, and Rush Limbaughs out there, they'll take their final bows and leave the political stage. Of course, only a hostile audience this fall will prevent a curtain call.
We also owe a heap of gratitude to the Corporate Media, for whenever they refuse to publish a damning article because of the political connections of one of their board members, or whenever they lionize a right-wing political figure while vilifying a left-wing one, our mission becomes all the more critical.
And who could forget home-grown Mega-Corporations like Boeing, Microsoft, and Weyerhaeuser (a.k.a. Microbohaeuser). If bosses at Boeing stopped being accused of poisoning their workers, Microsoft stopped being under investigation by the federal government, and Weyerhaeuser ... well ... stopped being Weyerhaeuser, frankly we just wouldn't have as many great stories to pursue.
To fully express our gratitude, however, we must go back in time to the 1960s, to the beginning of the modern era of the Independent Media. Many current Seattleites (including us) were sucking our thumbs when papers like The Helix, The Seattle Sun, Northwest Passage, The Flag, The Clinton Street Quarterly, and other too-short-lived publications were pounding the pillars of power and privilege in Puget Sound.

Helix to Establishment: "Up Yours!" Free Press to Boeing: "You Dirty Rats!"

Materially, these papers still exist, though only in the dusty cellars and musty attics of so many nostalgic Baby Boomers. Spiritually, however, they live and breath in the basements and bedrooms of writers and artists who work on papers like the Free Press, The Stranger, Women's Work , Amazon, No Sweat News , Radio Resister's Bulletin, and others bucking the dual trends of the Information Revolution and the Age of Indifference.
Not to get overly nostalgic ourselves, but whenever our bank balance gets one tick away from negativeland (which happens a lot) or an eviction notice shows up on our stoop (which happened last month), we sometimes find inspiration by taking stock of Seattle's tradition as a mecca of independent media producers. Hey, call us corny, but sometimes you gotta tug on your roots, just to make sure they're still holding onto something.
Soon, we'll get a chance to personally thank some of the people who initiated the Independent Media movement in Seattle. Saturday evening, April 20, a reunion, of sorts, will be held at the site of many great get-togethers, the Prag House in Capitol Hill. Our event, "Thirty Years of Independent Media in Seattle," will honor the heroes of Seattle's radical press, while celebrating the growth of the tradition to which they gave birth.
On this night, the Walt Crowleys, Paul Dorpats, Nick Licatas, and (hopefully) the Tom Robbinses will assemble to trade war stories from the heyday of the radical press-like when Helix vendors were arrested for selling the paper on a public college campus, or when a bomb threat was called into the paper's University Avenue office. But this ain't no hippie-only event. Also on hand will be the Tim Kecks, Sheri Herndons, and Lance Scotts of the world. Recognize these names? You should. Without them, there'd be no Stranger , there'd probably be no KCMU News Hour, and there never would have been a Community Catalyst .
Sorry. Too nostalgic? This'll be the last time, we promise.
We reserve our final and most exuberant thanks to the readers and (select few) advertisers who have kept us afloat for 36 months. Few sights are more gratifying than seeing a Free Press tucked under someone's arm in a coffee shop or getting a compliment over the e-mail. Each token of recognition has the power of a million subscription checks or a thousand full-page ads.
I suppose the happiest moment of this whole ride (besides being personally threatened by a Boeing spokesgoon) was when the first call came in over the Free Press line congratulating us on our first issue in April 1993. Never did ask who the guy was. Suppose I was too excited.
Hey, man, if you're out there ... thanks.

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Contents on this page were published in the April/May, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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Copyright © 1996 WFP Collective, Inc.