SPIKE

THE RABID
MEDIA
WATCHDOG


Steelhead: An Upstream Battle
Proclaiming he'd rather "write a magazine for people who have lives instead of lifestyles," 28-year-old journalist Alex Steffen is on the verge of unfurling a first-of-its-kind project in Seattle: a big-boned, journal-style publication that examines political and social issues with a critical yet hopeful eye, and that seeks to break the barriers that have atomized Puget Sound's independent media community.
Due to hit the streets by July, Steelhead - The Handbook of the Next Northwest won't be yet another pop-culture publication masquerading as a political magazine. "We're what's waiting for George in the alley when it gets out of the limo," says Steffen.
A California native, Steffen beat a familiar path from mainstream to independent media. For two years he worked as an environmental reporter at the English-language Japan Times in Osaka. "I had foolishly optimistic ideas about working at dailies," he says.
Steffen moved here four years ago and began freelancing for activist organizations and various newspapers and magazines, including the Los Angeles Times and Far Eastern Economic Review. Steffen wanted something more, so he and his journalism and political buddies started a group called Terra Incognita and began doing "scenario planning" - looking at how societal trends might dictate the future.
From there, the idea for Steelhead took shape. Steffen describes the endeavor as a "garage project of dissatisfied media folks." Borrowing computers, scamming after-hours computer time in their workplaces, and "meeting on corners to pass discs," Steelhead's nearly all-volunteer staff filled a 64-page magazine with an engaging mix of articles and essays spanning a range of political, social and environmental issues.
Stories in the first issue include:

  • "100 From the Next Northwest," mini-profiles of 100 people,
    Steffen says, who are "working on old issues in new, innovative ways;"
  • "Hack the City," short articles about urban planning, sustainable
    design, mass transit, growth management, and other issues Seattle
    is in the midst of facing head-on; and
  • Articles about car co-ops, a plan for the city of Seattle to establish
    an information superhighway utility, and the library of the future, as well
    as a memoir from actor Peter Coyote and a letter from Vladivostok.

    Steffen says he's doing his best to keep Steelhead from stereotyping itself to death. While loosely targeting readers 35 and under, the magazine is designed to appeal to people of all ages. And though intended to be non-dogmatic, the publication will find many friends in the Northwest's progressive community. "It's for people," he says, "who are willing to explore - who are willing to rethink their approaches to political and social ideas."
    The magazine will also serve as a form of media activism. Steffen talks of a "paradigm rift" separating the slick, lowest-common denominator presentation of issues offered by the corporate press from what a vast majority of the population experiences on a day-to-day basis. It's a rift he hopes Steelhead can sew up. He also wants the magazine to offer hope with as much or more urgency than it diagnoses problems. "Most media," he complains, "looks at the crisis du jour."

    Steelhead will be available at newstands and bookstores from Eugene to Vancouver, B.C., for $3.95. Circulation of the quarterly magazine will be 20,000, and Steffen hopes to take it bimonthly or monthly in 1997. Steelhead can be reached at 4505 University Way NE, #420, Seattle, 98105; by e-mail at steelhead@speakeasy.org; or on the Web at http://www.speakeasy.org/steelhead.

    - Mark Worth



    Long Arm of the Publisher

    Sandy Nelson has been battling for six years to get her job back as a reporter at the Tacoma Morning News Tribune. On June 11, Nelson asked the Washington State Supreme Court to rule that the newspaper's decision to take away her byline because of her various political activities violated the state constitution and at least one state law.
    A long-time education reporter, Nelson was stripped of her reporting duties because of her off-hours work in support of a gay rights initiative in Tacoma. She is also an active, high-profile member of the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women.
    The News Tribune's management argued that Nelson's involvement jeopardized her ability to maintain journalistic objectivity - even though management had no evidence supporting such fears, and despite the fact that Nelson did not write about gay and lesbian issues.
    Dozens of prominent individuals and organizations have endorsed her cause, including renowned media analysts Ben Bagdikian and Norman Solomon, feminist attorney Flo Kennedy, The Progressive, AFSCME International, the Center for Constitutional Rights, environmentalist Hazel Wolf, the Northwest Women's Law Center, the Washington State Labor Council, the Newspaper Guild, and the National Lawyers Guild. An amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court by the Lawyers Guild has garnered more than 75 co-signers (including the Free Press).
    ACLU attorneys representing Nelson are appealing last year's hometown ruling by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Vicki Hogan, which exempted newspaper publishers as private employers from state law and constitutional provisions that prohibit discrimination against politically active employees.

    For more information on Sandy Nelson's case, or to volunteer for or contribute to her cause, contact the Sandy Nelson Defense Committee at P.O. Box 5847, Tacoma, 98415; or call 722-2453 (Seattle) or 756-9971 (Tacoma).


    Sandy Nelson coverage continues in...
    "Spike Growls About Ethical Double Standards"



    Tune In Your Computer

    Some estimates say that 30 million people, in over 200 nations, are connected to the internet. Increasingly, computer geeks are taking advantage of advances in sound capability to transmit sound over the internet.
    One internet "broadcaster," AudioNet, bypasses the airwaves entirely and sends over 30 radio stations directly to your computer.
    AudioNet President Mark Cuban believes on a good day 40,000 net-heads tune into one of his affiliated stations which broadcast worldwide 24 hours a day. His network has been broadcasting sports, talk radio, and music since September of 1995.
    An AudioNet listener needs a computer with a fast processor and a 28.8 modem, hardware that is neither as affordable nor as portable as a radio. However, FCC guidelines do not apply to the internet, so the potential for interesting and challenging broadcast content is immense.
    Once you've maxed out your credit card on computer hardware (make sure you buy nice speakers), you will need a web browser and software that "streams" audio to a computer in small digital data packets.
    Progressive Networks in Seattle is on the frontier of this new "streaming" technology through its program RealAudio, which makes internet broadcasting such as that heard on AudioNet possible. AudioNet's web address is http://www.audionet.com/.



    Contaminated Broadcasting System

    Check out the May/June issue of Spy Magazine - (No, not for the Pamela Anderson cover!) wherein writer Greg Easley drops a bomb on Westinghouse Corp. and its recent purchase of CBS.
    Westinghouse has a long history in broadcasting - its "Group W" owns 16 local TV stations and 39 radio outlets - not to mention a hefty nuclear component to its corporate portfolio. Westinghouse not only builds nukes, its environmental services division attempts to clean up the crap they leave behind.
    In 1994, the Westinghouse division that operates the Hanford and the Savannah River Site netted $58 million. Would that affect their news judgment now that they own CBS?
    Spy noted that Westinghouse Hanford flacks have generated many a hostile letter to editors and reporters about their critical Hanford coverage.
    Back in 1992, when the Seattle Times still covered Hanford, Westinghouse fired off a letter accusing the paper of being a "cheerleader for Hanford whistle-blowers."
    Paul Koberstein, former environmental reporter for the Oregonian, told Spy that he lost his job following his last big exposŽ on Hanford. "Westinghouse lobbied vigorously to have me discredited," said Koberstein.



    Crystal Lite

    One has to wonder whether Mike Crystal, president and CEO of the company that publishes the Seattle Weekly, reads his own publication. If he did, he probably wouldn't have been so cocksure as to describe the Weekly in the 20th anniversary issue in April as a place where "editors (have) a burning desire to take on the establishment."
    Mike ... buddy ... the Weekly is the establishment. Entangled with Seattle's political and cultural big-wigs, the Weekly was founded with the financial assistance of developer-turned-philanthropist Bagley Wright. With fence-sitter David Brewster running the show, the Weekly has no more muckraking spirit than your average neighborhood flyer.
    Last we checked, "taking on the establishment" didn't include taking positions on where the new symphony hall should be built, who bats clean-up for the Mariners, and finding the best Italian restaurants in town.

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