crosscut.com : Media

Crapping on Seattle

Crosscut — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:50:01 PDT

In our rapid descent from in-place to laughing-stock, Seattle is now the target for ridicule over its expensive, dangerous, now-up-for-fire-sale public toilets. Slate.com is the latest to yuk it up with bathroom jokes. At least the raspberries over the Sonics have been pushed off the front pages.

Seattle's dailies and a union get down to it

Crosscut — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 09:00:01 PDT

It's not unusual for units of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild and managements of The Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer to not get down to serious labor negotiations until contracts are about to expire. What's different this time is the climate of the newspaper business. It's ugly, getting uglier. To wit: "Grim Reaper: Newspapers Cut 3,500+ Jobs in Two Months."

Lesson in laughter

Crosscut — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:24:01 PDT

Controversy this week over the current New Yorker cover, showing Barack and Michelle Obama in all the worst ways the paranoid right could imagine, proves two basic lessons from the history of journalism.

The first is that a medium that is in the process of being overrun by emerging new media had better understand what that involves.

Sausage Links, pot, farms, and medicine edition

Crosscut — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 14:58:01 PDT

Count on the alt-weeklies to provide blow-by-blow coverage of the recent ~~medical marijuana bust~~ illegal search and seizure. Dominic Holden at The Stranger has the story about the incident — along with copies of the police report and the arresting officer's search warrant. According to the reports, Seattle Police officers tore down a wall while searching for an illegal pot-growing operation that didn't exist, while seizing bags of marijuana and medical records. The folks at Seattlest would like to remind the SPD that medical marijuana has been legal in Washington for nearly 10 years. ...

Crosscut exposed

Crosscut — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 11:06:01 PDT

Valued knowledge consumers,

This is your editor speaking. I'll be appearing on TV tonight to talk about Crosscut past, present, and future as a guest on Public Exposure, a weekly public-affairs show hosted by Stan Emert. The program will air at 8 p.m. on cable channel 77 (Comcast) or 23 (BroadStripe). That's SCANtv, the city's public access channel.

Sausage Links, cougar-hunting edition

Crosscut — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:28:01 PDT

Praise the Lord and release the hounds — because our good state Legislature has enacted a law which makes it legal once again to use dogs to hunt cougars. Now, I didn't even know cougar hunting was legal in Washington — minus Cougars wearing crimson — but apparently, it is. While the bill was actually passed by the Legislature in February, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public meeting on Friday to discuss whether the pilot program should continue for another three years.

Meanwhile, Micheal Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has compiled a list of some other curious laws enacted by the Washington Legislature this year. My personal favorite: Violators may face up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail for selling raw or unprocessed huckleberries without a permit.

The founder of ArtsJournal talks about arts and new media

Crosscut — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

Seattle journalist Douglas McLennan is a leading national figure in Web journalism. Here he talks about his venture, the imperiled state of newspaper arts coverage, and why Seattle and Portland orchestras are not much noticed across the nation.

Sausage Links, sex, satire, and rock 'n' roll edition

Crosscut — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:03:01 PDT

At Horse's Ass, David Goldstein has a lengthy investigative story detailing a case of sexual harassment at the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR). According to a 62-page document obtained from public records, a young woman who worked at the DNR quit her job after being harassed by 68-year-old Commissioner of Public Lands Doug Sutherland. The story goes on to say:

In search of new skin

Crosscut — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:07:01 PDT

Valued knowledge consumers,

Crosscut is busy planning the next phase of our march toward world media dominance and we're looking for a contract Web designer for a site refurbishment in coming months. This is a temporary on-site gig in downtown Seattle. Please share the ad below with anyone who might be suited.

At the top floors, the high and mighty are in denial

Crosscut — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:00:01 PDT

It's time for New York magazine editors, Seattle bank executives, and Puget Sound transportation leaders to exit their elevators — at the lobby level.

Sausage Links, tree-cutting edition

Crosscut — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:09:01 PDT

Timber! The Seattle Times has a series of special reports about the lack of oversight in the logging industry and the cost to state taxpayers. According to the report, no one checked when Weyerhaeuser started clear-cutting unstable slopes, some of which eventually slid and cost millions of dollars to clean up. Naturally, David Goldstein at Horse's Ass blames Republican-led deregulation. ...

Sausage Links, gas cards for bad guys edition

Crosscut — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:20:01 PDT

Alright everybody. Let's head to Tacoma. If we hurry, we can help Tacoma-Pierce County Crime Stoppers catch sexual predators, gangsters, domestic violence abusers, and violent criminals. Why? Because they're giving away $250 gas cards and up to $1,000 in exchange for information that would lead to arrests. Here's the list of criminals. Start hunting. After all, what better incentive is there to dodge outrageous gas prices than to catch perverts? Don't answer that.

Sausage Links, blame-game edition

Crosscut — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:05:01 PDT

David Goldstein at Horse's Ass says everyone has missed the boat about the latest mess surrounding the "top-two" primary. The Seattle Times blamed the parties. The parties blamed the state. Others blamed the lawyers. Goldstein, however, says the person to blame for what could be the "most monumental legal fuck up in state history — one which puts the legitimacy of our entire 2008 election in jeopardy" — is state Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Sausage Links, mayor-about-town edition

Crosscut — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:49:01 PDT

Oh, Greg. You are trying to break our hearts! Just when we vilify you for airballing the Sonics all the way to OKC for a cool $45 million — you show you're a real Mayor-about-town houses and plastic bag taxes.

For better or worse, everybody's talking about Mayor Nickels' proposals today. Erica C. Barnett at The Stranger says she spotted a "Plastic Monster" at last night's public-comment meeting about the proposed plastic bag tax, while Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat warns if we don't choose paper the plastic bag police will get us. Meanwhile, the folks at Sound Politics rail against Nickels for the new town house plan, which they argue will regulate affordable housing "out of existence." ...

Sausage Links, top-two headache edition

Crosscut — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:23:01 PDT

David Postman had a busy morning. First, The Seattle Times chief political writer reported the proper way to describe the ~~death with dignity~~ "assisted suicide" initiative. Then he dropped a political firebomb, reporting the state's political parties haven't yet given up trying to ax the "top-two" primary, with both Republicans and Democrats claiming the entire '08 election won't count. I thought that headache was over. Turns out it's just getting started. ...

They dared to cover the news and went out of business

Crosscut — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:00:01 PDT

In an era of news staff cutbacks all over, the upstart weekly Whatcom Independent in Bellingham calls it quits.

Sausage Links, "freedom to get drunk and blow stuff up" edition

Crosscut — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:23:01 PDT

Chris Mulick at the Tri-City Herald has today's top story, reporting this morning that Tim Eyman's Initiative 985 and the Service Employees International Union-backed Initiative 1029 would — if passed by voters in November — increase the state's budget deficit by an estimated $300 million.

Can Bill Gates also reinvent capitalism?

Crosscut — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 05:12:01 PDT

Michael Kinsley, the founding editor of Slate and a half-time Seattle resident, is involved in an interesting new project. It's a Web site gathering quality commentary about "Creative Capitalism." It's well worth looking at.

Finally, some good Seattle sports news

Crosscut — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:44:01 PDT

When I edited Seattle Weekly, I issued a ban on soccer coverage. Why edit a newspaper when you can't, very occasionally, act like a tin-pot dictator and shape it to your perverse desires? I left the paper two years ago but hoped the new editor would realize my no-soccer edict was a lifetime ban. Apparently not. There's a new dictator in town, and the moratorium has been lifted. The editor himself has written a column about soccer in Seattle. The good news: He's not buying the hype that it's the next big thing.

Sausage Links, sonic-bust edition

Crosscut — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:07:01 PDT

Let the mourning begin about the Seattle SuperGoneics. Everyone's in tears. That is, except the editorial board at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. They think the settlement was a good deal. Hmmm. Are you kidding me? Heck, even the basketball gods thundered their disapproval throughout the night. ...