The Seattle Post-Intelligenser Should be Ashamed
The Seattle Post-Intelligenser Should be Ashamed
The P-I seems to have adopted a novel editorial policy. For truth to be permitted on its pages, tribute must be paid in the form of advertising. After asking the Seattle Post-Intelligenser to correct a clearly misleading representation of a speech he had given, congressman George Nethercutt purchased a full-page advertisement setting the record straight. On that page, readers were given an opportunity that the P-I’s editors would have preferred they did not have, the chance to compare the P-I’s selectively edited version of his speech with an actual transcript of the speech in context. It’s unlikely that many readers found the P-I’s version an accurate interpretation of Nethercutt’s intended message.
During a speech at the University of Washington, George Nethercutt was attempting to fill in vast tracts of untold truth regarding the successes that we are achieving in Iraq. He believed, correctly in my view, that the press was concentrating far too much of its attention on counting bodies rather than chronicling progress being made by our military in pacifying and rehabilitating Iraq.
The actual quote in context: “So the story is better than we might be led to believe – I'm – just – indicting the news people – but it's a bigger and better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day which, which, heaven forbid, is awful.”
The P-I’s version: "It's a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day."
The bright glare of sunlight did not sit well with the P-I’s editorial board. After depositing Nethercutt’s money, the P-I responded with a petulant editorial blasting back. "It's a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day," the would-be senator gaffed at a gathering Monday. The family of Pfc. Kerry Scott of Concrete, who buried their young hero Tuesday, likely would not share Nethercutt's news judgment,” opined the P-I.
That is a low blow, unworthy of a hick town gazette, let alone a paper of the P-I’s stature. Aside from the disgusting presumption of claiming to speak for the dead soldier’s parents, how dare the P-I justify its distortion by invoking the family’s grief?
Nethercutt was in fact, absolutely right. Can the history of the Civil War be summarized as 558,052 dead? Does a body count of 407,316 tell the whole story of America’s involvement in World War II? Did we lose 307 dead at the Battle of Midway in May of 1942, or did we turn the tide of the Pacific War? The Seattle P-I’s body counts will occupy little space when the Iraq War is written into history books.
In fact, the P-I inflicts far more upon pain the family of Pfc. Kerry Scott when it conveys the notion that he died for nothing. If the P-I’s concern for Kerry Scott extended beyond the paper’s cynical use of his corpse as a bludgeon to batter Nethercutt’s senatorial campaign, then they would comfort the family by telling the world what the young man gave his life for.
The conventional wisdom preaches that one does not pick fights with people who buy printer’s ink by the barrel. But in this case failing to do so is akin to paying tribute to Barbary pirates. The Seattle P-I has no more authority to choose the electoral victors by managing or making up news than the Los Angeles Times did in the California recall campaign. And while it may be to his ultimate political advantage to kiss the P-I’s ring, it’s not a good practice for those who place a high regard upon self-respect.
And this really is the sort of thuggery that should be confronted. Good for congressman Nethercutt! By purchasing that advertisement he was able to choose the field of battle and set the terms of engagement. And the P-I’s low road response exposes its vulnerability on the issue.
I suspect that George Nethercutt probably wasn’t the sort to meekly hand over his milk money to the schoolyard bully. His inclination to confront bullies contributed to his victory of the sitting Speaker of the House, Tom Foley, in 1994. And his run against the supposedly unbeatable US Senator Patty Murray in 2004 is another manifestation of his combativeness. And so, it’s entirely in character that he would come out fighting against the Seattle Post-Intelligenser’s smear campaign.
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