Media Notes

I’ve noticed elsewhere that this is one weird election, and nowhere is that weirdness more evident than in Seattle’s corporate media (which includes just about all the Seattle media). In past elections, the media scarcely mentioned my name. This time around, I’ve been invited to post an introduction on a blog, have been invited to an endorsement interview and was even contacted by a reporter for a local radio station who actually visited my apartment unannounced—twice. I mean SHEEZ LOUISE!

First, a disclaimer: I can’t possibly keep up with all the media games that are part of Campaign 2007. Simply documenting all the distortions and lies of omission in the mainstream media is a big task. On top of that, there has been a veritable explosion in political websites—mostly in the form of blogs—in recent years. Though most appear to be personal blogs, they can generally be regarded as extensions of the corporate media, which promote many of them.

A little perspective... When I first became politically active, I quickly began to boast that I was Seattle’s #1 education activist. Soon, I began boasting that I was the premier education activist in Washington State. I even began omitting “education” from my title.

Shamelessly arrogant? Perhaps. But it wasn’t far from the truth, for the simple truth is that there are virtually no genuine education activists of any stature in Seattle (or Washington State). To put it in perspective, the Seattle School District employed about 4,500 educators when the late retired general John Stanford was recruited to lead the charge in privatizing our public schools. So how many of these professional educators spoke out against Stanford, aside from one or two insipid letters to the editor? As far as I know, I was the only one.

Nor can I name a single Seattle teacher who has run for public office five times, other than yours truly. Education reform websites were virtually unheard of when I launched my first political website.

Media Explosion

Eventually, I was joined by a handful of new education reform websites, all of them amazingly insipid. Not until I jumped into Campaign 2007 did I realize how dramatically the media landscape had changed. Now there are literally dozens, perhaps hundreds, of political websites that focus on Seattle politics, many of them specializing in education issues. Of course, many of the webmasters and members also like to call themselves “activists.”

Check out Crosscut.com, which was established in 2007 by David Brewster, who rivals the Seattle Times’ Frank Blethen as Seattle’s premier media whore. I’ll tell you what I’ve learned about Crossbutt when I find time. In the meantime, visit their Newsstand page and check out the list of “NW Blogs of Note” in the lower right corner.

There must be a hundred links or more, and those are in turn dwarfed by the mainstream media links. Moreover, these are BLOGS. That means they can, and often do, add new content every day. That’s right, there’s an army of political blogs spitting out lies and disinformation 24/7.

So how can you know these blogs are corrupt? And how can you spot an honest website? That’s another topic I’ll tackle when I find time. In the meantime, here are a few tricks that can help separate the wheat from the chaff:

I try to keep tabs on Seattle’s army of media whores every time I run for office, though it can be an overwhelming task. Below are some preliminary notes from Campaign 2007.

The Seattle Times

A reporter named Emily Heffter was given the unenviable task of interviewing me for the Seattle Times. Now why would I want anything to do with a paper that endorsed George W. Bush and lied about me TWICE the last time I ran for office?

I told her I wasn’t interested, and she replied that she’d check out my website, adding, “Also, would you mind sending a photo of yourself and some biographical information? I need your age, occupation, family info (married, kids, etc), political background and top three endorsements.”

For crying out loud, don’t these people know how to research candidates? Don’t they compare notes with their colleagues?

If I remember correctly, I was required to list my age and occupation when I filed as a candidate. At any rate, I’m probably three years older than I was the last time I ran for public office. (That was the election where the Times didn’t even realize I was a candidate.)

My political background is pretty obvious: I hate Republicans, Democrats and Seattle Greens and Libertarians. I’ve run for office five times (including Campaign 2007), and I’m developing a series of political websites, including one that advocates the death penalty for George W. Bush. I’ve crammed as many issues as possible into every statement I’ve ever submitted to the Voters Pamphlet. I even created two websites designed to let people know a little about me (David-Blomstrom.org and DavidBlomstrom.org), though the second one isn’t finished.

And what’s this crap about “top three endorsements”? She knows damn well that real activists don’t get any endorsements in this town. Frankly, I’m sick of the media focusing on contributions and endorsements while ignoring the issues.

One of the more interesting pieces that have appeared in the Times (or, at least, in an associated blog) is Ahh, Seattle civility ... by political reporter (and media whore) David Postman. Postman writes,

Why, thank you, Mr. Postman.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The Seattle Times’ inbred sibling recruited a media whore named Linda Thomas to entice candidates to post on her blog. I’m not stupid; I knew it was a set up, but boycotting the enemy 24/7 isn’t always the best strategy. One must engage the bastards once in a while, if only to study their tactics.

So I posted my “guest blog,” even though people were already insulting me on Thomas’ blog. As I expected, my column was immediately pounced on by a gaggle of anonymous morons (most of them posting as “unregistered user”) who buried me in insults while ignoring the issues.

In the meantime, I visited the other candidates’ blogs and continued asking questions—the kind of questions all voters should ask (like “Why aren’t you discussing any issues?”).

But my little adventure in democracy was cut short by a notice posted by Linda Thomas on all the quest blogs:

Wow, what kind of democracy does Linda Thomas live in? Citizens can’t critique what candidates say, lest the election campaign degenerate into a circus, or—worse yet—the poor, timid candidates be discouraged from even interacting with the public.

Yet Thomas ignored the vilest and most unprofessional insults of all. Of course, they were aimed at yours truly.

In summary, Linda Thomas is indeed a media whore and her guest blog series was nothing more than an establishment stunt. Still, I don’t regret participating. It helped me publicize my campaign, and it was good for a few laughs.

Two of the most humorous comments are posted on my opponent’s guest blog. From Linda Thomas:

(I pointed out that no one advised us of a word limit on comments.)

And from yours truly to Whorium:

The Seattle Weekly

After making a world class ass out of itself during Campaign 1999, when the Seattle School Board incumbents were under fire as never before, the Seattle Weekly launched a new strategy. They simply ignored me, giving me less and less press, until they effectively omitted my name during entire election campaigns.

I just typed my name into their search archive and found no entries, except for a couple items I posted on their blog. I found something curious on a Norm Maleng thread. It looks like someone changed a link I posted to www.seattlek-mafia.org. Cute.

It kind of reminds me of this page, where they mentioned JailBush.org. No, my anti-Bush website is www.jail4bush.org. Fools.

The Stranger

The Stranger is no more an anti-establishment newspaper than the Seattle Weekly. They ignore the issues, dispense disinformation and inevitably endorse bad candidates (though they often snub the establishment favorites in order to make it look like they’re on our side). Though they’ve hurled a few lame insults my way, I’ve never really found any major scandal to hit them over the head with, certainly nothing comparable to some of the stunts the Seattle Weekly has pulled.

Until yesterday (Sept. 20, 2007). In a nutshell, I received an e-mail from a reporter named Jonah Spangenthal-Lee inviting me to attend an endorsement interview (Sept. 26-28 or Oct. 3-4), only to discover that Jonah was trashing me on a blog at the same time. I didn’t tell him I had discovered his blog and exchanged a few e-mails with him. In his last e-mail, he extended his invitation, suggesting I get off my “high horse” and accept.

After which I discovered yet another blog thread he started, titled “David Blomstrom Probably Thinks You’re a Whore.”

I don’t know if that’s the sleaziest stunt I’ve ever seen a Seattle media whore pull (framing a teacher and driving him to suicide is a tough act to follow, eh, Seattle-PI?), but it’s probably the most amateurish. Yes, Jonah, I am indeed calling you a whore (a very stupid whore at that). Read all about it at Strange and Stranger.

I could go on and on and on with my observations about Seattle’s media bunnies, but I would never have time to address any issues. Nevertheless, I will try to add more media observations as I find time.

Can’t afford to donate money to my campaign? No problem! You can join the team by simply visiting Urban Dictionary > Seattle Mafia and clicking the yellow thumbs up icon , indicating you agree with my definition. Doing so will help publicize the fact that there IS a Seattle Mafia. If you’re working for the Seattle Mafia and want to click the thumbs down icon , that᾿s fine, too. Either way, you’re helping my campaign. :)