Dear
HCN,
Freedom of the press is
eroding before our very eyes. So speaks Stephen Lyons, citing as
authority, Robert Blethen, publisher of the Seattle
Times (HCN, 11/11/02: Freedom of the press is eroding
before our eyes). Couldn’t he have found a better example?
Blethen’s idea of independence is to run
full-page ads in his newspaper in 2000 crying for elimination of
the estate tax for himself and other multimillionaires, then
endorse Bush for president, and deny that elimination of the estate
tax influenced his decision to support our most notorious
anti-environmental president. How can Lyons cite Blethen’s
purported concerns about the dangers of newspapers making decisions
on the basis of the “corporate bottom line” when it is clear that
Blethen’s bottom line was precisely the reason for the
Times’ endorsement of W?
Lyons does not cite a single example of
Blethen’s independence. If the Seattle Times is
someone’s idea of the benefits of the press as a “watchdog,”
journalism is in sad shape indeed.
Fritz WollettSeattle, Washington
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Seattle Times is not independent.
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