This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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A one-day session could be a godsend to schools
This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.
Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature's leaders downplayed the importance of a special session last week – though only after they'd failed to agree on what to do with it.
Democratic leaders had been keen on getting back to Olympia to tie up loose ends from the regular session. But they couldn't agree on which loose ends needed tying up. Gregoire wanted to avoid a runaway session by restricting the agenda to a few bills. Said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, "If that's all we're going to do, why not just wait?"
A special session not needed? Hundreds of parents and teachers statewide might beg to differ.
The governor is right about limiting the agenda. The agenda could in fact be kept tight enough to wrap everything up in a day or less. If lawmakers approved one bill – one bill only – it would make a world of difference to many Washington school districts.
Here's what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Monday about the dire financial straits of many American newspapers.
I like the lack of whining. Also the guarded optimism. Also the conclusion: "Handouts aren’t good for watchdogs."
During last week’s Senate hearing on the “Future of Journalism,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., observed that the newspaper industry appears to be an “endangered species.”
A chorus of senators rightfully expressed concern that newspapers’ role as watchdogs and cornerstones of an informed democracy is jeopardized by the wrenching recession that has toppled many economic pillars.
But the news industry doesn’t face a crisis of journalism. It is a crisis of advertising that affects all commercial media — including local television, magazines, radio and cable news. Like newspapers, other media companies have been enforcing layoffs, unpaid furloughs and pay cuts to reduce expenses as revenue shrinks as advertisers pull back.
The closings of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Denver’s Rocky Mountain News stunned those within the media field and created national headlines forecasting the demise of daily newspapers. But those closings prolong a long, regretful decline of a second newspaper in big markets. The Seattle Times and Denver Post survive.
