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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Not since the Reformation has there been such a hullabaloo, or so it seems.
What was Notre Dame thinking? Can we hear the commencement committee proposal now…“Hey, I have an idea Father. Let’s invite America’s favorite liberal to speak at graduation.”
Hundreds of thousands of Catholics signed petitions requesting Notre Dame rescind the invitation on moral grounds. President Obama’s pro- choice position has many Catholics viewing the president as someone who “acts in defiance of fundamental principles.”
One Catholic pundit labeled President Obama “the Oval Office’s most vigorous promoter of abortion rights.”
Via the Washington Post, a protester is quoted as saying; “ Our mission is to tar him with the blood of the babies so he can never shake it 'til 2012.” A billboard near Notre Dame read “Shame on Notre Dame,” and “Judas and Jenkins (Father Jenkins is Notre Dame’s president) betrayed Jesus.
In spite of the controversy, President Obama gladly accepted the honor. Ivy covered walls are no barricade against his “Bring it! “ attitude.
Besides, it’s a commencement speech. How hard can it be for a gifted orator such as he?
This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.
Gambling is an ethically challenged industry and a capricious source of revenue – as witness its sudden decline in the current recession. We wish the Puyallup tribe weren’t economically dependent on the profits from its two Emerald Queen casinos.
But dependent it is. Given the fact that many Puyallup households are making ends meet with their per capita shares of gambling profits, those casinos should be professionally run.
There’s evidence that they are not. A recent audit by Lamar Associates, a D.C.-based firm specializing in gambling operations, found abundant evidence of mismanagement in the casinos, ranging from poor security to poor morale to a less-than-inviting ambiance. Lamar Associates concluded that the tribe is forfeiting up to $40 million in potential profits as a result.
Readers have complained loudly about our publication last week of John Yoo's column from the Philadelphia Inquirer in which he had some advice for the president on possible Supreme Court picks.
The general theme of reader e-mails, calls and letters: How dare someone who authored memos condoning torture attempt to offer his advice to Obama, and how dare you, TNT, publish it.
The Inquirer, which has gone much further and actually hired Yoo to be a regular columnist, has been under a great deal of heat itself. On Sunday, the paper's editorial page editor responded:
Our Editorial Board strives to take distinct positions on every topic that we write about. But we also want to make sure our pages present alternative points of view.
That's the reason we run Yoo, and former Sen. Rick Santorum, who also generates quite a bit of critical e-mail when he writes. But despite the suggestion of bloggers, there's nothing more nefarious at play.
There have been calls for Yoo's disbarment, or worse, for his work for President Bush. Many of the e-mails that we have received are already calling him a "war criminal."
Whatever happens to Yoo, I hope to have his reaction in a column written exclusively for The Inquirer. Then, our readers will get their turn to respond to what he has to say.
That's what newspaper opinion pages do well.
When newspapers stop being a vehicle for thoughtful conversation, and instead provide an arena for one crowd to pummel the other crowd, without listening to what anyone else has to say, then papers might as well be the blogosphere - or talk radio.
I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that a university couldn't confer an honorary degree unless it could also confer the real thing.
In other words, you can't grant an honorary doctorate in, say, architecture unless you've got an architecture school. Right? Aren't there rules about this sort of thing?
Maybe not. Get a load of the University of Puget Sound bestowing an honorary doctor of laws on Harold Moss during its graduation ceremony.
I realize "doctor of laws" is a standard honorary degree. But given that UPS sold its law school up the river to Seattle University 16 years ago, doesn't it take some chutzpah to keep on passing out law degrees, however honorary?
